Well, well, well! According to The Times, the BBC secretly organised that 'independent' protest letter from various celebrities.
The BBC Press Office appears to be squirming with embarrassment at the Times's scoop.
The BBC Press Office appears to be squirming with embarrassment at the Times's scoop.
Here are some extracts from the article:
The BBC secretly helped to organise a celebrity letter warning David Cameron that plans to reform the corporation would damage Britain’s global standing, one of its top presenters has revealed.
The BBC’s press office initially denied it had “anything to do” with the open letter, which was delivered to the prime minister on Tuesday and signed by stars including Dame Judi Dench and Sir David Attenborough......
The letter was presented as an independent protest against plans to reform the BBC, but The Times can reveal that executives at the highest level helped to co-ordinate it while the corporation officially denied all knowledge.
Annie Nightingale, BBC Radio 1’s longest-serving presenter and one of the letter’s 29 signatories, said she had been invited to be a signatory by Ben Cooper, the controller of Radio 1. She had not seen the text of the letter before its publication.
She said: “I bumped into Ben a couple of days ago. He said Danny Cohen [the director of BBC television] was putting this letter together and said, ‘Would you like to be included?’ I said, ‘Yeah’. I understood vaguely what it would say. I didn’t read the letter before it went out.”
Ms Nightingale, the first female Radio 1 DJ, said that she had previously contacted Mr Cooper to express concern over potential BBC cuts and was fully supportive of the letter’s contents.
“Before the letter I emailed Ben to say I was very concerned and would do whatever it takes,” she said. “That’s when he said Danny Cohen was inviting people to take part in the letter.”.......
When presented with Ms Nightingale’s interview, the BBC press office did not deny that Mr Cohen and Mr Cooper had been involved but refused to elaborate......
The Times has asked via freedom of information laws for all correspondence relating to the letter sent between Mr Cohen and Mr Cooper as well as between other BBC executives......
Michael Palin speaking live on this morning's Victoria Derbyshire show (16/7/2015) admitted that Danny Cohen wrote, and personally asked him to sign the "luvvies letter" sent to the press defending the BBC. I think he realised he'd made a boo boo as soon as he said it.
ReplyDeleteThere's this fan... size of a windmill.... there's this barge, full of manure...
ReplyDeleteI do suspect that they are about to collide somewhere over Mr. Cohen's career.
Blimey, I knew the BBC were rattled, but they seem determined to make things worse by giving every individual in the organisation carte blanche to pull a defensive rabbit out of the hat... and they are all tripping over each other hourly.
ReplyDeleteIt is carnage.
The best (or worst for them) so far I think is what should have been the usual ho-hum HYS on a BBC ra-ra story. Open & shut case, middle of the day, so what if most licence-fee payers are excluded. It will pass.
Thing is, it looks like they did all of the above... then re-opened it later, over-writing the previous.
And by best recollection there were several hundred in the first.
That... will take some explaining. As I have just asked them to do.
And my MP to follow up upon in case I get banned again for asking questions they can't answer.
Just in from work. Danny's day has got even worse, hasn't it? Shame.
DeleteIf the BBC are lying about this, what else are they lying about ? LOL ! They are a sick joke !
ReplyDeleteRhetorical questions: Why even lie about it in the first place? Would the letter have had any less impact if the BBC had simply announced they went around and asked these people to speak up in defense of the National Treasure?
ReplyDeleteThey lie because it's what they do. Even though we know the contempt in which they hold the rest of us, it still makes me shake my head. Honesty simply doesn't occur to these people. Over how many meetings did they anguish about whether or not the public would accept it if they were up front about it, and decided in the end to lie?
That is the key aspect, ignored by all the subsequent attempts at shrugging off by loyal jerks (knee or circle).
DeleteThat public funds were consumed in this way is another issue, but it is hilarious that as far as the BBC Press Office is concerned it was something that clearly need to be denied, so they duly, dutifully... denied it. As always.
And then got caught.