The BBC lives in its own little self regarding bubble in which its every thought, opinion and world view is reinforced by others from the same mould….the only thing Thomson below misses is the daily infusion of Guardian drivel that each BBC employee ingests with his/her morning latte.
The new director-general needed to ensure the broadcaster was “outward-looking”, she argued, and this would mean spreading out around the country.
Attacking the current culture at the organisation, she said the senior executives “all eat and drink with each other and marry each other and have affairs with each other and so on.”
Speaking at the Church and Media Conference at the MediaCityUK complex in Salford, where parts of the BBC are now based, she offered him advice for the job, urging him to make sure the BBC was “confident but not arrogant.”
She said: “It’s quite easy for the BBC to get a bit above itself and forget about everyone else.”’
It’s good of her to finally come clean and admit what everyone already knows, but as she is skipping off from the behemoth isn’t it just a bit late?
What exactly was she doing all these years to counter such attitudes that are the very lifeblood of the BBC and inform its every attitude towards the ‘populist Plebs’ who might be so impertinent as to have some ideas of their own?
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned! If only Boaden would follow her out of the door then there might be a chance for Entwhistle to improve things. I am not placing bets though.
Yep, these guys wait until they’re halfway out the door until they suddenly announce that, gosh darn it, now they think about it, the critics had a point after all.
It’s all just trying to position themselves as the type of mainstream moderates who get six figures for a part-time job at a quango, that’s all it is.
The only useful thing about it all is that it’s a perfect measure of the BBC’s humbuggery in claiming everyone else needs to be transparent. Their own employees waiting until their parachute is on before they breathe a word of criticism hardly speaks to a culture that supports whistleblowers.
But Mr Entwistle’s first act in charge was to scrap the post of chief operating officer she occupied.
Interesting…………………………
Well if she had thoughts along these lines and the first thing that happens is that he makes her redundant indicates;
1. Cannot have someone is Trojan as this in my organisation. (most likely reason)
2. You are competition and these are not the ideals I am seeking as DG because we really are superior to all plebs beneath as they are incapable of any reasoned thought.
3. Your thoughts betray our standards of behaviour.
I’m going with #2 because not only does this sound like sour grapes (in which large corporations do the top brass not drink and dine with each other instead of the lower ranks?) but Thomson doesn’t mention what kind of ideology is prevalent. If the best critique she can give is that they’re too London-centric, it’s meaningless because they already know that and her words are probably being met with howls of derisive laughter right about now.
Making the elimination of one’s rival’s job the first act of a new administration is one of the colder workplace acts I can think of, and doesn’t really speak well of Entwistle.
Manchester (Salford) is not much different from London – foreigners and homosexuals vastly over-represented – and equally out of touch with the majority of the country.
‘‘Caroline Thomson, the BBC’s departing chief operating officer, suggested the broadcaster could become “arrogant” and “above itself” if it was not careful.’
Must say I don’t recall this notion being run too often on ‘The Editors’ thread during her tenure.
So, in my ongoing dealings with CECUTT, when an issue becomes a non-issue on the basis a BBC Director gets comfortable in their belief they have got things about right (and no other reason), maybe I can opine in reply that what a BBC Director claims whilst employed by the BBC seems to have little to zero value in the real world.
“The BBC lives in its own little self regarding bubble in which its every thought, opinion and world view is reinforced by others from the same mould…”
Reminds me of somewhere else I know.
“Reminds me of somewhere else I know.”
Hampstead?