Bbc Pay Scandal Merged Threads

[jonpo]

I think we should ALL submit FOI requests. and find out everything we can about this corrupt public organization. she phones using her own phone... come on...

[Guest happy?]

In the region of £500,000. All from public funds.

The BBC payroll and expenses dwarf that of Parliament.

I like the idea of a payroll and expenses dwarf. Is it anything like a forum troll?

[jonpo]

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/article58998.ece

look at the basics on that i can only imagine the expenses......

[The Masked Tulip]

So what. Does the bbc need so many meterologists? Would two be enough? Is there not an independent body that does weather reports that the bbc could pay a small fee to use their information? Do they need to present the weather at all? Why not just have the newsreader quickly state the expected weather at the end of a broadcast instead of turning to another presenter to do the same job. It's blolocks.

The weather presenters are picked for their ability to present, not their ability as meterologists.

Do the bbc need so many sports presenters?? What a fuggin' gravy train that is! How many wealthy footballers do they need to pay a small fortune to sit their for 10 minutes a week and spout stuff about a match that just about any punter could see for themselves? Stand up Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson et al! I'd love to know how much these smug chancers are being paid to do nothing but watch football all year round - not to mention the great holidays they have when they are unnecessarily flown overseas to cover tournaments.

The BBC is a disgrace. A lumbering gravy train of a 'news' organisation with no integrity whatsoever.

If people knew about many of the things knowingly covered up by them many of these celebrity journos would end up in jail.

I have said it before on here. Many years ago when I worked for ITV we covered a story by sending myself, a cameraman, a spark and a recordist.

The BBC turned up in a convoy of articulated lorries, minivans and had loads of arrogant 20-something researchers rushing around pushing everyone out of the way. It was rude, it was laughable, it was over the top.

At one point in the 90s they had about 20 HR people for every member of Production staff. The journos dominate the Beeb now - they took over and most of the so-called documentaries are now fronted by them or have their involvement in some way.

[Guest happy?]

Probably no individual has done more damage to the moral fibre of this country than Rancid Esther - do you think we could cut her salary.

[SarahBell]

maybe we should start a petition on the No10 website to cap bbc salary to a more realistic level 92k for reading the news disgusting and undeserved

4

First we start with the footballers.

Seriously. It's only a game so why do they get so much for it?

Equalise pay. £5 a game?

The celebritisation of british society started with the footballers and needs to bring them back down to earth.

[Guest happy?]

So what. Does the bbc need so many meterologists? Would two be enough?...

....The BBC is a disgrace. A lumbering gravy train of a 'news' organisation with no integrity whatsoever.

144 posts in two years - would I be right in thinking this is an admin post to keep the thread going?

[ShedDweller]

I love this ... All the excitement over a £92,000 salary ..

Firstly She is very talented and highly qualified, I love "Just reading stuff off an autocue", personally I suspect written by someone who has never had to read something off an autocue (I once did a commercial with an "Actor" reading off an Autocue .. two sentences. Four hours and 42 takes later we had one that "Would do"). She does a massively stressful job for frankly very little money. As far as I know all the newsreaders on either channel (possibly not channel 5) are journo's, All the ITN news readers and reporters certainly were .. I also happen to know that in 1986 Sandy Gall was paid £220,000 basic salary. If the newsreaders get 3-400,000 a year (and they might get a little more) it's certainly reasonable and comparable with other highly skilled jobs (Directors of TV commercials for instance get more). It takes a very special type of person to do the job and of 100 people who COULD do the job (by qualifications) they will usually find one person who can actually do it.

However the rest of the BBC is a LOONY BIN ... The stories you hear are extrordinary ..

One of my favourites was that a few years ago it was decided that all freelancers working for the BBC had to go on a health and safety course. I went and was lectured about "Health and Safety" (Also known as Common Sense) by some pimply 25 year old "Expert" who had no production experience (Oddly I know how much THEY charge it's £800 a day to production if you want to do stunts).

So on the same day they got all the older news cameramen in, these guys had all started off in the late 60's, So they had been through Biafra, Lebanon, The Falklands .. basically if it was dangerous they had been there .. They had grown old together and now they were in a class room with some pimply gimp telling them stuff they have lived through 100 times before. They all used to work for the BBC but were made freelance in the early 90's. They have been told that they have to sit through the lecture but that there will be no quiz. One of them gets out a pack of cards cards and they start to play. Pimply gimp massively loses his temper and splits them up on different desks like primary school children. Pimply gimp goes through the procedure in case anyone is electrocuted, falls etc etc .. then asks for any questions. One of the old boys says "What do you do if someone has gunshot wounds?" Pimply gimp loses his temper and starts screaming that it's not likely that anyone working for the BBC is going to get a ******ing gunshot wound is it?

