Post by Teddy Bear on May 12, 2012 18:47:54 GMT
Quentin Letts gives a somewhat tongue in cheek but nonetheless hits the nail on the head about the soon to be vacancy for the top job at the BBC.
If I ran the Beeb, I'd put Yentob on a diet
By Quentin Letts
Applications for the BBC director-generalship had to be in by Monday.
Mine was emailed to headhunters Egon Zehnder International long before that. They even acknowledged it. That’s a first.
My application urged the BBC to become more aspirational. Instead of being allergic to elitism, the BBC should be allergic to ignorance.
I propose the extermination of its overpaid hierarchy. I advocate greater coverage of the courts. Also: less cliched hyperbole, an avoidance of Left-wing bias and the closure of trashy BBC Three and commercial-tasting Radio One.
I also think the next DG should occasionally do shifts on the frontline, rather as the chief executive of Asda occasionally works behind a supermarket till. I do not expect to get the job.
If you want a flutter, take the tip I had from a Cabinet minister the other day and place your shekels on George Entwistle, one of the BBC’s more impressive internal candidates.
Before the white dot vanishes, a final pitch. As BBC chief, I would stop executives going out to lunch with professional contacts. Let them meet them in an office with nothing more than tap water being served.
The culture of ‘lunching’ has no place in a public organisation. In the light of the Leveson Inquiry and the Parliamentary expenses scandal, it is a relic of more corrupt, splashy times.
Most Britons do not possess expense accounts. If they have business meetings, they do not expect to be fed and wined.
The BBC could set an example to this country’s troughing political and media class and stop this decadent practice. Imagine the savings. Imagine the improper cosiness that could be averted.
Imagine how much weight Alan Yentob would lose.
By Quentin Letts
Applications for the BBC director-generalship had to be in by Monday.
Mine was emailed to headhunters Egon Zehnder International long before that. They even acknowledged it. That’s a first.
My application urged the BBC to become more aspirational. Instead of being allergic to elitism, the BBC should be allergic to ignorance.
I propose the extermination of its overpaid hierarchy. I advocate greater coverage of the courts. Also: less cliched hyperbole, an avoidance of Left-wing bias and the closure of trashy BBC Three and commercial-tasting Radio One.
I also think the next DG should occasionally do shifts on the frontline, rather as the chief executive of Asda occasionally works behind a supermarket till. I do not expect to get the job.
If you want a flutter, take the tip I had from a Cabinet minister the other day and place your shekels on George Entwistle, one of the BBC’s more impressive internal candidates.
Before the white dot vanishes, a final pitch. As BBC chief, I would stop executives going out to lunch with professional contacts. Let them meet them in an office with nothing more than tap water being served.
The culture of ‘lunching’ has no place in a public organisation. In the light of the Leveson Inquiry and the Parliamentary expenses scandal, it is a relic of more corrupt, splashy times.
Most Britons do not possess expense accounts. If they have business meetings, they do not expect to be fed and wined.
The BBC could set an example to this country’s troughing political and media class and stop this decadent practice. Imagine the savings. Imagine the improper cosiness that could be averted.
Imagine how much weight Alan Yentob would lose.