Well, I see the BBC have appointed a new Director General, on about half the salary Thompson was on, but still more than twice what the Prime Minister earns! Lucky we don’t have a recession on….hang on a moment…
George Entwistle, the BBC executive in charge of the coverage of the Queen’s diamond jubilee, has been named as director general of the corporation, beating competition from Ofcom chief Ed Richards and the BBC’s chief operating officer Caroline Thomson.
That would be the disastrous Jubilee coverage? Excellent news – failure rewarded.
Mr Entwistle, who currently heads up BBC Vision, the unit responsible for all of the BBC’s output on television and online, will replace outgoing director general Mark Thompson in the autumn, on a salary of £450,000 a year.
See first sentence.
A relatively low-key intellectual, Mr Entwistle joined the BBC in 1989, and has wide-ranging programme-making experience, including as editor of Newsnight. He has done stints as head of current affairs, where he also had responsibility for the BBC’s investigative documentary strand, Panorama. He was also Controller of Knowledge commissioning, which put him in charge of all of the BBC’s factual programmes.
What’s this “low key intellectual” nonsense about? The lower the better based on his “high intellect” predecessors, I suppose.
Thoughts? Has he Labour links?
They couldn’t have better preserved the status quo if they tried.
He’ll be paid £400K a year.
Let the Government know that you want an “In / out” Referendum on the Licence Fee here…
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/34655
We want 1000 votes in the 1st month to get the fire started. 100,000 by June 2013.
Need your help folks….
Signed!
Me too!
From his BBC bio:
So who was the attacker? Was it the mysterious worshippers of the number 9/11?
George also used to work for Haymarket magazines but his bio doesn’t specify which publication. I wonder what he wrote about?
It wasn’t Gramophone.
We know who’s first for the chop! As George Entwistle is confirmed as BBC’s new boss, staff fail to spell his name right on lunchtime news.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2168651/As-George-Entwistle-confirmed-BBCs-new-director-general-staff-fail-spell-right-lunchtime-news.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Well, in today’s new touchy-feely, who cares about accuracy, professional new media environment, who is going to care about a wee one-word typo?
Mind you, I’d hazard a few loyal kapos would be seeing their P45s earlier than expected if anything untoward happened to headlines or captions pertaining to the Libour Scandal.
The telegaph says: “Michael Crick, who worked on Newsnight when it was edited by Entwistle, says the new DG has in the past boasted that after leaving university he worked for a while for Michael Heseltine – not in a political capacity, but in Haymarket publishing, Hezza’s magazine company.”
Back in the day, another favorite of Tarzan’s was Nick Robinson.
Is that it? Is this the product of the search to lead the (broadcasting) envy of the world? It’s a declaration of bankruptcy. Obviously not financial bankruptcy: after all the BBC is on exactly the same financial life-support system as RBS and Lloyds but, for some reason, the BBC trumpets its “unique” funding arrangements.
No, this is moral and intellectual bankruptcy. As usual with this kind of appointment in state organisations, the candidate exhibiting consistent lowest common denominators of qualification and ability wins the day. A BBC apparatchik to his fingertips, I wouldn’t be surprised if his only genuine contribution to UK broadcasting was authoring the phrase “we got it about right”.
“George Entwistle”
Who are you? Who, who, who, who?
Yeah, I know. Slap me.
“Meet the new boss…..Same as the old boss”
I can’t explain.
He’s a substitute.
“My advice to the BBC’s new DG”
by Rod LIddle.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/blogs/rod-liddle/2012/july/my-advice-to-the-bbcs-new-dg
He`s the best of the three shits that I knew had applied; so that is something to be thankful for.
Yet-I got no vote…why not Beeb?…not too difficult to run a vote by us, is it now?
Begin the countdown to his first balls-up…but he`s not Thomson or Richards…and that`s enough.
And-why no Quentin Letts?
At first glance I misread the first line of the article. I had to do a second take because I thought it said they had “anointed” a new Director General not “appointed”. Then again, remembering it was the B-BBC we are talking about I think my version is probably the more accurate one.
Is he gay?
Entwistle was editor of Newsnight in 2004 – the year that it funded and ran Adam Curtis’ anti-US, anti-western propaganda series “The Power of Nightmares” – designed to prove that Al Quaeda was just a myth dreamed up by George Bush and his evil Neocons.
Quote from the BBC website:-
“In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares.
The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But just as the dreams were not true, neither are these nightmares.
In a new series, the Power of Nightmares explores how the idea that we are threatened by a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion.
It is a myth that has spread unquestioned through politics, the security services and the international media. “
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3755686.stm
We don’t hear much of that theory nowadays do we?
It was a favourite BBC line until around July 7th 2005 – then they went a bit quiet on it – for some reason.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_July_2005_London_bombings
In a just world the BBC should have been prosecuted for aiding & abetting terrorism.
Be in no doubt – George is just another public school toytown Marxist in the standard BBC mode.
‘then they went a bit quiet on it – for some reason.’
Interesting track record, up to and including the Jubilee.
One can see how it cost £200k to track him down and seduce him over.
All involved staying true to the principle of a belief in getting it about right… in the face of actual reality..
“Public school toytown Marxist”: Check!
White middle class left-wing prick: Check!
Not likely to make any changes: Check!
Sameold same old
Costs less than the last one. So what?
Its not the £400k, its the £4bn we object to