At the end of the lecture one the cameraman shows the "Health and safety expert" what's left of his leg and explains that that is a gunshot wound aquired while working as staff for the BBC.

You would not believe some of the stupidity that goes on at the BBC .. they now a whole department for "HD compliance" Full of "experts" .. It probably costs twenty time what the newsreader costs and exists only cause more work for other people ..

[Guest happy?]

I have said it before on here. Many years ago when I worked for ITV we covered a story by sending myself, a cameraman, a spark and a recordist.

The BBC turned up in a convoy of articulated lorries, minivans and had loads of arrogant 20-something researchers rushing around pushing everyone out of the way. It was rude, it was laughable, it was over the top.

At one point in the 90s they had about 20 HR people for every member of Production staff. The journos dominate the Beeb now - they took over and most of the so-called documentaries are now fronted by them or have their involvement in some way.

You didn't get the gig then?

[Kyoto]

And how much do they pay some of the talking heads who they get on week after week? For instance, Kevin Macguire and his comedy double act Andrew [something] are on now. Why not get in normal members of the public with diversity of opinion rather than rich newspaper editors?

[thecrashingisles]

I once did a commercial with an "Actor" reading off an Autocue .. two sentences. Four hours and 42 takes later we had one that "Would do"

Surely if it was rehearsed the 'actor' could just have learnt their lines, especially after so many takes?

[ShedDweller]

Surely if it was rehearsed the 'actor' could just have learnt their lines, especially after so many takes?

Were they my quotes or yours ? Certainly he was an "actor" in the same way as when I sing I'm a "Singer" however I'm no Jeremy Hardy I tell you !

The deal was he was a doughnut, but the point being that that not just any doughnut can do the job, hence the £92,000 is justified ..

[Billy Ray Valentine]

144 posts in two years - would I be right in thinking this is an admin post to keep the thread going?

So sorry for having an opinion when I only have 144 posts. What a stupid post.

Do you see the irony in what you've said, being that you yourself have kept the thread going with a childish quip.

Anything in my post you disagree with?

I can only assume you work for the BBC in some capacity - researcher for Nigella Lawson perhaps?

[General Melchett]

Surely if it was rehearsed the 'actor' could just have learnt their lines, especially after so many takes?

In a previous job part of what I did was produce videos for internal corproate purposes. For one set of sales training videos the parts were played by a mixture of actors and my colleagues. Not only did everyone (both on set and watching the final product) think the amateurs made a better job of it, I distinctly remember the guy who you might understand as the director rocking on his heels, wimpering, with his head between his hands because it we'd been shooting one of the actors 5 minutes all Sunday and he just couldnt do remember or deliver his lines.

Fun fun fun.

[athe]

Another one is that Einstein chap, dropped out of school and flunked the entrance exam to a university. What a blithering idiot lol lol lol.

The whole Einstein did badly at school and uni thing is a myth. From wiki:

...he was a top student in elementary school.

...From Euclid, Einstein began to understand deductive reasoning, and by the age of twelve, he had learned Euclidean geometry. Soon thereafter he began to investigate infinitesimal calculus.

...Einstein had been left behind in Munich to finish high school, but in the spring of 1895, he withdrew to join his family in Pavia [in Italy], convincing the school to let him go by using a doctor's note.

Rather than completing high school, Einstein decided to apply directly to the Eidgenössische Polytechnische Schule (later Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH)) in Zürich, Switzerland. Lacking a school certificate, he was required to take an entrance examination, which he did not pass, although he got exceptional marks in mathematics and physics. ...

The Einsteins sent Albert to Aarau, Switzerland to finish secondary school. ...At age 17 ...finally enrolling in 1896 in the mathematics and physics program at the Polytechnic in Zurich. ...

...Einstein graduated in 1900 from the Polytechnic with a diploma in mathematics and physics ...The next year, Einstein published a paper in the prestigious Annalen der Physik on the capillary forces of a straw (Einstein 1901)

So to summarise having be a top student at school, he decided to leave school at 15 and go to University. He fluffed the entrance exam but was exceptional in Physics and Maths, so much so that he was allowed to enter the University the following year without taking the exam again despite the fact that he was 17 and the minimum age was officially 18. So despite moving all around Europe he graduated school a year early, got into one of the best Universities in Europe and graduated the course despite not bothering to turn up for many of the lectures (one of the main reasons he didn't get a post at the Uni after graduate to pursue a doctorate). Then working in isolation from the academic community he published six papers, four of which are arguably some of the most important work ever done, in four separate fields of Physics.

