Thinking time

As John Naughton says in today's Observer, there's nothing like a list to start a debate.  John has updated previous lists of British intellectuals as compiled by Prospect magazine, and come up with his own of 300 top UK thinkers.   He admits that the selection criteria are largely based on print - books, newspapers, magazines - but there will be those who will raise eyebrows that his only entry under "Media Executives" is David Elstein, once dubbed the cleverest man in broadcasting.  

Top BBC executives over the years fall into two categories - intellectuals, or people who who like to be thought of as intellectuals. Indeed, though they may not have driven UK thinking forward in a major way, many are memorialised as if they were academics - The Reith Lectures, The RTS Hugh Wheldon Memorial Lecture, The Dimbleby Lecture. John Birt (with help from Peter Jay) made his reputation with an "academic" contribution to the Times in 1975, that there was an inherent "bias against understanding" in most tv news output, thus creating his famous "mission to explain".

Mark Thompson has tried hard over recent years, with his schtick that there is a "public space" in UK broadcasting (and, of course, that the BBC should continue to receive public funds to "curate" it).  He started on it in September 2009 (as a riposte to James Murdoch) and now it appears in every lecture he does (usually alongside mention of R4's A History of The World in 100 Objects).  Is it not enough, Mr Naughton ?