The BBC goes completely bonkers.

[Rum]

Just been watching Newsnight. Alan Yentob being interviewed by a Newsnight presenter talking about how the BBC and Newsnight fucked up their reporting of the Jimmy Savile issue and the false accusations regarding McApine, talking about themselves and their organisation and it all being presented as news on a news programme, all about itself.

Fucking brain essploding!

Also a fucking storm in a teacup.

[laklak]

Yep. It's cluster fucks all the way down.

[SteveB]

Yes, I completely know what you're talking about.

[laklak]

That's cuz yer really smart.

[SteveB]

That's cuz yer really smart.

Yah, that Alan Yentob is sure at it again.

[Rum]

Yar. Cool etc.

[klr]

Wouldn't it be great if every media organization reported on itself the way the BBC does? Especially the sorts of media organizations that Murdoch runs ... Does Sky News even do any proper investigative reporting?

[John_fi_Skye]

Yep. Auntie BBC, a comparatively quite good news medium, attacks itself.

[Rum]

Wouldn't it be great if every media organization reported on itself the way the BBC does? Especially the sorts of media organizations that Murdoch runs ... Does Sky News even do any proper investigative reporting?

Good point, but is it news?..even if it is interesting to at least some of us.

[klr]

Wouldn't it be great if every media organization reported on itself the way the BBC does? Especially the sorts of media organizations that Murdoch runs ... Does Sky News even do any proper investigative reporting?

Good point, but is it news?..even if it is interesting to at least some of us.

It is news, but I think it's been over-hyped. The bigger story is that the BBC does need re-organizing. Too many managers and too many layers of management at the top by all accounts. When Chris Patten went to meet the BBC senior management, he observed that there were more people there than in the Chinese politburo.

[Horwood Beer-Master]

It seems ever since Hutton the BBC management has only two settings - denial or panic.

[mistermack]

Chris Patten is a wanker.
I don't know what the fuck he's doing there.

He's sacked the Director General, effectively. Saying resign, or I sack you.
The man has been in the job for about fifty days. How can he be the problem, when he inerited these news teams?
They smeared McAlpine, they should have sacked the ones who did it. Sacked for gross misconduct without compensation. But the guy at the top wasn't involved in that.
They just spend money like water on each other, rather than programs.

[Rum]

There was nobody competent to oversee the prog which smeared McAlpne it seems, because they had all 'stepped aside' because of mistakes around the pulling of the Savile documentary. Fucking shambles!

I actually have a lot of time for Patten. He was the last governor of Hong Kong (where I grew up) and he made a superb, in the circumstances, deal for HK people with China.

But the whole thing is getting FUBAR!

[klr]

I can't understand why some in the BBC don't understand the problem in awarding the (short-lived) DG George Entwistle a full year's pay when he resigned. The official explanation is that he would have been fired anyway, in which case he would have been entitled to 12 months pay. But he is responsible for a large part of this mess himself. Rewarding people for failure?

[mistermack]

I can't understand why some in the BBC don't understand the problem in awarding the (short-lived) DG George Entwistle a full year's pay when he resigned. The official explanation is that he would have been fired anyway, in which case he would have been entitled to 12 months pay. But he is responsible for a large part of this mess himself. Rewarding people for failure?

I don't agree with much of that. I don't think Entwhistle did much wrong. The world has gone mental on political correctness, and he was leaned on from above.
Moving those newsnight people aside was stupid. You would never do it in a private company.

They could have just sent someone around, taking statements about the Savile episode, and come out with a report. All this sacking and moving aside is just for show. But we are paying their wages and payoffs.

There was nothing wrong with shelving the Saville program. They did the right thing. There was no proper evidence. There still isn't. The ITV program was absolute shit, just a bag of rumours.

The people who WERE moved should have been there, to make the same decision about the McAlpine episode. ie, don't run it, the evidence is shite. Sometimes there should be someone there to tell the "correct" brigade to fuck off, and get some evidence.

If I was suddenly put in charge of the BBC, my first instruction would be to stick to the facts.
Rumours and innuendo are for ITV and the daily mail. You expect better from the BBC

They don't NEED headlines to pay the bills. They should use that, to enable higher standards of truth.