Saturday 17 November 2012

How the other half live

A Russian billionaires boat. Take a tour.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Tuesday 13 November 2012

EE Fenton Remastered






The Saville inquiries





There are indeed loads of them. Too many? Does the North Wales stuff get buried? It's all going to be around for a while. Quite a legacy.

ABUSE INQUIRIES

1) Operation Yewtree: Scotland Yard criminal investigation into claims that Jimmy Savile sexually abused young people.

2) BBC investigation into management failures over the dropping of a Newsnight report into the Savile allegations.

3) BBC investigation into culture and practices during Savile's career and current policies.

4) BBC investigation into handling of past sexual harassment claims.

5) Department of Health investigation into Savile's appointment to Broadmoor "taskforce" and his activities at Broadmoor, Stoke Mandeville Hospital and Leeds General Infirmary.

6) Director of Public Prosecutions review into decisions not to prosecute Savile in 2009.

7) North Wales abuse inquiry by National Crime Agency head into abuse claims from 70s and 80s, fresh claims, and police handling of the claims.

8) Mrs Justice Macur appointed by PM to review the 2000 Waterhouse review which looked into the north Wales abuse.

9) BBC Scotland director Ken MacQuarrie into what happened with the Newsnight investigation into north Wales abuse claims

Sunday 11 November 2012

Media on media massacre




As noted by Douglas Murray over at the spectator;

"The nadir in this case probably came the other week when BBC reporters door-stepped other BBC reporters on their way into work at, er, the BBC. I think BBC reporters reporting on the BBC from outside their own offices in the BBC runs that a close second."

The End of Entwistle




Well the BBC has got itself in a right pickle has it not. I doubt there is anyone senior left in the news division who hasn't retired, been suspended or isn't hiding from various investigations.

I am not sure Mr Entwistle should have gone. It's certainly been a roller coaster 55 days for him. He did do some terrible interviews but is being mauled on Radio 4 a hanging offence? Did it get anyone anywhere? He appears in part to have been the victim of the way the BBC works, it's processes.

Surely his press office are in trouble for failing to keep him up to date.

I suppose Mr Entwistle failed to take control of the situation. Certainly he shouldn't have carried on with giving random speeches etc. But would anyone have controlled these events?

Anyway he has gone and the BBC will no doubt be regretting having a go at the Tories when they had no ammo. The attempt to deflect attention from Saville backfired badly.

Newsnight is now a blood bath. I don't think rumours of wider trouble at mill are too far wide of the mark. Just look at Jeremy Paxmans statement below.





Statement from Jeremy Paxman:

“George Entwistle’s departure is a great shame. He has been brought low by cowards and incompetents.

The real problem here is the BBC’s decision, in the wake of the Hutton Inquiry, to play safe by appointing biddable people.

They then compounded the problem by enforcing a series of cuts on programme budgets, while bloating the management

That is how you arrive at the current mess on Newsnight. I very much doubt the problem is unique to that programme.

I had hoped that George might stay to sort this out. It is a great pity that a talented man has been sacrificed. While time-servers prosper.

I shall not be issuing any further statements or doing any interviews.”