Dramatic stuff at the BBC yesterday, it was hard to do any work and concentrate on anything else…
In many respects I missed being there – being across what was happening – sharing the pain with friends and colleagues, being at the heart of the action rather than picking it up from the Media Guardian website and live updates on Five Live.
On the other hand I was glad not to be there too, the atmosphere must have been very very strange.
Alison managed to get herself on ABC, Sky and Five Live as a result of taking part in the protests and sharing her opinions to camera. Go girl! It’s hard to think of many other managers – in any business - who could inspire such a response.
Listening to coverage on the radio yesterday didn’t prepare me for the TV picture though – the reaction of BBC staff was simply amazing! And rightly so, Greg Dyke has been an inspirational leader and the BBC will be all the poorer for his departure.
Certainly when I left the BBC last year after 5 years it was a much better, confident and fun place to be than when I joined under John Birt – and a lot of that has to be down to Greg Dyke and the people from the top table down that he inspired.
The capitulation of the Governors and Ryder’s statement disgusted me. The man has no credibility and has lost the faith of his staff on day one.
As for who will be the next DG, who knows. Byford may be tainted by association with Dyke, but he’s also a safe pair of hands with only two years to go before Charter Renewal. Mark Thompson hasn’t been at Channel 4 long enough to make his mark there and again is closely associated with Greg. Jana Bennett would be good – world wise, female and highly credible. But does she have a news track record? Does that matter?
My biggest fear is that the Governors decide to go for an outsider. I think they’ve no choice, they need to show a break with the past. But that’s dangerous too, does the BBC adopt it’s own root and branch approach headed by someone like David Elstein who basically wants the job but hates the BBC, or does it wait for Government to apply the chainsaw and then simply try and pick up the pieces afterwards?
As I said yesterday, tough times ahead, and tough choices to be made.
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