In the Daily Telegraph’s interview with Michael Parkinson, towards the end of the item we pick up this gem;
A senior BBC source said: “We’re desperate for anyone that isn’t white and male. It’s difficult in entertainment because the options are so limited. Diversity is a big issue and they’ve over-relied on men for a long time.” Claudia Winkleman and Shappi Khorsandi, the comedian, have been tipped as potential rising stars.
Still hideously white then?
Hat-tip to the eagle eyed BBC reader for alerting me to this…
What Parkinson is telling us is that the BBC has lost it’s way.
Many of us can see this all too clearly.
To obsess over ” diversity” ar the expense of finding the best people is another sympton of what is beginning to look like a fatal sickness.
I notice the BBC had to apologise for the One Show segment on “toffs”
If everyone connected with and appearing on a programme is part of a hive mind viewpoint I suppose nobody can see just how biased it will appear to anyone holding a contrary or independent point of view
I notice comedienne is frowned upon too…what a state of affairs!
Dave is absolutely right.
If Jo Brand tells me she’s a ‘comedian’ though. I don’t argue. And not because she’s funny, either – because she’s not.
Shocking.
BBC: prime suspect for using licencepayers’ money to inflict endless ‘diversity’ on them.
“Lynda La Plante attacks BBC, saying Corporation would take a Muslim boy’s script over hers”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1240009/Lynda-La-Plante-attacks-BBC-saying-Corporation-Muslim-boys-script-hers.html#ixzz0ciuhmqwp
Isn’t the problem with the BBC that the only white males they consider are wet lefties, Cocaine addicts or Labour supporters?
What if the newsreader was a white male, but was gay and read the news in the style of Mr. Humphries? That would tick a box, surely.
Claudia Winkleman was on radio 2 all week (at night) and on the first programme I listened to she said “Holy Moley” at least 9 times that I counted, she also said the word “properly” quite a few times before other words like…”I was properly exited, and I was properly amazed”.
Very irritating!
I posted this elsewhere and must in turn hat tip the person who reasonably replied that in light of this it seems odd that Moira Stewart was ditched (if now brought back – a very funny Mock the Week archive repeat on Dave last night on this issue, with an un-PC allusion to the BBC canteen needing all the help it can get).
Maybe age trumps all to our ‘right-on’, ratings obsessed, unrepresentative national broadcaster?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_announcers_in_the_United_Kingdom
Check out this list of BBC continuity announcers – not many non-British surnames there. BBC wants to look diverse to get the ideological message across but in the important “behind-the-scenes” roles they behave just like any other company that wants to get things done as efficiently as possible.
Actually I counted one – another Hindu, the most popular minority group at the BBC because they look and sound diverse without the hassle of being diverse.
Khorsandi is Persian and was, according to wikipedia, “raised without religion”. I bet she gets the role ahead of the Jewish Winkleman.