Post by Teddy Bear on Feb 7, 2014 19:02:43 GMT
Just when you wonder whether the BBC can sink any lower in the contempt they show the public, they show they can. 
The article spells it out.
The article spells it out.
Thompson portrait to cost public £20,000: BBC bosses under fire for agreeing to use licence fee payers' money on picture
By Miles Goslett
The BBC is under fire for agreeing to spend £20,000 of licence fee money on an official portrait of former director-general Mark Thompson.
The 56-year-old, who left the corporation in September 2012 after eight years in charge, has been advised by senior executives that the public will foot the five-figure bill for the commissioned work.
It has been a tradition for director generals to have an official portrait since the first man to hold the post, Lord Reith, sat for an artist in the 1930s.
Thompson – now chief executive of the New York Times, where he earned an estimated $6 million (£3.7million) including a bonus during his first year in charge – is currently choosing which artist will depict him on canvas.
The picture is intended to hang in Broadcasting House, the BBC's headquarters in central London, and insiders have indicated that at least £20,000 is available for the exercise.
But critics have lambasted the idea, insisting millionaire Mr Thompson should pay for it himself.
Tory MP Philip Davies, a member of the Commons media select committee, said: 'No public money should be spent on this. The BBC has already accepted that Mark Thompson was an overpaid director-general.
'We know this because although his salary was as high as £834,000 at one point, his successor is paid only £450,000. Mark Thompson should pay for this picture out of the additional funds he received which even the BBC now admits were unjustified.'
Rob Wilson MP, an aide to chancellor George Osborne, said he objected to the portrait being paid for with public money in part because of the various BBC scandals with which Thompson is associated, such as the inquiry into Jimmy Savile's sex abuse, illegal executive pay-offs, and the £100million Digital Media Initiative fiasco.
Mr Wilson said: 'In light of what we now know about Mark Thompson's tenure, I would suggest that if he wishes to have a BBC portrait he should pay for it himself.
'There may be a tradition of commissioning portraits of director-generals, but I think it's an anachronism in this day and age. It smacks of an elitist, almost imperial culture at the top of the BBC that glorifies itself and its leadership rather than focussing on the people it serves.'
George Entwistle, who succeeded Thompson in September 2012 but was forced to quit after 54 days over the Lord McAlpine scandal, has not been granted an official BBC portrait.
Thompson's predecessor, Greg Dyke, spent £15,000 of public money on his official BBC portrait, painted by John Keane and unveiled in 2006.
Although Thompson left at a time of his choosing, his BBC track record has been scrutinised like none of his predecessors'.
He has been forced to return to London from his new base in New York three times in 15 months to give evidence to official inquiries into BBC scandals.
The first related to Savile. Thompson said he knew nothing about the abuse allegations surrounding the late DJ until after he stopped running the BBC. However, legal papers plus statements to MPs from his colleague Helen Boaden, the BBC's head of Radio, have since surfaced which contradict his story.
Thompson was also in charge of the BBC when £25 million in golden goodbyes was paid to 150 departing executives, some of whom were not entitled to the six-figure sums they received.
He was grilled about this by MPs last September and has subsequently been accused of misleading their committee, an allegation he is still battling.
And on Monday he was in London to give evidence to the same parliamentary committee about the Digital Media Initiative IT project, in which £100 million of licence fee money was written off. Thompson apologised for the catastrophe, but MPs say his precise role in the affair remains unclear.
- The 56-year-old left in September 2012 after eight years in charge
- It has been a tradition for director generals to have an official portrait
- Picture is intended to hang in Broadcasting House, the BBC's HQ
By Miles Goslett
The BBC is under fire for agreeing to spend £20,000 of licence fee money on an official portrait of former director-general Mark Thompson.
The 56-year-old, who left the corporation in September 2012 after eight years in charge, has been advised by senior executives that the public will foot the five-figure bill for the commissioned work.
It has been a tradition for director generals to have an official portrait since the first man to hold the post, Lord Reith, sat for an artist in the 1930s.
Thompson – now chief executive of the New York Times, where he earned an estimated $6 million (£3.7million) including a bonus during his first year in charge – is currently choosing which artist will depict him on canvas.
The picture is intended to hang in Broadcasting House, the BBC's headquarters in central London, and insiders have indicated that at least £20,000 is available for the exercise.
But critics have lambasted the idea, insisting millionaire Mr Thompson should pay for it himself.
Tory MP Philip Davies, a member of the Commons media select committee, said: 'No public money should be spent on this. The BBC has already accepted that Mark Thompson was an overpaid director-general.
'We know this because although his salary was as high as £834,000 at one point, his successor is paid only £450,000. Mark Thompson should pay for this picture out of the additional funds he received which even the BBC now admits were unjustified.'
Rob Wilson MP, an aide to chancellor George Osborne, said he objected to the portrait being paid for with public money in part because of the various BBC scandals with which Thompson is associated, such as the inquiry into Jimmy Savile's sex abuse, illegal executive pay-offs, and the £100million Digital Media Initiative fiasco.
Mr Wilson said: 'In light of what we now know about Mark Thompson's tenure, I would suggest that if he wishes to have a BBC portrait he should pay for it himself.
'There may be a tradition of commissioning portraits of director-generals, but I think it's an anachronism in this day and age. It smacks of an elitist, almost imperial culture at the top of the BBC that glorifies itself and its leadership rather than focussing on the people it serves.'
George Entwistle, who succeeded Thompson in September 2012 but was forced to quit after 54 days over the Lord McAlpine scandal, has not been granted an official BBC portrait.
Thompson's predecessor, Greg Dyke, spent £15,000 of public money on his official BBC portrait, painted by John Keane and unveiled in 2006.
Although Thompson left at a time of his choosing, his BBC track record has been scrutinised like none of his predecessors'.
He has been forced to return to London from his new base in New York three times in 15 months to give evidence to official inquiries into BBC scandals.
The first related to Savile. Thompson said he knew nothing about the abuse allegations surrounding the late DJ until after he stopped running the BBC. However, legal papers plus statements to MPs from his colleague Helen Boaden, the BBC's head of Radio, have since surfaced which contradict his story.
Thompson was also in charge of the BBC when £25 million in golden goodbyes was paid to 150 departing executives, some of whom were not entitled to the six-figure sums they received.
He was grilled about this by MPs last September and has subsequently been accused of misleading their committee, an allegation he is still battling.
And on Monday he was in London to give evidence to the same parliamentary committee about the Digital Media Initiative IT project, in which £100 million of licence fee money was written off. Thompson apologised for the catastrophe, but MPs say his precise role in the affair remains unclear.