The Director of BBC Television, Danny Cohen, is facing calls to resign amid claims he persuaded celebrities to add their names to a letter supporting the Corporation.
More than two-dozen high profile figures put their name to the letter, which was addressed to the Prime Minister earlier this week.
One of those signatories, Michael Palin, let it slip that Cohen had asked for his support. A second signatory, BBC Radio 1 presenter Annie Nightingale, was asked to sign by her boss Ben Cooper.
According to Nightingale, Cooper had said Cohen was behind the letter.
Conservative Andrew Bridgen MP, an outspoken critic of the BBC, told the Sunday Express: "Danny Cohen should consider his position.
"Unless he resigns I shall be writing to Jesse Norman, chairman of the Culture Media and Sport Committee, on Monday asking him to call Mr Cohen before the committee to answer questions about his role in the shabby affair and to find out why he pursued a course of action that is in breach of the BBC’s own lobbying guidelines.
"By rights the BBC Trust should already be investigating."
Cohen, who claims not to read the newspapers, tweeted earlier today: "I'm told there's some unpleasant stuff in the papers about me in the last couple of days. Comes with standing up for the BBC."
Or with being an unscrupulous twat Danny, depending on your perspective!
3 comments:
No doubt, in the interest of that fairness for which the BBC is famed, they will now get one of their senior managers to look for celebrities who would like to see cuts on the BBC, and get them to sign a letter in support of the idea.
Not holding my breath, though
I'm sure it would be a cold and frosty day in hell when the BBC did anything like that. Remember, they only got this list of celebrity signatures because they're desperate to show how much they're "loved and treasured".
It's truly pathetic that an organisation with a £4.8 billion income, mostly guaranteed and enforced by the courts, tries to present itself as a 'victim' that needs protecting.
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