A Perfect Storm

To gauge the mood over at the BBC one only has to read today’s “analysis” of the Ross/Brand affair. A Perfect Storm Torin Douglas informs us is what the whole shebang has become.

The growth of e-mails, YouTube, and message boards have all helped to create a perfect storm in which complaints can escalate exponentially, with journalists demanding responses and politicians feeling obliged to step in.

So you see it’s information technology which is creating the illusion of indignation rather than any real outrage itself. And as for Mark Thompson’s suspension of Brand and Ross, drastic he calls it.

it’s hard to recall a previous occasion when the BBC’s highest-paid star was suspended – but it is just a holding action

As though paying their “talent” huge sums of ratepayer money should protect them from such action. Indeed the mere notion of being accountable to the public appears to be contemptible to Mr Douglas.

As for the possibility of a £250,000 fine by Ofcom, it will be criticised by many apparently

since it means the licence-payer is footing the bill for lapses by BBC staff and/or presenters.

and here in lies the problem – we will have to foot the bill. Happy as they are to force the ratepayer to pay their lavish salaries how dare we expect standards of decency or accountability from it’s presenters.

‘It’s been blown out of proportion’

He then proceeds to defend the “edgy” comedy that “must be seen in context”.

Meanwhile, many younger listeners are asking what the fuss is about. Calls and texts to Radio One’s Newsbeat have mostly been supportive of Brand and Ross, saying they found the remarks funny.

The younger listeners, one suspects, are not only closer to the mental age of Brand and Ross but also not the license fee payer of the household in which they reside. Those of us who are have indirectly financed the harassment of an old age pensioner. And we have every right to be outraged.

£6 million per annum

Jonathon Ross

Yes under a £18 million 3 year deal signed back in 2006 that’s what Mr Jonathan Ross is paid each year. A back of the beer coaster calculation reveals that 43,000 license fees go on Mr Ross’s annual salary alone. Assuming an average of one television and two people per household that’s the city of Bath.

Whether or not Mr Ross is worth this astronomical amount, a full 250 times the average Briton’s salary is of course largely academic. This is because the BBC and the salaries they deem fit for their employees, have no need to be based on anything as crass as market forces. And they certainly have no need to be accountable to those who are forced to pay them.

Indeed it is a culture of a total lack of accountability that is currently being exposed with the scandal of Ross and Russell Brand’s disgraceful obscene message “prank”. Neither clearly felt the need to apologise until the full weight of the media fell upon them, and heaven forbid there be a review of his salary contract. But the BBC itself, clearly, felt no need to apologise to a recalcitrant public who should pay up and leave decisions as to what constitutes good taste to their betters.

Any other broadcaster of course would have reacted swiftly and expediently since their paymasters (advertisers) would have protested immediately and in the strongest possible terms. Indeed it is precisely this need to respond to the wishes of viewers and advertisers which makes the commercial broadcasters accountable.

The sooner the BBC has it’s right to extort money from virtually every household in the UK removed the sooner we will see an end to this insult. It is time for all of us who have had enough to take a leaf from Noel Edmond’s book and boycott the BBC license fee.