10.28.08
Brand and Ross should be axed so says the PM
Yes the BBC mamnagement shoudl act and sack Ross and Brand as there is no place for this type of lurid conversation and especially as SKY would not tollerate this and Murdoch would have acted instantly
so wake up BBC management
There are two issues here – should it have been done, and should it have been broadcast.
No, it shouldn’t have been broadcast, and the person responsible for that is probably their producer or editor, and they should go.
But this isn’t just a matter of broadcast, which is why all those people saying ‘if you don’t like it, don’t listen’ are simply wrong. This isn’t like broadcasting swearing, or nudity, or simulated violence, or even Jeremy Kyle – which are basically consensual. To even make those phone calls was wrong, broadcasting it only compounded the wrong. And responsibility for making the calls lies with Brand and Ross.
How much they’re paid IS relevant. They’re experienced broadcasters, and Ross at least owns his own production company. They should have known. More junior people have been sacked for far less.
Unfortunately, they succumbed to exactly the same problem that lay behind the phone scams, the faked documentaries, the faked abuse photos in the Mirror, the Gilligan report onDavid Kelly, etc: the tendency in the media to consider that the real world is secondary – and a long way secondary – to the product. Who cares if you’re defrauding people, as long as it looks like your phone lines worked? Who cares if you stage something because you didn’t get the pictures first time around – surely how it looks is more important than the truth. Who cares if you misreport what a distinguished civil servant told you? At least you get a sexed-up story.
So you might have to agree with the Daily Mail on this one occasion. You might have to agree with a bunch of licence-fee hating rightwingers.
You might have to agree, if you’re honest, that they’re right.
But if you work in TV or radio, you probably don’t have to worry about being honest.
