Not The Bbc Surely?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4886266/BBC-forced-publish-social-class-staff.html

[jno]

they're all rightwing oiks from Oxbridge at the moment and still hideously white, as a former DG pointed out.

[douglas9401]

More Danny Dyer types is wot the BBC needs innit.
I ain't cumftable wiv them that's been to school tawkin at me abaht stuff.

[albaqwerty]

'social class'

didn't John Major say we were a classless society?
If not him, then whoever said it must have meant something different from what I understood.

[anotheoldgit]

jno

Oh, so it is hideous to be white is it?

[Old_Geezer]

Is this about class or ethnicity ?
If the former, how are folk categorised anyway ? Am I upper middle lower class or middle upper lower class ?

[jackthehat]

'Twas ever thus....

If you are an educated white male you'll fail to see what the issue is. As the Nation's broadcaster, the BBC really ought to be constituted so as to better reflect greater society.

[anneasquith]

I'm just classy :-)

[jno]

aog, did you notice that I attributed the words to someone else?

[-Talbot-]

Greg Dyke, AOG.

[THECORBYLOON]

It was Greg Dyke back in 2001 who made the "hideously white" comment. He also said, " 'Our biggest problem is at management level,' he admitted. 'I had a management Christmas lunch and as I looked around I thought, "We've got a real problem here". There were 80-odd people there and only one person who wasn't white.'" If there was only one non-white person out of more than eighty, did that appear to reflect society in general at the time?

He wasn't saying being white was hideous, it was the over-representation of white folk at the BBC.

[anotheoldgit]

Old_Geezer

/// Is this about class or
ethnicity ? ///

It would seem the later.

/// Older people, women and those of minority backgrounds are under represented ///

Do these Ofcom people ever watch television, not many older people that I must admit, but women and those of a minority background are surely in abundance, compared with white males.

[EDDIE51]

I did not think the concept of 'Social Class' existed now?

[anotheoldgit]

jno

/// aog, did you notice that I attributed the words to someone else? ///

Yes I did, but being it was you who posted Greg Dyke's words, I was merely asking you the question.

Nothing sinister in that surely?

[THECORBYLOON]

The chances are that Ofcom use real data when reaching their conclusions as opposed to one random old man's opinion.

[anotheoldgit]

THECORBYLOON

That was 16 years ago, a lot of diversity has flowed under the bridge since those times.

[EDDIE51]

For once I find myself compelled to agree with AOG. Surely the ethnicity of BBC employees should reflect the % of each ethnicity in the general population? It is my opinion that Afro Caribbeans are over represented against their % of the population, I have not actually counted and worked out a % so it may just be my perception.

[jno]

as TCL says, it wasn't individuals being white that was the problem, it was the fact that almost an entire roomful of people were. Though Dyke didn't say, recent revelations about pay scales suggest that they were probably mostly males too.

The BBC really needs to reflect the whole country better than this if it wants to retain legitimacy as the national broadcaster. I imagine that's what Ofcom is enquiring about, and quite right too.

[jno]

well, what do you think, Eddie? Does one non-white person in 80 in any way reflect the ethnicity of the country?

the majority of BBC staff were middle-class and privately educated

That's wildly unrepresentative. And that's this year, not back in Greg Dyke's day.

[Gromit]

Sorry to prick your anti leftie bubble, and implode the DMs Beeb hate campaign, but the OFCOM report says
// the bbc and OTHER BROADCASTERS //, so to single out just the BBC is dishonest.

OFCOM was set up by Tony Bliar and is a arm of Government. Its Chairman is Dame Patricia Hodgson, who is a Cambridge graduate. Perhaps she should set an example and stand down, and then maybe her position could be filled by someone more representative of our diversity.

As a side note, her biography seems to have been removed from OFCOMs's website, (dead link here https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about/how-ofcom-is-run/ofcom-board-2/members/dame-patricia-hodgson ) and Wikipedia does not have her educational history.

[emmie]

things are changing in the newsrooms as there are black and asians reporting on the news daily. Can't see the problem myself, more things to worry over quite honestly.