Geogina Baillies sell out to the sun

[ssummers]

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1872523.ece

Doesnt this sort of stink of hypercritism? when she said I wont comment until I speak to my 'agent' - was what she meant - I could make some money out of this - I know if every time I speak I have The Sun logo above my head I will bask in the glory?

Isnt talking about how rubbish RB is in bed stooping to the very level that we are accusing RB of? Will RBs granfather not have to read this article and will they not be upset? Sachs has been very dignified about the whole inccident though it has to be said.

Well that's what I thought so really the controller shouldn't have to be the one to go, but as the controller maybe the bbc thought they had to be seen to do something, getting rid of the producer whatshisname, never heard of him just wouldn't have the same effect.

Actually, did she resign or was she sacked,I don't actually know?

oh! looking forward to the papers!

good night sophable.

Christ are you lot still at it?

So the 2nd thread is already up to 550 posts eh? I've been away most of the day but wanted to check in and there seems to be loads going on.

Felt sorry for Chris Evans on the news, he seemed gutted about his boss Lesley Douglas going. Agree with him that she had worked so hard to make it a great station. I think its been brilliant since she took over. I read an interview about her in Q last year and it seemed like everything was going so well for her. Jeez, this whole thing has been such a fuck up!!

why did this kick off? Ok.
Nothing to do with paranoid fanatasies about Max Clifford.
Mail's role easy to explain. The calls were amazingly, astonishingly offensive, brutal and nasty. So of course a story.
The Mail would have run it whatever, but yes, there is a feeling editorially that JR is paid too much, that RB is a fucked up heroin addict with no morals, and that the BBC is going to hell in a handcart. THe editors know that their readers do not like baiting people with sexual insults aimed at their granddaughters, etc.
Russell Brand's tirade against the Mail fuelled the fire.
HOWEVER. Most people complaining don't read the Mail. Many, many people are sick and tired of Jonathan Ross's rudeness, casual verbal brutality, or his tedious sexual innuendo, his contempt for the ordinary people (muggles) who pay his offensively over-inflated wage, and his leering over female guests. There is a mood abroad that greed, cruelty and lack of responsibility and self-restraint has got us into the fucked up economic and social mess we are into, and people scent a little power. That they have been told for too long that they have to respect the rich, famous and powerful, whatever they do, and this time they may actually be able to do something about them. It's a heady feeling. In many ways this is symbolic of a 'mad as hell and not going to take it any more' feeling that goes way beyong these two unfunny tossers and their puerile insults, and is about how people want to live.

I would imagine that it was decided, and she would have agreed, that it was best that she walk. She wasn't sacked that's for sure, but she may have had her arm bent or she may have offered it knowing that nothing else would really do after the fuss that has been made and maybe she did it to try and help the BBC keep JR? Whatever, however, it's mad it had to come to this. It shouldn't have come to this. Gross media (read Daily Mail ) frenzy whipping everyone up and handing out the pitchforks.

Oh, and I also think that people are desperate for something to talk about other than the financial melt down, and somewhere to put their rage about the overpaid bastards with no values who caused it all.

I totally agree that the controller is the wrong scapegoat.

Pedant's note: not that there is ever a right scapegoat, of course, but you know what I mean.

you go, mabanana.
but am glad peace seems to have descended.

What a very clear analysis of the public mood, mabanana.

I don't think I'd ever imagined that most callers were motivated by feminist outrage.

Nevertheless, being outraged does not make me DM complicit.

Agree Thomcat: They will get rid of Other People before Ross has to go, he is too big a catch

such a shame

Ah, thank you sophable.

I don't like being told to fuck off. In the same way I don't like people leaving obscene messages on other people's answerphones and then broadcasting them to millions of people. I'm not being sarcastic or glib here - this is actually my point. sophable, you seem to think that anyone who takes 'offence' must be addled or manipulated or weak-minded. But that's not necessarily the case.

Sometimes people are just offended because they think something is beyond the pale, and they are entitled to say so (aren't you a freedom-of-expression-or-die type?). Particularly when they are paying for the medium in which the material is broadcast.

It's not relevant how the material came to public notice, or what GB does for a living, or what AS did for a living 30 years ago, or which publicist was involved. This was behaviour that a lot of people think was vile and aggressive, and no amount of post hoc (you see it is relevant) rationalisation makes it any more palatable.

I love the BBC and I hate to see it twist about like this. It has managed the whole affair entirely incompetently. I have no idea whether Lesley Douglas is the right person to carry the can, but someone ought to take responsibility at some point.

erm isn't RB an ex heroin addict.....

Crying shame. Utter madness. Right, have to go to bed now. Night all, x

Fucking hell Pol.

That is the situation encapsulated.

The messages were vile maybe but i don't recall anything about it being aggressive. And Andrew Sachs wasn't even that upset! Have people really got so little to worry about?

The BBC keeps fucking this sort of thing up. It seems to huddle in a corner, rocking, mumbling 'nooooo' to itself, which just irritates the hell out of everyone. Why it can't get a bloody grip and handle these things better I cannot understand.

As Portillo just said the government are delighted that this has been front page news for 3 days!!! 3 days

Thank you BTW have you checked SueBaroo's blog? (And you Iorek)

Too right potofino, there's a recession on don't you all know. I've no money. Worry about that instead.

Dittany, you're absolutely right about the politics of apology. The BBC totally mis-played it, and now LD has little option.

Yup, terrible response. I think the BBC was being stubborn because RB & JR were seen as untouchable golden boys (and, crucially, as on this thread, as boys, not adult and in one case, middle-aged, men) and there is a war with the Mail. There were days when teh press office simply didn't respond except to say they were 'unaware' of the matter. Amazing. A swift, sincere-sounding, grovelling apology from both of them, the televised acceptance by AS, a speech from the DG saying it was wrong, a fine for Ross and Brand, an announcement of wide-ranging review of standards and editorial policy, all immediate, could have closed this down much faster.

Because the BBC had internal complications they had to meet up and thrash out and resolve before they could make public announcments. They maybe took too long to sort out those internal complications but that's what would have been going on.