The BBC is in a difficult position – as a publicly funded public service broadcaster it has to appeal to the widest audiences while remaining accountable. It would be grim if the output was all Brand style or all Antiques Roadshow. That’s where the editors need to be firmer about the more risqué stuff. Risqué is good and the BBC needs to be dong that as much as other channels. If we lose programmes like Mock the Week because Aunty starts self-censoring it will be really sad. But these shows are largely prerecorded and editors really do need to think hard about what crosses the line.

I personally won’t miss Brand as I don’t get him but I will miss Ross over the next few months.

I did listen to it myself, and while it wasn’t exactly in good taste, well, this is Russell Brand’s radio show – a presenter not exactly renowned for his conservative tone. Yes – he and Ross pushed things further than they probably should have, but it wasn’t done with even a hint of malice.

Personally I think it’s a shame that Brand resigned over it and I will actually miss the show. But congratulations to the government/media on successfully diverting attention from the massive economic problems that continue to develop this week to something completely trivial.

For the footage of Baillie talking about her distress, see http://tinyurl.com/6ej4pp

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/lewd-calls-storm-driven-by-salary-envy-977775.html

and here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2008/10/open_and_shut_case.html

I saw the footage of Baillie’s interview by the Sun and she looked and sounded pretty upset to me. I saw no delight, only pain in being the unwitting instrument used to beat her grandfather.

The Mail hates the Beeb and has done for a long time, because it represents everything the Mail hates. Matt Wells put it succintly in the Guardian when he said: “it embodies everything [Associated Newspapers] hate about modern Britain – liberal, public service, populist, coarse and celebrity-obsessed (yes, that’s the same Mail group that splashed pictures of Andrew Sachs’ burlesque-dancer granddaughter in bra and pants all over its website).”

Which editors’ blog are you referring to?

I just don’t buy that the Satanic Slut is upset by any invasion of her privacy – she strikes me as being delighted by the publicity and the Sun’s pay-off.

I also don’t buy that the Mail is genuinely offended. If so, why run the salacious pics alongside the story? Why run the unedited transcript? Or is it perhaps that they saw an opportunity to attack the Beeb and went at it with gusto?

Take a look at the comments on the editors’ blog and you’ll find the comments a lot more balanced.

The issue of Sachs’ consent is not terribly clear. I’ve read at least two reports where he not only asked for the clips ot to be played but offered to appear on the show the following week instead to make up for failing to be available for interview on the show in which the calls were made.

Fair point about the editing. And I agree the Mail has breached Sachs’ trust.

As for Baillie, she’s a performer too. Fair play to using an opportunity to plug her burlesque troupe. Most others in her position would have done the same. I do not believe that somehow undermines her distress about her privacy being invaded.

Are you basing your view on Brand’s resignation on any facts or is it just speculation on your part? I think he was right to go, much as I dislike him he showed he has some balls, which is more than can be said of most politicians in a -gate of some sort. But if he really didn’t like being a pawn for the Mail, his timing was awfully coincidental.

- Sachs consented to the clip being broadcast providing it was “toned down” a bit, according to the Graun. He later claimed he hadn’t understood what was played. Hmm. Perhaps don’t agree to go on a show presented by Russell Brand next time, mate?

- Several parts of the interview were edited out according to reports I’ve read and heard, so it’s incorrect to say it ran unedited – the remarks about breaking in to the house and sexually assaulting Mr Sachs were not broadcast, in fact.

- The Mail – morally outraged on a poor, elderly man’s behalf – opted to run the full transcript included those sections the BBC edited out prior to broadcast. So who exactly is more guilty of breaching Sach’s trust?

- As for the grandaughter’s privacy, personally I think her decision to “break her silence” in the Sun, complete with saucy photographs and numerous mentions of her burlesque act, modelling ambitions etc kinda undermines the idea of her being devastated by any alleged invasion of privacy.

Personally, I expect Brand simply couldn’t be arsed to keep presenting a show where he was simply a pawn in some campaign waged by the Mail against the “lefties, liberals and lesbians” of the Beeb and their dastardly license fee. And I don’t blame him a bit.