An alternative world-Brand still at Radio 2 Douglas still at the Beeb

This is my final word on the Brand/Russell incident.

Let's hope that lessons can be learnt and yesterday's action by Mark Thompson draws a line under it.

Final word to Martin Moore who asks

Suppose it had been two newspaper journalists who made the call to Mr Sachs, put the video on the newspaper's website and published an article about it. How would the response have been different?

and his case?

1.it would have received very little coverage in the press because most papers still abide by the rule that they will not criticize one another's behaviour

2.It is very unlikely it would have been picked up by the broadcasters since they too tend to avoid moralizing about members of the British press

3.Without the oxygen of publicity it is unlikely there would have been many complaints

More the reaction than the stunt?

Well the Ross/Brand story has taken over many of the front pages this morning as well as the editorial columns.Perhaps thouigh it is more the reaction of the corporation than the stunt itself which deserves the attention.More on that later

The Sun may well have beatn them all with an exclusive interview with Sach's Grandaughter who

Furious Georgina Baillie, 23, said they had left the 78-year-old actor “distraught”. And she added: “I want them sacked.”

And its leader column says

We now know this juvenile pair of overpaid twerps aimed even more unforgivable smut at the legendary Fawlty Towers star.
They then called Georgina, pleading with her to visit his home and destroy the answerphone recording.
If they realised their offence at the time, why was this vile tape broadcast at all?

In the Mail Piers Morgan says

Brand is just a sex-obsessed ex-junkie... It's Ross the BBC should sack today

And its leader column says

It has been building up for a decade or more, in which the BBC - which seems too often to be run by and for 27-year-olds - has delighted in mocking the values that underpin our society and in trying to shock its long-suffering
paymasters

But its not just the anti Beeb papers that are alarmed at this turn of events,the Independent says

The bigger question concerns the BBC's accountability. Its apology on Monday seemed to reflect more a fear of sections of the press than a proper sense of moral obligation. From day one, the corporation has behaved with that confused combination of formality and buck-passing we know so well from the saga of Andrew Gilligan and the Today programme and the distorted editing of the documentary The Queen. Something that should have a simple answer – what was the chain of editorial responsibility and who signed off on the pre-recorded show? – requires a full-blown inquiry. No BBC executive spoke out either in defence or condemnation of the programme. So far, the only name in the frame is that of a very junior editor.

The Guardian reminds us that

The row has come at a bad time for the BBC, as the long-running policy debate about the future of public service broadcasting inches towards a conclusion. In a speech today laying out Tory policy, shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt will call for more "socially responsible broadcasting". He will tell broadcasters that raising an issue in a documentary or current affairs show should not be a "fig leaf" for a lack of social responsibility in their other output.

The Times reports that

In a private sector organisation, these two men would have been suspended or sacked by now. Yet three days into this sorry affair, we have still to hear directly either from Sir Michael Lyons, the Chairman of the BBC Trust, or from Mark Thompson, the BBC Director-General. A lack of editorial judgment in allowing the humiliation of Andrew Sachs to be broadcast to two million radio listeners has now been compounded by the failure of the BBC management to recognise just how deeply Ross and Brand’s malice has offended the corporation’s audience. The reins of the BBC appear to be in the hands of a dysfunc-tional leadership that is in thrall to its talent.

Why an apology won't do

Just in case you wondered what all the fuss is about.

This is the transcript of the Jonathon Ross/Russell Brand phone call-courtesy of Guardian media

Andrew Sachs' answerphone: "Sorry I can't answer at the moment, but please call again or leave a message. Speak after the tone, thank you."

Russell Brand: "Hello Andrew Sachs this is Russell Brand. I am a great appreciator of your work over the decades. You're meant to be on my show now mate, I don't know why you're not answering the phone, it's a bit difficult - I'm here with Jonathan Ross."

Jonathan Ross: "Hello Andrew ..."

RB: "That's Jonathan Ross speaking now. Anyway, we understand..."

JR: "He fucked your granddaughter!" (laughter) ... I'm sorry I apologise. Andrew I apologise ... I got excited, what can I say. It just came out."

RB: "Andrew Sachs, I did not do nothing with Georgina - oh no I've revealed I know her name! Oh no it's a disaster ... Put the phone down, put the phone down ..."

JR: "Let's phone him again. Let's leave a nice message ..."

(The answerphone plays again).

RB (singing): "I'd like to apologise for these terrible attacks - Andrew Sachs. I'd like to show contrition to the max, Andrew Sachs ...I said some things I didn't of oughta, like I had sex with your granddaughter.

"But it was consensual and she wasn't menstrual it was consensual lovely sex. It's full of respect. I sent her a text. I've asked her to marry me ... Oh Andrew Sachs, will you marry Jonathan, it sounds like he wants to now."

JR: "This has made it worse, I feel it's made it worse, you've trivialised the whole terrible incident."

I find it rather strange that they have not been sacked and neither has the producer that let this show go out.The BBC at its worst