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Media Monkey's Diary: Lord Patten, Jay-Z, and Mariella Frostrup Media Monkey's Diary: Lord Patten, Jay-Z, and Mariella Frostrup
(2 months later)
✒Lord Patten was looking down in the dumps at the Channel 4-hosted All Party Parliamentary Media Group summer party last week about the prospect of facing a Public Accounts Committee grilling all on his own over the £25m payoff bill racked up over the past three years - a reckoning which former DG Mark Thompson has been able to put off to November. Lord P was making it very clear to anyone who would listen that when he formally joined two years ago as chairman of the BBC Trust, the trustees spent the first six months just trying to force the executive committee, headed by Thompson, with Barclays banker Marcus Agius heading the remuneration committee, to take the issues of payoffs, huge pension pots and executive pay seriously. Which puts that leak in January 2012 about headhunters being briefed to find a replacement director general for Tommo into context …✒Lord Patten was looking down in the dumps at the Channel 4-hosted All Party Parliamentary Media Group summer party last week about the prospect of facing a Public Accounts Committee grilling all on his own over the £25m payoff bill racked up over the past three years - a reckoning which former DG Mark Thompson has been able to put off to November. Lord P was making it very clear to anyone who would listen that when he formally joined two years ago as chairman of the BBC Trust, the trustees spent the first six months just trying to force the executive committee, headed by Thompson, with Barclays banker Marcus Agius heading the remuneration committee, to take the issues of payoffs, huge pension pots and executive pay seriously. Which puts that leak in January 2012 about headhunters being briefed to find a replacement director general for Tommo into context …
✒Alan Yentob befriended Jay-Z for an Imagine profile, and it may be that experience that has led the rapper to apparently focus on the bling-bling lifestyles enjoyed by Yentob's former colleagues in a track on his new album, Magna Carta … Holy Grail, which is out today. Given the track's title, BBC, it's George Entwistle, Caroline Thomson and other recipients of eye-watering payoffs who are plainly being evoked as Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake celebrate the jetsetting high life, where "my whole life is leisure", with name-checks for Gucci, Versace, Adidas, Hermes, 4X4s ("Bought my sidekicks Suzuki Jeeps and Cherokees"), Ibiza, Giza, Paris, Pisa and Madison Square Gardens. Only murky references to "feds perched like an owl", presumably suggesting the payoffs might eventually have to be handed back, introduce a more troubling note.✒Alan Yentob befriended Jay-Z for an Imagine profile, and it may be that experience that has led the rapper to apparently focus on the bling-bling lifestyles enjoyed by Yentob's former colleagues in a track on his new album, Magna Carta … Holy Grail, which is out today. Given the track's title, BBC, it's George Entwistle, Caroline Thomson and other recipients of eye-watering payoffs who are plainly being evoked as Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake celebrate the jetsetting high life, where "my whole life is leisure", with name-checks for Gucci, Versace, Adidas, Hermes, 4X4s ("Bought my sidekicks Suzuki Jeeps and Cherokees"), Ibiza, Giza, Paris, Pisa and Madison Square Gardens. Only murky references to "feds perched like an owl", presumably suggesting the payoffs might eventually have to be handed back, introduce a more troubling note.
✒Sky Arts is to drop Mariella's Book Show (formerly known as The Book Show), Monkey learned at a publisher's party last week. This means its presenter Mariella Frostrup will be down to just one books programme, Radio 4's Open Book; while British television – since Channel 4's TV Book Club has been comatose, presumed dead, since spring 2012 – will be down to … zero.✒Sky Arts is to drop Mariella's Book Show (formerly known as The Book Show), Monkey learned at a publisher's party last week. This means its presenter Mariella Frostrup will be down to just one books programme, Radio 4's Open Book; while British television – since Channel 4's TV Book Club has been comatose, presumed dead, since spring 2012 – will be down to … zero.
✒When Tom Watson resigned from Labour's front bench for the third time in 10 years, the latest victim of what appears to be a Curse of Leveson, the sorry spectacle at least allowed Channel 4 News to come up with the headline of the week, over a blog by its ace political reporter: [Michael] Crick on Watson's DNA.✒When Tom Watson resigned from Labour's front bench for the third time in 10 years, the latest victim of what appears to be a Curse of Leveson, the sorry spectacle at least allowed Channel 4 News to come up with the headline of the week, over a blog by its ace political reporter: [Michael] Crick on Watson's DNA.
