Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Reading stuff so you don't have to. You should !

Selected quotes from statements and the Pollard Report.

Stephen Mitchell: Whilst I feel vindicated that the review has found that I put no undue pressure on Peter Rippon, I disagree with the remainder of Mr Pollard's criticisms in relation to me.

Peter Rippon: On this occasion, I am being judged not about what we broadcast, but what we did not, and this means that will always be questions about whether more could have been done to get the item on air. However, I do not agree that my decision on this occasion was flawed.

 Adrian Van Klaveren: What is of course especially hard to take is that I am leaving 5 live as a result of events which had nothing to do with how I carried out my job here. Rather it happened after I had just begun a temporary role in the most challenging of circumstances.

Stephen Mitchell: It is with great sadness that I have decided to retire from the BBC after more than 38 years’ service of which I am very proud and which I have found greatly enjoyable.

Tim Davie: This morning, the Deputy Director of BBC News, Stephen Mitchell, tendered his resignation which I have accepted with great sadness.

George Entwistle: I am pleased that the Pollard report makes it clear I played no part whatever in Newsnight’s decision not to broadcast the original Savile investigation – just as I was not personally to blame in any way for the journalistic failures on Newsnight when it broadcast its erroneous report about the North Wales care home.

Producer Nick Vaughan Barratt email to George Entwistle (then Controller, Knowledge Commissioning) May 2010, as printed in Pollard Report:  George, I understand jimmy [Savile] is very ill. We have no obit and I am not sure we would want one. What do you think. I have a personal interest here: my first job in TV was on a JS show – I know him well and saw the complex and sometimes conflicting nature of the man at first hand – if you know what I mean! Do you have an opinion? Mine is ironic, flawed and fascinating. But all a long time ago! N” Later email: “I’d feel v queasy about an obit. I saw the real truth‼!..”

Pollard report:  It is at least possible that a conversation with Mr Vaughan-Barratt would have given Mr Entwistle some pause for thought about the planned Christmas tributes

Julian Payne, BBC Head of Press text  message to Paul Mylrea, 20th October 2012 ‘Thought of the hour. PR changes blog and accepts he was wrong and goes giving panorama a scalp. GE then goes into Select saying he backed his editor as you would expect. Turns out he was wrong sad but he did the right thing and we all move on???’

Pollard report:. Mr Mylrea told me that the text messages between him and Mr Payne were private communications for the purpose of scenario planning, which were not shared with others, and Mr Entwistle distanced himself from these discussions, saying that that they were a ‘conversation going on in the communications community whose job it is to think about things like that’, but that they did not reflect his thinking.

Pollard report:  It seems clear to me that by 22 October, the blog had been transformed into a document regarded by some as a means of insulating the Director General from criticism. Ms Boaden recalls, earlier in October, Mr Entwistle as saying that he was going to do a public statement “that makes it impossible for Peter [Rippon] not to resign”. In the meeting when Mr Entwistle said that, Ms Boaden says that she offered to take public responsibility and resign if necessary, but that Mr Entwistle refused to accept her resignation.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Other people who read this.......