BBC
Chasing Jimmy Savile’s chums
And still it goes on and on. Apparently Jimmy Savile was banned from Children In Need because it was thought he was a bit creepy. Did he try to touch… Continue reading
157 Comments
The View from 22 — BBC in crisis, a Major problem for the Conservatives and Lost in Europe
What is going to happen next with the BBC Jimmy Salvile saga? In this week’s magazine cover, Rod Liddle blames institutional problems within the organisation and predicts there will be… Continue reading
17 Comments
The Beeb’s self-inflicted wound
And so the Savile stuff rumbles on with George Entwistle’s singularly unimpressive performance before the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee. It still seems to me that the… Continue reading
82 Comments
George Entwistle’s quietly savage attack on Newsnight editor Peter Rippon
George Entwistle seemed rather mild-mannered at his first appearance before the Culture, Media and Sport select committee this morning. But after listening to him for two hours, MPs were starting… Continue reading
51 Comments
Five questions for George Entwistle about Jimmy Savile
George Entwistle is appearing before a select committee for the first time this morning. It won’t be a gentle start for the new BBC Director General, though. He is giving… Continue reading
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The BBC regains its honour
I hope that the entire editorial staffs of the Times, Sunday Times, Sun, Mail, Mail on Sunday, Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph (oh and the Express newspapers if they are still… Continue reading
61 Comments
The BBC can’t fix it like this
The BBC management cannot have it both ways. They cannot simultaneously insist that the decision to drop the Newsnight investigation into Jimmy Savile was made by the editor of the… Continue reading
34 Comments
Preposterously, the BBC has taken my advice
I may sue for plagiarism. In my failed bid to become Director General of the BBC I suggested that the corporation should henceforth cover no news stories, nor commission any… Continue reading
65 Comments
Iraq and the BBC revisited
Just finished reading a book by Kevin Marsh, the editor of the Today programme at the time of the whole Gilligan-Campbell-Kelly business which saw the director general of the BBC… Continue reading
62 Comments
Citizen Khan says absolutely nothing new
I took the opportunity yesterday to catch up with the BBC’s new comedy ‘Citizen Khan’. Focusing on a Muslim family based in my hometown of Birmingham, it lampoons the trials… Continue reading
61 Comments
Jeremy Vine’s survival guide
I first knew Jeremy Vine as a very young, charming, earnest and totally driven political correspondent for the BBC in the 1980s. So when I started reading It’s All News… Continue reading
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The Hamlet of the trenches: Parade’s End reviewed
Ford Madox Ford’s Parade’s End is being republished as well as adapted for the screen by the BBC. I first discovered the tetralogy when, in an attempt to improve my… Continue reading
4 Comments
The skewed priorities of the BBC’s abortion investigation story
Did anyone else notice anything weird about the BBC’s coverage of the story last week about the 14 NHS trusts that a government health watchdog found to be breaking the… Continue reading
17 Comments
My advice to the BBC’s new DG
The job of George Entwistle, the new Director General of the BBC, will be to manage a gentle decline, rather than hurtling with great enthusiasm towards a state of inexistence.… Continue reading
39 Comments
Transcript: IDS on Today
Iain Duncan Smith appeared on the Today programme this morning. In a heated interview with Evan Davis, the work and pensions secretary was interrogated about David Cameron’s radical welfare proposals.… Continue reading
10 Comments
A final word on the BBC’s Jubilee
A very lively and enjoyable Any Questions last night from the beautiful town of Aldborough in North Yorkshire. The question which seemed to bring out perhaps the most passion from… Continue reading
15 CommentsTune in tonight
I thought Spectator readers may like to know that I will be one of the panellists on BBC Radio 4′s ‘Any Questions’ tonight at 20.00. The programme is coming from… Continue reading
5 Comments
Why the Jubilee Coverage was so bad
One of my objections to monarchy is that it is a vulgar institution that encourages verbosity, prurience, sycophancy and banality. I was not therefore surprised that the BBC’s jubilee coverage… Continue reading
60 Comments
Was the BBC’s Jubilee coverage terrible?
Was the BBC’s coverage of the Jubilee celebrations really as awful as all the papers seem to say it was? I’ve always rather liked Sophie Raworth, yet she and her… Continue reading
150 Comments
Let’s show Eurovision some respect
There are calls for Britain to pull out of the Eurovision Song Contest, after Engelbert Humperdinck finished second-last on Saturday, with Norway bottom. The Mayor of Leicester has today denounced… Continue reading
47 Comments