✒It is breakfast time on July 4, and the Sun and the Spectator plop onto subscribers' doormats. In the tabloid, Rod Liddle attacks Channel 4's decision to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer, with sideswipes at its "half-witted" commissioning editor Ralph Lee; while in the magazine, Rod Liddle attacks Channel 4 for its decision to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer, with sideswipes at its "idiot" commissioning editor Ralph Lee. The twin rants might also pique the interest of other editors, the ones who risk idiocy accusations themselves by allowing the posh/pop crossover columnist to write the same stuff twice – shouldn't they dock his fees, if not axe him, if he does?✒It is breakfast time on July 4, and the Sun and the Spectator plop onto subscribers' doormats. In the tabloid, Rod Liddle attacks Channel 4's decision to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer, with sideswipes at its "half-witted" commissioning editor Ralph Lee; while in the magazine, Rod Liddle attacks Channel 4 for its decision to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer, with sideswipes at its "idiot" commissioning editor Ralph Lee. The twin rants might also pique the interest of other editors, the ones who risk idiocy accusations themselves by allowing the posh/pop crossover columnist to write the same stuff twice – shouldn't they dock his fees, if not axe him, if he does?
✒ So farewell, then, Blighty, the UKTV factual channel that passed away over the weekend. You naturally followed the group's shift towards offbeat names, initiated by Dave; but wasn't it unwise to choose one so close to "blight"?✒ So farewell, then, Blighty, the UKTV factual channel that passed away over the weekend. You naturally followed the group's shift towards offbeat names, initiated by Dave; but wasn't it unwise to choose one so close to "blight"?
✒ The Grand Old Duke of York, inspiration behind so much BBC policy activity, seems on hillside manoeuvres there again, with BBC4 his latest parade ground. In June 2011 (under its then controller Richard Klein and reflecting the strategy of the then controller of Vision, a rising star called George Entwistle), the brainy station announced it would be giving up drama and comedy, and "focus" increasingly on culture – changes that only really made their mark this year, with the controversial switch of The Review Show from BBC2 and the news that a Burton/Taylor biopic would be the network's last drama. Hold on, though: Klein has gone, a new head of Television (formerly Vision), Danny Cohen, has been installed and a classic BBC volte face looks likely: the Beeb might "regret" limiting BBC4 to arts, Cohen told a conference last week, adding that "part of BBC4's strength is multi-genre … We're looking at whether it's right to take those genres off BBC4." Welcome back, your grace!✒ The Grand Old Duke of York, inspiration behind so much BBC policy activity, seems on hillside manoeuvres there again, with BBC4 his latest parade ground. In June 2011 (under its then controller Richard Klein and reflecting the strategy of the then controller of Vision, a rising star called George Entwistle), the brainy station announced it would be giving up drama and comedy, and "focus" increasingly on culture – changes that only really made their mark this year, with the controversial switch of The Review Show from BBC2 and the news that a Burton/Taylor biopic would be the network's last drama. Hold on, though: Klein has gone, a new head of Television (formerly Vision), Danny Cohen, has been installed and a classic BBC volte face looks likely: the Beeb might "regret" limiting BBC4 to arts, Cohen told a conference last week, adding that "part of BBC4's strength is multi-genre … We're looking at whether it's right to take those genres off BBC4." Welcome back, your grace!
✒ Those Crazy Birt Years Are Back!, episode 26. February 1995: BBC director general John Birt, who made his name as World in Action editor, decamps to Dublin and denounces aspects of his own news output including "interviewers who sneer disdainfully at their targets", with Jeremy Paxman the assumed main target. July 2013: Report for the BBC Trust by ITV exec turned Grumpy Old Men producer Stuart Prebble, who made his name as World in Action editor, criticises abrasive interviewing style of, yes, Jeremy Paxman.✒ Those Crazy Birt Years Are Back!, episode 26. February 1995: BBC director general John Birt, who made his name as World in Action editor, decamps to Dublin and denounces aspects of his own news output including "interviewers who sneer disdainfully at their targets", with Jeremy Paxman the assumed main target. July 2013: Report for the BBC Trust by ITV exec turned Grumpy Old Men producer Stuart Prebble, who made his name as World in Action editor, criticises abrasive interviewing style of, yes, Jeremy Paxman.
✒ Sadly, though handily for the likes of Monkey, celebrities continue to treat Twitter as if it was a private medium. In the latest example, two former footballers recruited by BT Sport are bantering. "At least you won't get kicked – retirement does have its benefits!" points out Darren Fletcher (@DFletcher), when Michael Owen (@themichaelowen) tells him he has meetings in London. "Not sure about that," Owen replies, "one of my meetings is with Grant!" Leaving Owen's 2.1 million followers to wonder who Grant is – answer: BT Sport's senior channel executive Grant Best – and whether the England legend was worried about a kicking, or just a meeting likely to prove tiresome.✒ Sadly, though handily for the likes of Monkey, celebrities continue to treat Twitter as if it was a private medium. In the latest example, two former footballers recruited by BT Sport are bantering. "At least you won't get kicked – retirement does have its benefits!" points out Darren Fletcher (@DFletcher), when Michael Owen (@themichaelowen) tells him he has meetings in London. "Not sure about that," Owen replies, "one of my meetings is with Grant!" Leaving Owen's 2.1 million followers to wonder who Grant is – answer: BT Sport's senior channel executive Grant Best – and whether the England legend was worried about a kicking, or just a meeting likely to prove tiresome.
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