It all started with two well-known and highly-paid presenters behaving very badly on Russell Brand’s Radio 2 show. You can have a look at the podcast on YouTube if you want the exact details but you probably know the gist of them anyway.
I wonder what you have been most concerned about as the story unfolded. It might have been concern for the victim, the elderly actor Andrew Sachs, whose mobile answerphone received four messages from comedians Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross regarding Brand’s relationship with his granddaughter. Sachs would be quite entitled to get extremely angry and litigious over the whole affair, not only as the victim of a criminal offence, but also because his wishes that the show should not be aired were ignored by the show’s producer. Yet he made the gentlemanly decision not to press for police action or even for apologies, even though this incident will probably feature in all of his obituaries.
Editorial decision
Perhaps you were most concerned by the failure of the BBC to prevent the pre-recorded programme being aired and their slow decision-making process to discipline the presenters. It has been suggested that, should this have happened on SKY, they would have been sacked within 30 minutes for gross misconduct. Leslie Douglas, the controller of Radio 2, resigned, claiming responsibility for the airing of the programme but it took longer for the BBC Trust to decide that Brand should be banned from any future contract or appearances on the BBC and that Ross should be suspended for three months, costing the star £1m.
