UPDATE: Entwistle resigns as BBC chief. This blog was posted about six hours before Georgie stepped down. He read my post, reflected on it and decided to sling his hook. I am now being considered for the post of Editor in Chief for multimedia affairs at the BBC.
Get It Right. Get It Fast. But Get It Right (Old PA motto)
The BBC appears to get it wrong when it should be right, and gets it right but is wrong. It scraps the airing of Savile child abuse scandal which was right, and airs a programme on North Wales Child abuse with an unreliable witness, making it wrong. Is the BBC now on par with blundering tabloids?
Entwistle in a twist
Listening to George Entwistle on the Today Programme with John Humphrys, he is as updated as an 1800 encyclopaedia. For a figure in charge of the world's most leading news corporation whose job is to inform the public keeping them abreast with current developments as they happen, dear George appears as outdated as Windows 1997. Georgie gets information up to 24-hours after they happened.
Selling after the market
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Georgie told the Today Programme he was not aware of the Newsnight film aired last week, which reported a former Tory grandee involved in child abuse. We now know the wrongly implicated figure is Lord McAlpine.
Georgie did not know such sensitive information of high value was being aired at the corporation he's in charge of, though the whole world knew.
In fact people living in remote areas with no access to communication of any sort had the story delivered by messenger pigeons. But not George Entwistle who found out a day after the programme broadcasted.
The night before the programme, twitter had gone berserk with the details and potential damaging revelation. So make that two days. Where was George? He told Humprys he was "out" the night the programme aired and didn't see the tweets as he checks twitter at the end of the day.
Is he aware the Queen celebrated her Diamond Jubilee this year? Or was he also 'out' of the country during that period?
"Extraordinary", exclaimed Humphrys. In other words, the more sophisticated way of telling someone "You're telling porkies and I don't believe you."
- Aware of Newsnight's film a day after it airs. Britain and the rest of the world who saw documentary when it aired were more informed than the BBC chief.
- Hadn't seen tweets in cyber space 24-hours before the programme was shown. It was a twitter hot topic which sent the virtual world into frenzy. At this point, twitter trolls were more informed than the BBC chief.
- Questions raised midweek about authenticity of unreliable witness and his claims. In fact on Thursday, the Guardian's front page runs a story of Lord McAlpine being the case of mistaken identity. Georgie tells the Today Programme he was only aware when Steve Messham made a public apology on Friday. Again, a full day day after crucial events have unfolded.
- "The organisation is too big. There is too much going on." Entwistle on Today Programme 10/11/12
- Georgie acknowledges his tortoise speed as he recognises earlier comments he was "a bit slower," and admits he "could have moved quicker." (Re: announcement of Savile independent enquiry).
The Future
For the BBC to employ me as the director general of its multimedia affairs. Clearly George is struggling to keep abreast with current events as they happen across a wide range of its multimedia platform. I am up to date with events as they unfold via apps such as Flipboard, Breaking News,etc Read the papers, go on twitter and listen to Radio4 24/7. I will be more suitable to warn the BBC of potential damaging libel cases (given my new knowledge in McNae's Law c/o of Daniel Townend) sparing the BBC embarrassing episodes such as this.
You sound like Liz Jones. But a happier version.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I sound like dear ol Liz. Bless her. She writes about Prada jodhpurs, and I air dented opinions on old men suffering from political dementia.
ReplyDelete