Gaza and the Beeb

The BBC may be a wonderful institution but it has at least one unfortunate characteristic. Once a  decision has been taken it is  not very good  at changing its mind or Heaven Forfend - admitting that it just might have got something wrong.

The decision to reject the appeal for airtime  by the Disasters  Emergency Committee to  raise  money for the Gaza disaster was obviously made in good faith. The  BBC has to value its editorial integrity and impartiality above all things and you could debate where the degrees of  political and moral responsibility lies for the death and destruction for years to come.

The problem is hardly  anyone believes that helping overwhelmingly innocent civilians with the bare necessities of life would fatally undermine the BBC's reputation for impartiality. That goes for Government ministers, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Channel 4 which is going ahead with the appeal, Phil Harding the former head of BBC policy, not too mention such respectable charities as Oxfam or Christian Aid.

The end  result is that the  BBC is left sounding heartless, or at the very least sticking to a very arid interpretation of impartiality.

Tony Benn has bluntly accused the BBC of being nobbled by the Israel lobby.

That's the trouble with mistaken decisions  on points of principle - people attribute the worst possible motives to your action.

Time for the  BBC to reconsider and change its mind. There is no shame in that.

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champagne

To the traditional President's New Year reception at the Institute of  Practitioners in Advertising headquarters in London's  Belgrave  Square.  The champagne flowed as if there  was no recession and there was no shortage of  canapes.  At  least standards  are  being maintained in some sections of  the media jungle in these "challenging" times .

Out-going president Moray MacLellan  of  M&C Saatchi in his uplifting address maintained a running gag  -  words like "downturn" and even "good times" were not  articulated.  Instead  placards were  held up  silently.

 MacLennan was honest enough however to admit that he  had  been one of  those who believed  that the UK would avoid a deep recession by a  whisker.

This  very week the IPA admitted  that the UK advertising market would not be a place for "the faint hearted" this year. For the first time since the IPA's quarterly Bellwether report  was launched nine years ago annual marketing budgets  had been set lower  than a year ago.

For  good measure the IPA has also found separately that most in the advertising  were  ill-prepared to cope with advertising in the new world of social networks.

The champagne helped, of course,  but in many knots of  conversation  the  talk was  dominated by the effect of budgets slashed, work lost and jobs  disappeared.

Even at  the mighty  Financial Times journalists are facing the prospect of compulsory redundancies something that has not  happened since ..  well forever.

But what was really interesting were the people who were not at the IPA  do.  You would think newspaper  marketing directors would be there in mass to work the crowd. 

If they were there they were difficult to spot.

If  there is any lesson to be learnt from current events - no-one  can  stay isolated in their own little monastic trade cults any more - if they ever could.

Meanwhile cheers to one and all.

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fops

What have Sir Christopher Meyer, the outgoing chairman of the Press Complaints Commission  and Michael  Grade, executive chairman of  ITV, have in  common?

Both are addicted to wearing red socks.

In fact former deputy Prime Minister  John Prescott once dubbed Sir  Christopher, former  UK ambassador in Washington " a red-socked  fop."   

The jib had more than a  little to  do with Sir Christopher indiscreet diplomatic memoirs,  DC  Confidential. Prescott's lack of  detailed  knowledge of international affairs  was  highlighted  and  the ambassador noted that some of  his  political masters were like Masai warriors -  other more  like political pygmies.

Last  night (Jan  12)  interviewed on stage at a Media  Society event at the  London College of  Communications Sir  Chrishopher, who has worn red socks for  26 years, expressed astonishment that so many politicians  had rushed  to identify  themselves as pygmies  and so few saw themselves as Masai.

By  any standards  Sir  Christopher's six year reign at the PCC has been a  success.  The public have a  fast and free method of redressing the predations of the press and the newspaper  and magazines industry has escaped statutory  regulation.

The  PCC chairman who  will be  succeeded  by Baroness Buscombe in April  warned however that there was now a  great danger that the UK was getting a law of privacy by the back door  as judges built up case law interpreting European Human Rights legislation.

You could clarify matters  with specific privacy  legislation but  "it  would be  messy."

Sir Christopher  was however  diplomatic to the last.

Asked for his favourite five press "atrocities" the  PCC chairman declined on the grounds that if he obliged he would  be inundated by complaints from those who had not been included.

Following his sojourn at the PCC the Meyer red socks can  next be seen in a four part television series on the history of  diplomacy commissioned  by  BBC 4.

Lets hope it  has the same irreverent flavour  as  DC  Confidential.

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Hallelujah

Hallelujah - the New York Times has  decided to put ads on the front page for the first time after all those  years. The move may be controversial with some readers of  "The Old Gray Lady" but the only real wonder is that the purity of the front page has been preserved from commercial vulgarity until now.

This after all is  the paper that plans to raise $255 million in borrowing against its New York headquarters and is under direct assault from Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal. Murdoch has  made no bones about his determination to steal away as many of the Journal's readers and advertisers as possible. The weapons used have been more general news in the business publication and up-market consumer coverage. 

The New York Times is in a fight for its life against a dogged and determined opponent.

But the first ad today highlighting CBS programmes  such as CSI, The Mentalist and 60 Minutes is  symbolic of much more than a battle with Murdoch.

With advertising crashing all newspapers everywhere will have to put out sacred cows to grass and come up with new ideas. Everything from co-operation with former rivals to cutting delivery in peripheral regions is now up  for grabs.

In a form of business Darwinism only those who has adapt to unprecedented circumstances will survive and  ultimately prosper.

A number of previously enormous  beasts - if not entire  species - could simply disappear.

There are always lots of annual prizes for enterprising journalism usually awarded at black tie dinners.

Similar celebrations should now  be laid on for the best innovations in the newspaper business - and indeed throughout the rest of the traditional media - to ensure  that they  do not  become endangered species.

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Sarkozy

The imminent departure from public life of  George Bush will make  life  so much more dull. Luckily, much nearer to home, Nicolas Sarkozy, should take up some of the slack.

Later today (Jan 5) prime-advertising will disappear from state-owned  television channels in France.

Monsieur Le President has decreed that the decision is part of his master plan to create a public television service to "rival the quality of the BBC."

It's very flattering of  course to hear a  French President admit in public that something about Britain is superior  to  France - if not exactly the food.

The slight problem is trying to get to grips with why exactly French television will necessarily improve by taking away a large chunk of the income of France 2  and  France  3  which may, or may not be returned in its entirety though a tax on advertising revenue.

If an absence of ads was the answer to the problem then the quality of the BBC after more than 80 years without ads should be totally magical instead of merely not so bad  as French public television.

The cynics have it  right here.

The main beneficiary of the move which has  yet to formally pass into French law is the French commercial channel TF1. Audiences will soar at TF1 and advertising revenue - will at least hold up better than it otherwise would have in a recession.

The fact that TF1 just happens to be controlled by Martin  Bouygues, godfather to one of President Sarkozy's children is of course completely coincidental.

Conspiracy theorists point to another part of the broadcasting package - the fact that in future the Elysee Palace will be able to nominate directly the head of France Televisions, the public broadcasting organisation. 

Maybe President Sarkozy has got it right all along. The organisation and financing of the  BBC is far superior to anything that happens in France.

But don't hold  your breath waiting for an improvement in programme quality on France 2 and France 3.

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