Readers' Ombudsman: This is about much more than two men and their vile phone calls

Published on Sunday 2 November 2008 20:59

THERE have been suggestions that the furore surrounding Jonathan Ross, Russell Brand and the BBC was simply a vindictive onslaught by the media, envious of Ross's multi-million-pound salary and the middle-class- saturated BBC's protected status.

There are a number of fundamental problems with this premise.

The first is the media are not a single-minded entity. Newspapers are competitors, fierce, hard-nosed competitors, who do not enter into conspiracies to act in a unified manner. If public opinion is divided on an issue, then you will usually see newspapers divided, too, because there just might be a commercial advantage in being the rallying point for one side of the argument. Yes, newspapers can have agendas, and some pursue them more vigorously than others, but it is almost inconceivable that all those agendas are going to line up on one issue.

The sub-argument is that a vocal minority of newspapers pursued their anti-Ross and anti-BBC agendas, and the others simply tagged along. But that argument does not bear examination. Last week, every single national newspaper – with the unsurprising exception of the Financial Times – led their papers with that story at some point. All the editors decided that, at various points, it was the most important story. It also led TV news bulletins, including on the BBC.

So, it was a big story, but was it an important story; did it deserve to be that big? It was a story that worked on many levels. The first is simply a human level. Here was a 78-year-old man who had been telephoned on numerous occasions and messages – at best tasteless, arguably obscene – left about sexual exploits concerning his granddaughter. There is rightly some sympathy there.

Then add in a very powerful dose of celebrity. The offended person is a very well-known actor, primarily for playing one of the most affectionately remembered roles in one of the biggest comedy series ever made. Fawlty Towers was a classic and Basil's bullying of poor Manuel generated a great deal of sympathy for Manuel. Did that sympathy transfer to actor Andrew Sachs as the victim in the present circumstances? It's naive to think at least some did not.

Then one of the makers of the phone calls was a controversial comedian known for using sex to shock. He had previously provoked anger – Rod Stewart's in particular – when he claimed at a very public awards ceremony to have had sex with the singer's daughter. Most people would have had some sympathy with Stewart's measured and dignified condemnation of the comedian's conduct.

The other protagonist is a middle-aged comedian who also happens to be probably the BBC's best-known property and who was lured from commercial TV by the state-funded BBC on a contract worth 6 million a year. He also relies on shock, but then look back at Max Miller and music hall: that's nothing new.

The episode re-sparked the ongoing debate about rudeness in society and personal respect for individuals, hence the intervention of religious figures.

So it was already a story of great interest, but it was the politics that propelled it to the number one slot – the fact that the offending broadcast was aired by the BBC (not only aired, but aired ignoring Mr Sachs's pleas that it should not be aired, and broadcast after editors were aware of its content). The BBC's unique position as a broadcaster funded by a licence that TV-owning citizens are compelled by law to pay is a matter for legitimate political debate. The defence usually lies in an argument that the corporation is an upholder of cultural standards that would soon decline in a commercial-only environment. That the message "He ****** your granddaughter" is a measure of the standards actually exhibited by the BBC is a matter for genuine debate and goes to the heart of questions over state funding. That was why it was legitimately a big story, for all the media.

&#149 Contact Ian Stewart on 0131- 620 8633, at [e-mail] or at 108 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AS.