Blame “The Radio People,” Says TV Guy

Michael Hedges February 25, 2013 Follow on Twitter

Management theory holds that senior executives enunciate mission and vision to inspire those in lower ranks. If all goes well, the job gets done and the product or service is successfully delivered to the delighted customer. As organizations grow large, particularly in the public sector, top management can devolve into institutional self-preservation above all else and it can be blinding.

Released publicly last week (February 22) were transcripts of interviews conducted for the Pollard Review of the latest management crisis at the UK public broadcaster BBC. Questions posed by former Sky News executive Nick Pollard for an internal BBC investigation were meant to shed light on management decisions about an obituary program for BBC radio and TV show host Jimmy Savile and a news program investigation of the same show host alleging pedophilia. The former program was broadcast, the later not. Competitor ITV broadcast its own investigative piece on Jimmy Savile’s sordid and well-rumored past. Amidst requisite howlings of the usual BBC critics along with angst-ridden internal rumblings General Director George Entwistle was persuaded to resign, a mere 54 days in the big job.

The BBC is, arguably, the most watched public broadcaster in the world. It is an icon among other public service broadcasters for program output, audience delivery, technical innovation and, even now, management skill. The BBC is one of the world’s top media brands, a truth that agonizes its every competitor.

Revelations from the 3,000 pages of interview transcripts and emails, only slightly redacted for legal reasons, can be reduced to a picture of a circular firing squad with a backdrop of hubris and theme music from Lord Of The Flies. They present “a very unhappy picture,” said BBC Trust Chairman Chris Patton. Nick Pollard’s report was issued last December and said that “efforts to get to the truth behind the Savile story proved beyond the combined efforts of the senior management, legal department, corporate communications team and anyone else for well over a month.”

The anchorperson for the Newsnight program, Jeremy Paxman, gave expansive views to Mr. Pollard, which were the most redacted saving the possibility of future defamation suits. BBC News had been taken over by “the radio people” in the wake of the 2004 Hutton inquiry into BBC reporting of British entry into the Iraq War, he declared. “These people belong to a different kind of culture.”

The radio people are preoccupied with “the institution,” Paxman explained. “In television, it tends to be a younger person's game, There are, with fewer older people in it and fewer people, I would say, preoccupied with their pensions.” Mr. Paxman, famously combative in interviewing style, has criticized every BBC General Director since John Birt. He is one of the BBC’s highest paid performers, allegedly £800,000 annually through a personal services company. Hubris carries considerable weight in television.

Enlightening the BBC management culture will certainly be the first task of incoming General Director Tony Hall. Lord Patten, the last British Governor Hong Kong, told Mr. Pollard there were more “senior leaders than China” at the BBC. Gone, apparently, will be management consultant and public relations creativity. BBC Vision will once again be BBC Television and BBC Audio and Music will be BBC Radio.

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