Ouch

Steve Hewlett, who edited Panorama while Tony Hall was running BBC News, pulls no punches in his Guardian assessment of the continued preferment of James Purnell, taking charge of BBC network radio from the end of this month....

"Purnell has almost no relevant creative or editorial experience for the job. Radio – and critically the content the networks deliver - remains key to the BBC’s relationship with its licence fee payers. And people up and down the industry are struggling to see the rationale for Purnell’s appointment to such a key creative job. It's easy to see why Purnell would want it – he will struggle to progress up the BBC’s greasy pole without a big content job under his wing – but not really why its in the BBC’s interests to give it to him."