[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)

[Tubby Isaacs]

Predictable but still astonishing.

[Boiler]

Well, sad to say that if they didn't, Trump would have upped his libel claim to a Priti Patel-esque number...

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Predictable but still astonishing.

Apparently 'from the very highest level' - Shah?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Did they wait till the select committee was done before doing this edit?

[Tubby Isaacs]

This indeed is pitiful.

Did the BBC even call out "40 new hospitals" as misleading? I have ignored their politics for over a decade, but I'd be surprised if they did. More likely it was "Boris Johnson will claim that..." was the final judgement.

This stuff really can't be explained away in terms of Robbie Gibb scaring everybody. It's systemic. A system that has elevated someone who should be broadcasting traffic news to Rutland to the BBC's top politics job.

[Boiler]

Rutland did have a radio station at one time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutland_Radio

But otherwise, fuck Mason.

[Andy McDandy]

Mason has a habit of shooting everything through with this "I'm only doing it for you!" energy, reminiscent of one of Damien Thorn's minions.

[Youngian]

'The economy is in much better shape than Reeves first stated,' yeh carry on with that one Mr Mason that'll show Labour.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Rutland did have a radio station at one time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutland_Radio

But otherwise, fuck Mason.

I have a soft spot for Rutland. Nowhere that produced The Rutles can be a bad place.

[Tubby Isaacs]

'The economy is in much better shape than Reeves first stated,' yeh carry on with that one Mr Mason that'll show Labour.

You could argue it isn't even that much better than implied. The OBR still see a 41% risk that the fiscal target will be missed, even with the extra headroom that everyone told she needed. There's a (real) story to be written along the lines of whether it's enough.

But what this is really about is that Mason and co were made to look stupid for their excess pessimism. There's a wonderful scene in the Graham Taylor documentary where he has a (good natured) pop back at the journos for their negativity, in particular Rob Shepherd of Today. Reeves should do that with Mason. "Chris, Chris, I can't have faces like yours around me. If you were one of my civil servants, I'd fucking kick you out".

Actually that may not be most auspicious comparison.