Ageing process

Reading the timeline in the Miriam O'Reilly employment tribunal findings is like following the terrifying detail of a multiple pile-up on a motorway, with collateral damage at every twist and turn. On the one hand, there's the management, thinking they're handling things well, concealing bald truths in rationales arrived at well after the event, and doing it often from the best of motives; on another there's a long-serving reporter seeing the tv, then radio work she likes apparently evaporating, crying conspiracy, and heading to court backed by the tom-tom beat of The Telegraph; and finally, there's the judge, coming to conclusions about events from peripheral emails with relish and more than a little contrariness, because there are no written notes on the decision to drop Ms O'Reilly from the Countryfile team.  

It looks surprising now that the BBC HR team (one of the most expensive per head of staff of any organisation in the world) didn't offer much more to settle this  - and that may be because Miriam had two employers, radio and tv, with different views. So the decisions about her radio career were not apparently ageist (note that Alan Yentob made the on air apology) - but the loser, in cash terms, is the whole BBC.

The paragraph below for me is where the tribunal, clearly enjoying ruling on "showbiz", goes all Telegraph, and into areas it might regret. 

As Nicky Campbell tweeted yesterday, he's now thinking of taking a case after being dropped by Radio 1.