- Sorry is the hardest word - 11th August 2020
- From the substitute’s bench - 14th July 2020
- Carol singing – another verse - 6th July 2020
Our satirical writer Edwin Phillips reads a top-level communication from The BBC defending its director in Wales after revelations on The Eye that he presided over an organisation where a senior executive had an affair with a married presenter, record-breaking low audience figures were recorded for one of its radio services, a comedy drama described as “embarrassingly unfunny” was commissioned, accusations from a leading politician were made that it had a “link” with a nationalist party, and staff have not all moved into a new £100 million headquarters two and a half years after it was handed over, which he claimed made his corporation “more accessible” yet an interview with him had been refused.
Corporation Response Unit Directive (CRUD)
TO: All Regional Staff Editorial (ARSE)
Our CRUD response is to reject calls for the resignation of our esteemed Director of BBC Cymru Wales (BBC CW) Rhodri Talfan Davies.
One of those calling for Mr Davies to resign was the Editor of that unfortunately inquiring website The Eye, Phil Parry, which has regrettably demanded that information should be made public when it is obvious licence fee-payers have no right to be told such sensitive details.
Yet spending only 23 years at our highly-regarded institution in Cardiff and London, does NOT make him qualified to demand that such a momentous decision be made, when it is clear Mr Davies has been an unqualified success.
We welcome the fact that there has been a political exchange with the former leader of the Conservatives in the Welsh Parliament/Senedd (WP) accusing us on social media of a “link” with nationalist party Plaid Cymru (PC), and that it was “unhealthy”.
This is excellent publicity, and Andrew RT Davies MS is an extremely high-profile figure – one that we have been trying to court for many years.
We have deliberately planted so-called ‘disturbing’ events in the media (which we were pleased to see have been seized on by outlets such as The Eye) about figures at BBC CW moving to PC and a number who have travelled in the opposite direction, hoping for just this accusation.
Our political journalist Aled ap Dafydd was named PC’s Director of Political Strategy and External Relations, and his move came soon after the appointment at BBC CW of the former PC Chief Executive Rhuanedd Richards as Editor of BBC Radio Cymru and the Welsh language online service, Cymru Fyw.
This was outstanding!
The PC MS for Ynys Mon Rhun ap Iorwerth was also formerly a leading political journalist at BBC CW, joining us in 1994.
Our CRUD reaction is to applaud these superb events!
The CRUD communication to staff of Mr Davies is also to salute the fact that you have still not moved into the new £100 million headquarters, and may not now do so until at least late Summer or even the Autumn (more than two and a half years following it being handed over).
This has attracted a great deal of publicity and shows our strategy of hitting headlines is working.
The alleged ‘contentiousness’ that Mr Davies’ Editor of BBC CW Radio Wales (BBC CW RW) Colin Paterson had an affair, apparently ‘exclusively’ revealed on The Eye, with the presenter Lucy Owen after his officials had commissioned a programme she fronted, reveals too that our plans are on track.
His top notch appointment, Mr Paterson, has presided over what have been described as some of the worst listening figures on record for BBC CW RW, and dubbed by one listener as “abysmal”.
Once more the CRUD response is to welcome such awe-inspiring events.
The ‘RAJAR’ statistics have shown a year-on-year drop of more than four per cent, and an official complaint, earlier this year, from a licence fee-payer about the service saying that it is “littered with presenter led record programmes and chat”, was sent initially to the First Minister of Wales (FMW) Mark Drakeford MS then passed to the Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism (DMCST) Dafydd Elis-Thomas MS.
The emailed protest on February 8 declared: “In recent years news and current affairs has declined dramatically to the point where the station is now littered with presenter led record programmes and chat… The station has lost 47,000 listeners in the last three months and has reached the point where 95% of the country never tune in”.
Brilliant!
A so-called ‘disastrous’ mistake was made on Mr Davies’ flagship TV news programme Wales Today, when programme-makers apparently mistook Brighton Pavilion for a mosque, which was featured in UK newspapers.
But this was of course entirely deliberate and again part of our publicity strategy.
It was also part of our plan for Mr Davies’ officials to refuse an interview with that irritating Editor of The Eye, Mr Parry, (who has now made himself look ridiculous by absurdly calling for Mr Davies to resign).
This refusal came as Mr Davies had followed CRUD to say BBC Cymru Wales (BBC CW) would be “more accessible” because of the new building which they haven’t yet moved into, and popular programmes have been axed while another which WAS commissioned (‘Pitching In’), has been described in one newspaper as “embarrassingly unfunny”.
Once more this shows our tactics are sound.
We were pleased to see that those events were reported as ‘alarming’, and they formed a backdrop to the senior one time BBC CW producer Marc Edwards writing in the Welsh language magazine ‘Barn’ (Welsh for ‘opinion’) heavily criticising BBC CW.
But it has all got better for us at BBC CW, as well as for Mr Davies, on the publicity front.
Now we have news on the sister website of The Eye, Dai Sport, that the corporation ‘exploited security flaws’ during a ‘row’ over the football club Connah’s Quay.
The Football Association of Wales (FAW) has apparently criticised us for accessing an “unpublished page” on their website in a continuing ‘controversy’ over the ending of the domestic football season.
More publicity grist to the mill!
The CRUD response to all of these supposed controversies, is that Mr Davies is doing a fine job – after all he is in charge of an organisation where a senior executive had an affair with a married presenter, has record-breaking low audience figures for one of its radio services, a comedy drama described as “embarrassingly unfunny” was commissioned, accusations were levelled by a leading politician that it had a “link” with a nationalist party, and staff have not all moved into a new £100 million headquarters two more than two years after it was handed over.
Excellent…
Tomorrow – the key word ‘witch-hunt’ which has been raised again after use in a huge controversy at a Welsh university where the Vice-Chancellor has been sacked and the police are investigating alleged bribery in a multi-million pound land deal.
Our Editor Phil Parry’s memories of his astonishing 36-year award-winning career in journalism (many of them at BBC CW) as he was gripped by the incurable disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major new book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!
If you need something to keep the children entertained during these uncertain times (in Welsh) try Ffwlbart Ffred about the amusing stories of Ffred and his pet.