[Update] BBC DG and head of news resign

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Damien

I find this a bit odd as it's a relatively minor scandal. The BBC under Davie has had far bigger scandals than this.

The reason why he resigned over this was mentioned on the BBC 10pm news last night. It was said that he has had to deal with the pregnant people/women issue, Huw Edwards, the Gaza boy commentary and the various Linekar incidents..

It was said that he had "no fight in him left" and that the Trump speech editing was what broke the camels back.

---------- Post added at 07:57 ---------- Previous post was at 07:54 ----------

Originally Posted by Maggy

I doubt he cares.

Trump has been gloating about these resignations on Twitter/X, so he is aware. Hopefully this will appease the manchild enough to prevent any spite regarding trade deals/tarrifs.

[papa smurf]

How much will he get as a leaving back hander

[Carth]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

How much will he get as a leaving back hander

. . . and will it affect his pension?


*asking for same friend

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

...Trump has been gloating about these resignations on Twitter/X.

I think you mean Trump's lesser known competitor to X (Truth Social?) not on Musk's X platform itself.

It suits the BBC to blame Panorama’s treatment of Trump for these resignations because the BBC calculates, with some justification, that so many UK viewers either hate, or are indifferent towards, Donald Trump that it makes the BBC’s problems seem somewhat less serious. An editorial oversight. A one-off.

The reality is however that the BBC’s problems are widespread, systemic and chronic, as the Prescott memo laid bare. And the Times is keeping the pressure up this morning with an interview in which a former BBC staffer sets out the way she was forced out of the corporation for having sacreligious views on gender.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/256...7186d4758d2138

(Should be a free-to-read gift link)

A BBC News at Ten editor “deferred” to a junior reporter on what language he should use when reporting transgender stories, a veteran BBC broadcast journalist has claimed.

Cath Leng, a former chief writer for BBC News, also alleged that she was “forced out” in 2023 over her gender critical views after 25 years of working for the corporation.

---------- Post added at 15:28 ---------- Previous post was at 14:31 ----------

… meanwhile Times Radio interviews a former Panorama producer, David Elstein, who also was Channel 5’s launch CEO and is a former Head of News at Sky, i.e. he knows of what he speaks. It’s worth listening to the whole 3 minute clip; it isn’t just a ‘wouldn’t have happened on my watch’ - although he insists it wouldn’t have and is bemused at how standards can have slipped so far that it happened now - it’s a patient take-down of the BBC’s failure to engage with a serious, well-researched critical report for six months and then to try to trivialise it by claiming, as it has been doing all weekend, that its problems go little further than a cutting room error vis a vis Donald Trump - an error which, in Elstein’s view, would result in a very substantial libel settlement in Trump’s favour, were he inclined to sue.

https://x.com/timesradio/status/1987...330922995?s=61

[Mr K]

Poor old Aunty always under atrack from ever side. Politicians have always tried to control/ influence their output. With the best will in the world they are never going to get everything right, given the amount of their output. If we lose a independent public service broadcaster, then all hope is lost for unbiased quality broadcasting. You'd be left with 20 mins of ads an hour on every channel and imported repeated crap, and Farage doing the 'news' he likes.

They should go on strike for a month, withdraw all channels , radio, iplayer, website etc, permission for any other channel to show their output. Lets see how the public like what would be left.

[jem]

Snip....

- an error which, in Elstein’s view, would result in a very substantial libel settlement in Trump’s favour, were he inclined to sue.

https://x.com/timesradio/status/1987...330922995?s=61

And here we go.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd9kqz1yyxkt

So Trump's legal team are now threatening to sue the BBC, which basically means all of us as licence payers, for a sum of at least $1 billion.

Now obviously a threat to sue, doesn’t necessarily mean they will, or it will succeed if they tried. But it has made the news!

[Jaymoss]

Originally Posted by jem

Now obviously a threat to sue, doesn’t necessarily mean they will, or it will succeed if they tried. But it has made the news!

They are pretty bang to rights if it goes to court they are not gonna get away with it

[papa smurf]

The bbc will probably settle out of court i would say circa $12 million

[jem]

Originally Posted by Mr K

Snip....

Lets see how the public like what would be left.

Be careful what you wish for!

As it happens I agree with you, historically the BBC has had an enviable reputation for impartiality, trustfulness etc. And even with the current issues, I still think it is far better than competitors on this.

But it doesn’t take too much for that trust to be lost; it does seem that recently, the BBC, maybe desperately to be extra impartial etc, has found itself held hostage by various interest groups who just wish to push their own agenda, and the BBC seems to be paralysed by fear to do anything about it.

It’s a failure of management, senior and middle, for not getting a grip on this before and allowing it to become the major issue that it never needed to be.

