tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14422435.post1815439863954262429..comments2024-01-03T06:47:01.541+00:00septicislehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03369157723084834549noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14422435.post-73743557364402233712008-10-31T20:10:00.000+00:002008-10-31T20:10:00.000+00:00"This invented scandal has in fact been a real boon for both politicians and the media."<BR/>Isn't that what Fat Cat Ross is hired to do, show that the BBC can be "edgy", without upsetting the bent politicians, war criminals and corporate criminals? To pick on the easy targets?<BR/>Well the people have spoken. I never read the crypto-fascist papers that are piling into the BBC, but I'm enjoying seeing those two blackguards getting theirs. Now on to Moyles the scab and Gobshite Ramsay.<BR/>I can't remember, was their all this hand-wringing when Johnnie Walker was sacked for dissing Thatcher?Jemmy Hopehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11613242697482178552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14422435.post-17077865049860788842008-10-31T15:00:00.000+00:002008-10-31T15:00:00.000+00:00Excellent piece. Watching this from afar in Mexico (although I am British and have appreciated the humour of Brand and Ross for a long time) this is like watching a bizarre comedy. Everything just seems to have been blown so out of proportion, and it is especially incredulous that even the Prime Minister has made comments on this - it's not just the Tories.<BR/><BR/>What Ross and Brand did was basically out of order, but as you say, for the news of the world, daily mail, sun et al to bring down judgement is downright hypocritical.<BR/><BR/>Re Baillie, I thought that this paragraph of one of the early Guardian reports was hilarious:<BR/><BR/>PR agent Max Clifford, speaking today on behalf of Baillie, said she was "angry, upset and disappointed".<BR/> <BR/>"She is disappointed with what Russell Brand said. She felt genuinely surprised and disappointed that Russell would say those things about her," Clifford added of Baillie, who has just returned from Vienna, where she was touring with burlesque group the Satanic Sluts.<BR/> <BR/>.... brilliant!Simon Burgesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01914225458547369524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14422435.post-13110318335105183942008-10-31T10:09:00.000+00:002008-10-31T10:09:00.000+00:00I largely agree with this, you may be surprised to know. Especially your comments about the truly odious Mr Straw. It reminds me of his intervention in the case of Gitta Sereny's book about Mary Bell. He has form.<BR/><BR/>For Lesley Douglas to be forced out while the preening overpaid Ross gets to keep his vast salary (albeit with a "fine") is a travesty. But as Thompson said, that's how the BBC works: people in the background take "responsibility" while the foregrounded prima donnas get away with it. The Thatcher jibes should have done for him: they were frankly disgusting. But then it's frankly disgusting that public money should pay £18 million pounds to anyone, let alone Ross. That's the real scandal here.<BR/><BR/>Miss Baillie gets more and more intriguing, doesn't she?<BR/><BR/>PS, I'm adding you to my blogroll.Heresiarchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03515376670031027455noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14422435.post-7041812187270395772008-10-31T09:21:00.000+00:002008-10-31T09:21:00.000+00:00Personally I think if Ross should be punished, he be forced to work for minimum wage for three months rather than having an unpaid holiday (during which I assume he's allowed to rake in cash doing voiceovers, corporates etc, no matter how much his stock has fallen I'm sure there'll still be takers).Anton Vowlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04954959652278081079noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14422435.post-75808781094608570152008-10-31T09:09:00.000+00:002008-10-31T09:09:00.000+00:00Powerful piece. I can both feel and relate to the anger you portray.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03109951687667398737noreply@blogger.com