[Boiler]

BBC to expand standards panel and add deputy director general after bias row
Planned overhaul of editorial guidelines committee would dilute influence of Tory board appointment Robbie Gibb

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/ ... r-bias-row

This can't be right. I kept reading that nothing could improve if "Nandy" didn't "act now". Maybe I'm naive, but forcing out the Tory DG over being unfair on Donald Trump was massive hubris.

The BBC has had Deputy DGs before and it's not as if governments haven't forced out DGs either - Milne and Dyke come to mind.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yeah, I don't really get what happened to the DDG role. As much as anything, it was a useful stepping stone to DG, with an overview of content and finance. If you promote someone from eg Finance Director they only have a view from one side.

[Boiler]

Yeah, I don't really get what happened to the DDG role.

An efficiency saving, no doubt.

[Andy McDandy]

It's more a political/advocacy role than a creative one. Davie's CV is a series of marketing executive posts, suggesting he's good at generic management and facilitation rather than anything artsy.

[Boiler]

I'm trying to remember the last time the BBC had a DG that rose through the ranks, so to speak; Alasdair Milne?

[Youngian]

Seamus Milne identified his father's treatment by Thatcher as the seed of his radicalisation. As his dad wasn't a political animal but a decent man who thought it was the the BBC DG's job to defend the BBC.
I wonder how Greg Dyke feels about Alistair Campbell currently doing the rounds robustly defending BBC independence.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm trying to remember the last time the BBC had a DG that rose through the ranks, so to speak; Alasdair Milne?

Michael Checkland, who succeeded Milne had been at the BBC for 20 odd years, and was the serving DDG. He was more amenable to the Governors than Milne because he was a finance man.

[Tubby Isaacs]

BBC 'not institutionally biased', says Prescott
The committee asks Prescott whether he thinks the BBC is institutionally biased?

“I don’t,” says Prescott. “Let’s be very clear. Tons of stuff the BBC does is world class factual programming… I think the standard of BBC Westminster is exemplary, and that’s why I keep saying these were incipient problems. We were finding the odd problem here and there.”

I get the feeling a few people have overplayed their hand.

While it's pretty ludicrous that Davie was forced out by the Trump thing, we may now be in a better place as a result of it.

[Boiler]

I'm trying to remember the last time the BBC had a DG that rose through the ranks, so to speak; Alasdair Milne?

Michael Checkland, who succeeded Milne had been at the BBC for 20 odd years, and was the serving DDG. He was more amenable to the Governors than Milne because he was a finance man.

Yes, and by the end of his tenure he'd gone native

[Tubby Isaacs]

This was the classic "gone native at the BBC" guy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Young_(accountant)