Superfluous to Requirements?

Superfluous to Requirements?

The Telegraph is almost as interested in the foibles of the BBC as we are here.
Today for example there’s Michael Deacon’s notebook.
He went to the launch event for a set of BBC history documentaries, one of which is about Pompeii, to be presented by Cambridge classics don Mary Beard, one of the Beeb’s faves. She’s known for causing outrage by saying, less than a month after 9/11, that “the US had it coming”. Mr. Deacon asked the publicist if he could interview prof Beard to ask if she thought Pompeii ‘had it coming’, whereupon the publicist moved swiftly on.

On page 11 is an item by Neil Midgley headed “Bonus time at BBC Worldwide.”People at BBC Worldwide will be getting bonuses if they’ve “performed according to the profit targets.”
Nice.
Online, Janet Daley has this: “Has the BBC noticed the change in government?”
Is the Telegraph trying to make B-BBC redundant?

THE ESTEEMED DR GREGORY...

I note that we have had a contribution from Dr David Gregory, who works for the BBC in Birmingham, and who is both a science graduate and reports on the environment. B-BBC readers might also be interested to know that he comes from that same self-smug lefty mindset that treats anyone who dissents from BBC orthodoxy with complete disdain - and responds to anyone who disagrees with that orthdoxy with sarcastic ad hominem attacks and menacing claims that the science proves his stance. Familiar? The background is that Melanie Phillips noted in her blog that David Bellamy (he who has been barred from the BBC since it became plain that he disagreed with their line on global warming) had marshalled evidence to show why warmist claims were wrong in at least some of their detail. None of what he said was based on personality. This is how the esteemed Dr Gregory responded: 

...I'm a BBC Environment Correspondent and I have a PhD in Physics. But of course as Ms Phillips points out, qualifications mean nothing in the face of her certainty on this issue. I've had a brief correspondence with Ms Phillips before about her interesting approach to climate change science. I look forward to continuing that on her blog. Perhaps it's worth repeating. I am not told what to report by the BBC and I am not forbidden from reporting certain things. I simply report the science. That's my job. That's what I do. What Ms Phillips posts here is illuminating. I mean what is her actual argument? It seems to be based around appeals to "common sense" and what Stephen Colbert calls "truthiness". Not the truth as such but rather simple facts that are based on a deep seated feeling about what is right. Following your gut feeling rather than your head. I think at worst this is intellectually lazy (after all, what is common sense but the label we give our own prejudice?) but it's certainly not science. Which is after all, all we have to explain the world around us. 

Relax chaps. We can all tell that science reporting is in safe, unbiased, hands at the BBC.

SPEND, SPEND SPEND....

Following Sue's post yesterday about Christine Bleakley leaving the BBC for ITV, BBC creative director Alan Yentob - a man who has shown notable creativity in personal expense claims - has claimed in the Times (no link, I'm afraid- the Times won't allow it) that the days of the BBC having "deep pockets" to hire talent are over. Some would say that in itself was a tad disingenuous as the BBC spends £229m a year on such offensive morons as Jonathan Ross, Nicky Campbell and Anne Robinson. But meanwhile, Paul Revoir at the Daily Mail points out the true picture. While the rest of us are forced to tighten our belts in today's budget, dear old auntie is sending 1,000 staff and spending upwards of £5m in just a week covering the World Cup, Glastonbury and Wimebledon. Among the all-out extravagance, a chap called Dotun Adebayo has presented three of his Up All Night shows from Ghana - 2,000 miles from the world cup action. A total of £12m is being spent on the "totaly overboard" world cup coverage, while 400 BBC boys and girls are going to Glastonbury this year - up from the more modest 292 last year. We don't know yet whether Mr Yentob himself will be repeating his BBC-paid-for Glastonbury bash of two years ago at his nearby country estate bought with our money. But one thing is for sure. The chill winds of austerity have not yet hit the corridors of the BBC. And "creativity" at the BBC is not about art or programmes; it's all about spending our cash.

Correction: I've made a botch of the figures - 400 are going to Glastonbury, but the 292 refers to those at the world cup not Glastonbury last year. Humble apologies for so maligning the esteemed corporation. But, heck, what's a hundred or so here or there in BBC accounting?