Mac's Musings

Auntie's agonies

If you've made a mistake, go for the 'quick bleed'. It's a time-honoured maxim when dealing with the media - but one which the BBC seems to have been blissfully unaware of.

So the Controller of BBC1, Peter Fincham, left his comfortable chair at the end of last week to the universal delight of the press. He made an error but it wasn't as though he has accused the Queen of harbouring weapons of mass destruction.

However, a number of lessons come out of this 'scandal'. These days news is instantaneous and round the clock. So it just isn't possible any more to agonise or obfuscate for hours or days before owning up to a mistake. Any delay is interpreted as a cover-up.

But the 'cover-up' was almost certainly a cock-up rather than a conspiracy. Only people who've worked for the BBC could possibly understand the levels of paranoia and soul searching that takes place on these occasions. Small armies of suits - carrying titles of impossibly ridiculous acronyms - will have gathered behind closed doors to work out a suitable response.

This will have passed through countless drafts which will almost certainly have been red-pencilled all the way to the top. What Fincham should have done was to castigate swiftly and publicly the man in charge of the independent production company responsible for delivering a misleadingly-edited trail for a documentary on the Queen. The man would have had to resign - as he eventually did last week - and that would have been the end of it.

The BBC would have come out squeaky clean - and very decisive. But even the Controller of BBC1 can't make such decisions without tedious and lengthy consultations. The trouble is the BBC has suffered from almost terminal paranoia since the Director General and the Chairman foolishly resigned over the Hutton report. So much for BBC independence.

Both events have had the press positively slavering with delight. But it's all a bit rich for poor, confused old Auntie to be savaged about accountability and ethics by a press which has both in such small measure.

« Return to list of articles.