As world events continue to dominate the headlines you might wonder what’s happened to Donald Trump’s decision to sue the BBC?
The latest is the BBC’s lawyers have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit over how his 6 January 2021 speech was edited in a Panorama documentary. The Corporation will argue the chosen Florida court lacks “personal jurisdiction” over the BBC, the court venue is “improper” and that Trump has “failed to state a claim”. The BBC previously apologised to Trump over the edit but rejected his demands for compensation and disagreed there was a basis for a defamation claim.
The row led to the resignations of the DG and Head of News. Tim Davie remains in post while a successor is found and there’s speculation that Rhodri Talfan Davies, BBC Director of Nations is expected to become interim director-general. Jay Hunt, a former BBC News editor, BBC1 controller and Channel 4 Chief Creative Officer, is considered the candidate to beat if the temptation of becoming the first female Director-General is sufficient to lure her away from a lucrative and low-profile role in charge of Apple TV in Europe.
BBC TV had a good Christmas with nine out of ten top rated programmes on Christmas Day. The King’s speech came top followed by the Scarecrows Wedding animation and the Strictly festive special. But the numbers watching were a million miles away from the heyday of the Morecambe and Wise shows of yesteryear. The competition now is seen as coming from the US in the form of deep-pocketed streaming services.
As the future of the licence fee and the Royal Charter remain under discussion a couple of former BBC big names chipped in the papers with their advice. Jeremy Clarkson wrote in the Times that he thinks the BBC should combine with the other UK terrestrial broadcasters and fight the US streamers as a united force. Gary Lineker told the same paper that there is too much political interference in the running of the BBC which brings us back to the Board and criticism of its role in the handling of the Panorama row.
Finally, the New Year brought news of the death at 94 of Michael Barton – the first and only controller of BBC Local Radio. Growing up near Hull during World War Two, Barton developed a love for listening to the “wireless” By the age of 17, he was set on a career in radio and applied to join the BBC – only to be rebuffed and told that he’d “never get anywhere” with his Yorkshire accent. Undeterred, by 1967, he had been appointed the first managing editor of a new local station, BBC Radio Sheffield, just the second in a network set up across the country.
