Post by Teddy Bear on Jan 16, 2010 18:59:23 GMT
Every time the Director general of the BBC, Mark Thompson, is criticized for his excessive pay, plus those of the other senior positions there, he claims it's necessary to recruit top people, obviously considering himself among them.
Considering BBC TV ratings fall to lowest in 15 years as featured in the final paragraph of the story below, it shows his opinion of 'top people' is very different from ours.
Considering BBC TV ratings fall to lowest in 15 years as featured in the final paragraph of the story below, it shows his opinion of 'top people' is very different from ours.
Corrosive and wrong: That's what your staff are saying about your pay, BBC chief is told By Paul Revoir
BBC director general Mark Thompson was told by one of the corporation's top interviewers today that his own staff find his salary 'wrong and corrosive'.`
Mr Thompson, who was paid £834,000 last year, was also informed that some staff are so furious about his pay they want him to quit.
The mauling came a fortnight after author P D James 'handbagged' Mr Thompson over executive pay on Radio 4's Today programme.
Today interviewer Stephen Sackur grilled his boss at the BBC's internal News Festival event.
Mr Sackur asked Mr Thompson to imagine 'being hauled into the office of George Osborne', if the Conservatives won the election, and being challenged to justify why 'almost 50 BBC senior managers earn more than the Prime Minister'.
The presenter of the current affairs programme HARDtalk asked the BBC chief if he understood how much anger there was among his own staff on the issue.
Mr Sackur said that in the buildup to today's event he had been sent hundreds of emails by staff about executive pay.
The BBC journalist, known for his penetrating interviews, told Mr Thompson: 'There are huge numbers of people in the organisation who think your salary is plain wrong and corrosive.'
Insiders said there were 'hoots of derision' from BBC staff when Mr Thompson defended his and other bosses' pay.
Mr Sackur suggested that the argument that the BBC had to compete with commercial rivals was 'redundant'. He pointed out that the new chief executive of Channel 4 is to be paid between £400,000 and £500,000, much less than Mr Thompson's package at the BBC.
Mr Thompson replied: 'Channel 4 has fewer than 1,000 people working for it, and you can't compare the two jobs in scale and complexity.'
But those who watched the session were left despondent that the BBC chief had still not apparently grasped their anger over pay.
One corporation journalist said: 'Thompson was in complete denial the whole way through and it did not look good.
'He kept talking about what they earned at ITV and would not answer the questions or was waffling.
'Sackur just hit him as soon as he sat down and he had a really rough time and he had no answers for him.'
The source added: 'I have never known morale so bad. There is so much anger about this guy.'
During the interview Mr Thompson said that, in real terms, his pay had gone down since he joined the corporation more than five years ago.
He reiterated his argument that if the BBC wanted to be the best broadcaster it had to recruit top people.
Mr Thompson said: 'Suppose we want to get the head of HR from a private company, we couldn't get them because [what we offer is] hundreds of thousands of pounds less than people can get in the private sector. We are so far behind the market.'
Of his own future, Mr Thompson said: 'I will be DG as long as the BBC Trust wants me to be DG. But if someone says it's time for me to go . . . well, I won't bore you any longer.'
On New Year's Eve, 89-year-old Baroness James left Mr Thompson stuttering after challenging him on the 'extraordinarily large salaries' of the corporation's managers.
BBC TV ratings fall to lowest in 15 years
BBC1 recorded its lowest share of the TV audience in more than 15 years last month, figures revealed today.
Despite having nine of the ten most watched shows on Christmas Day, the station's share fell from 42 per cent to 39 per cent on the day.
Across the whole month its share of the peak-time audience was 23.4 per cent, a loss of 4.7 per cent of viewers year on year, according to researchers BARB.
BBC director general Mark Thompson was told by one of the corporation's top interviewers today that his own staff find his salary 'wrong and corrosive'.`
Mr Thompson, who was paid £834,000 last year, was also informed that some staff are so furious about his pay they want him to quit.
The mauling came a fortnight after author P D James 'handbagged' Mr Thompson over executive pay on Radio 4's Today programme.
Today interviewer Stephen Sackur grilled his boss at the BBC's internal News Festival event.
Mr Sackur asked Mr Thompson to imagine 'being hauled into the office of George Osborne', if the Conservatives won the election, and being challenged to justify why 'almost 50 BBC senior managers earn more than the Prime Minister'.
The presenter of the current affairs programme HARDtalk asked the BBC chief if he understood how much anger there was among his own staff on the issue.
Mr Sackur said that in the buildup to today's event he had been sent hundreds of emails by staff about executive pay.
The BBC journalist, known for his penetrating interviews, told Mr Thompson: 'There are huge numbers of people in the organisation who think your salary is plain wrong and corrosive.'
Insiders said there were 'hoots of derision' from BBC staff when Mr Thompson defended his and other bosses' pay.
Mr Sackur suggested that the argument that the BBC had to compete with commercial rivals was 'redundant'. He pointed out that the new chief executive of Channel 4 is to be paid between £400,000 and £500,000, much less than Mr Thompson's package at the BBC.
Mr Thompson replied: 'Channel 4 has fewer than 1,000 people working for it, and you can't compare the two jobs in scale and complexity.'
But those who watched the session were left despondent that the BBC chief had still not apparently grasped their anger over pay.
One corporation journalist said: 'Thompson was in complete denial the whole way through and it did not look good.
'He kept talking about what they earned at ITV and would not answer the questions or was waffling.
'Sackur just hit him as soon as he sat down and he had a really rough time and he had no answers for him.'
The source added: 'I have never known morale so bad. There is so much anger about this guy.'
During the interview Mr Thompson said that, in real terms, his pay had gone down since he joined the corporation more than five years ago.
He reiterated his argument that if the BBC wanted to be the best broadcaster it had to recruit top people.
Mr Thompson said: 'Suppose we want to get the head of HR from a private company, we couldn't get them because [what we offer is] hundreds of thousands of pounds less than people can get in the private sector. We are so far behind the market.'
Of his own future, Mr Thompson said: 'I will be DG as long as the BBC Trust wants me to be DG. But if someone says it's time for me to go . . . well, I won't bore you any longer.'
On New Year's Eve, 89-year-old Baroness James left Mr Thompson stuttering after challenging him on the 'extraordinarily large salaries' of the corporation's managers.
BBC TV ratings fall to lowest in 15 years
BBC1 recorded its lowest share of the TV audience in more than 15 years last month, figures revealed today.
Despite having nine of the ten most watched shows on Christmas Day, the station's share fell from 42 per cent to 39 per cent on the day.
Across the whole month its share of the peak-time audience was 23.4 per cent, a loss of 4.7 per cent of viewers year on year, according to researchers BARB.