Starting with Elan

Interim BBC Chair Elan Closs Stephens was interviewed by Tina Daheley today, not for the long term job, but for the benefit of BBC staff watching via Sympatico. The content was too anodyne even for the Jeremy Vine show, where Tina was sitting in, discussing the price of school uniform, Dolly Parton and giant hogweeds. 

Yet the press seem to have been provided with a transcript; here's some bits. Asked about damage from the Sharp affair, she asserted “There’s no doubt that we’ve gone through a difficult period of time and I’m sure that staff and the board and Richard himself were unnerved by what happened over the past few months. All of us feel a debt of gratitude to Richard for the way in which he committed himself to the organization during his two years. But the organization as a whole is about the creativity and the news values and the production values of all the people who work in it.”

Asked about the process to find a permanent chair: "The process will be an external appointment. But I know that as a board, we are really firmly of the opinion that the guidelines should be followed, that there should be head-hunters, there should be as wide a search as possible, it should be as diverse a field as possible and that there should be some really very strong candidates from all walks of life if we can, with the necessary experience to take on this role. It’s not a time for standing still. Although the period in which I’m going to be chair is quite short, we need to get on with the job.”