Originally Posted by Mr K

Poor old Aunty always under atrack from ever side. Politicians have always tried to control/ influence their output. With the best will in the world they are never going to get everything right, given the amount of their output. If we lose a independent public service broadcaster, then all hope is lost for unbiased quality broadcasting. You'd be left with 20 mins of ads an hour on every channel and imported repeated crap, and Farage doing the 'news' he likes.

They should go on strike for a month, withdraw all channels , radio, iplayer, website etc, permission for any other channel to show their output. Lets see how the public like what would be left.

This argument boils down to a claim that the BBC should be free to behave with limitless incompetence and/or corporate malice because its existence, under any circumstances, is preferable to its non-existence. That is obvious nonsense. I believe in public service broadcasting in principle, but if the BBC is becoming institutionally incapable of delivering it, or even adequately reforming itself so that it can, then it has to go. No organisation has an unqualified right to exist on taxpayer funds.

The thing that has caused me to worry that the BBC may be past the point of no return is the reports of senior editors deferring to identitarian Millennials and Gen-Zs in their newsrooms. If the older, experienced journalists aren’t in charge, and the wide-eyed, idealistic kids are, then they’re in serious trouble.

---------- Post added at 18:45 ---------- Previous post was at 18:36 ----------

Originally Posted by jem

And here we go.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd9kqz1yyxkt

So Trump's legal team are now threatening to sue the BBC, which basically means all of us as licence payers, for a sum of at least $1 billion.

Now obviously a threat to sue, doesn’t necessarily mean they will, or it will succeed if they tried. But it has made the news!

As they should. This editorial breach was so egregious, it’s undefendable. They need to make a very generous out-of-court settlement. If it stings the budget, they can make a massive saving by ending their bizarre, super-sized obsession with drag queens. There’s one on just about every show now, it must be costing a fortune.

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by Chris

As they should. This editorial breach was so egregious, it’s undefendable. They need to make a very generous out-of-court settlement. If it stings the budget, they can make a massive saving by ending their bizarre, super-sized obsession with drag queens. There’s one on just about every show now, it must be costing a fortune.

So one mistake, the end of our national broadcaster, at the insistence of a foreign head of state? The BBC have already admitted the error, and the top guy has taken responsibility.

Unless Trump pays the licence fee, he should button it ( bet he watches iPlayer on a VPN, on account all US tv is crap).

Sir K should tell him to do one. He won't of course.

Originally Posted by Chris

The thing that has caused me to worry that the BBC may be past the point of no return is the reports of senior editors deferring to identitarian Millennials and Gen-Zs in their newsrooms. If the older, experienced journalists aren’t in charge, and the wide-eyed, idealistic kids are, then they’re in serious trouble.

Millennials will be mid 40s to 30s now I am afraid to say. There will be some seniors there.

As they should. This editorial breach was so egregious, it’s undefendable. They need to make a very generous out-of-court settlement. If it stings the budget, they can make a massive saving by ending their bizarre, super-sized obsession with drag queens. There’s one on just about every show now, it must be costing a fortune.

I don't think drag queens are especially expensive.

It's drama and scripted television that's quite expensive.

---------- Post added at 19:52 ---------- Previous post was at 19:46 ----------

I think the BBC was in a lot of trouble anyway. British television is increasingly an arm of American broadcasting, even ITV might be sold to Comcast, and they cannot compete with the budget of these shows that are targeting a transatlantic audience. Not to mention that with social media, the audience is overlapping a lot anyway.

Originally Posted by Mr K

So one mistake, the end of our national broadcaster, at the insistence of a foreign head of state? The BBC have already admitted the error, and the top guy has taken responsibility.

Unless Trump pays the licence fee, he should button it ( bet he watches iPlayer on a VPN, on account all US tv is crap).

Sir K should tell him to do one. He won't of course.

Again, and as I’ve said repeatedly in this thread, it’s not one mistake, it’s not all about one bad edit on Panorama. The BBC has been spinning that line ever since the memo they’ve been sitting on for 6 months got leaked because they believe the bit featuring Trump is the bit most people are likely to forgive. In your case it’s clearly going exactly as planned.

The Prescott Memo is wide ranging and deals with a lot else other than a single error on Panorama, much of which is symptomatic of systemic failure over many years.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Mr K

If we lose an independent public service broadcaster, then all hope is lost for unbiased quality broadcasting.

I’m not sure you’ve been keeping up with current events, but this whole story has erupted because the BBC is neither independent or unbiased.

---------- Post added at 20:27 ---------- Previous post was at 20:26 ----------

Originally Posted by Mr K

So one mistake, the end of our national broadcaster

Again, if you were across this story, you would know that it’s not one mistake