Ouch. It looks like the search for a new Director of BBC News has already created opportunities for some unpleasant anonymous briefers, sharing their alleged insights with The Times' Rosamund Urwin.
He is too diplomatic to say it openly, but those who know the BBC boss Tim Davie claim he is secretly delighted that his director of news and current affairs is departing. According to a source who has spoken to Davie, he believed Fran Unsworth, who resigned on Tuesday, was “stuck in her ways”, part of a wider malaise that he is desperate to address.
Rosamund has been pointed in the direction of a possible successor.
One possible candidate is a relative unknown in London media circles: Naja Nielsen, who joined the BBC as digital director for news in 2019. A member of the BBC’s news group board, Nielsen was head of news at the Danish broadcaster DR and has impressed Davie. On her LinkedIn profile, she stresses her commitment to impartiality — music to Davie’s ears.
Rosamund believes that the appointment of Jess Brammar to run TV News Channels is a significant problem for one other possible candidate.
It is a black mark against another potential successor to Unsworth, Jamie Angus, now the senior controller of news output and commissioning, who made the decision to hire Brammar.
She finds other critics of Angus.
“He’s a dilettante,” claimed one. “When he was at the World Service, and your job is to know this stuff, I remember him saying he hadn’t heard of Waziristan, which was where [Osama] bin Laden was hiding at the time.”
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