Carol Vorderman on the other hand is not bad at mental arithmetic.

[ShedDweller]

In a previous job part of what I did was produce videos for internal corproate purposes. For one set of sales training videos the parts were played by a mixture of actors and my colleagues. Not only did everyone (both on set and watching the final product) think the amateurs made a better job of it, I distinctly remember the guy who you might understand as the director rocking on his heels, wimpering, with his head between his hands because it we'd been shooting one of the actors 5 minutes all Sunday and he just couldnt do remember or deliver his lines.

Fun fun fun.

Well given that a 1000' roll of 35mm film has a "Production" cost of just over £1000 (Production means the cost to the production of shooting, processing and a one light telecine the actual roll itself is £450 or so) and lasts 10 minutes and the crew are £4000 an hour in overtime it's usually the producer with his head in his hands ..

[General Melchett]

Well given that a 1000' roll of 35mm film has a "Production" cost of just over £1000 (Production means the cost to the production of shooting, processing and a one light telecine the actual roll itself is £450 or so) and lasts 10 minutes and the crew are £4000 an hour in overtime it's usually the producer with his head in his hands ..

I was already looking at another job offer, and the company I was with liked everyone to be happy and smiley... And it wasnt my money....

[ShedDweller]

I was already looking at another job offer, and the company I was with liked everyone to be happy and smiley... And it wasnt my money....

It's never my money .. I just keep the meter running .. a bit like a cabbie stuck in a totally static traffic jam on the M4 flyover .. he has a fare on board and the meter is running .. Just don't rub your hands ..

[KingBingo]

The whole Einstein did badly at school and uni thing is a myth. From wiki:

...he was a top student in elementary school.

...From Euclid, Einstein began to understand deductive reasoning, and by the age of twelve, he had learned Euclidean geometry. Soon thereafter he began to investigate infinitesimal calculus.

...Einstein had been left behind in Munich to finish high school, but in the spring of 1895, he withdrew to join his family in Pavia [in Italy], convincing the school to let him go by using a doctor's note.

Rather than completing high school, Einstein decided to apply directly to the Eidgenössische Polytechnische Schule (later Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH)) in Zürich, Switzerland. Lacking a school certificate, he was required to take an entrance examination, which he did not pass, although he got exceptional marks in mathematics and physics. ...

The Einsteins sent Albert to Aarau, Switzerland to finish secondary school. ...At age 17 ...finally enrolling in 1896 in the mathematics and physics program at the Polytechnic in Zurich. ...

...Einstein graduated in 1900 from the Polytechnic with a diploma in mathematics and physics ...The next year, Einstein published a paper in the prestigious Annalen der Physik on the capillary forces of a straw (Einstein 1901)

I love the way people quote wiki without reading it.

[the_duke_of_hazzard]

News is infotainment. Presenters earn what presenters in other media jobs do, ie a lot.

Who cares? There's a free market in newsreaders and Sky pay a lot too. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the Beeb was on the low side.

Do they expense the cleaning of their swimming pools on license fee money? I sincerely doubt it.

[the_duke_of_hazzard]

The whole Einstein did badly at school and uni thing is a myth. From wiki:

So to summarise having be a top student at school, he decided to leave school at 15 and go to University. He fluffed the entrance exam but was exceptional in Physics and Maths, so much so that he was allowed to enter the University the following year without taking the exam again despite the fact that he was 17 and the minimum age was officially 18. So despite moving all around Europe he graduated school a year early, got into one of the best Universities in Europe and graduated the course despite not bothering to turn up for many of the lectures (one of the main reasons he didn't get a post at the Uni after graduate to pursue a doctorate). Then working in isolation from the academic community he published six papers, four of which are arguably some of the most important work ever done, in four separate fields of Physics.

Carol Vorderman on the other hand is not bad at mental arithmetic.

Wittgenstein - the greatest philosopher of the 20th century - was known as "poor simple Luddie" within his family as a child.

[Guest anorthosite]

It might be worth it if the bUggers got the weather right.

Or straightened their map and got out of the way of Cornwall. Sometimes I think the weather forecast doesn't go much beyond London...

[ShedDweller]

Or straightened their map and got out of the way of Cornwall. Sometimes I think the weather forecast doesn't go much beyond London...

Much as I hate the "Hof" .. and would love to get into a steaming argument on basis of your Avatar. On this one you are correct .. I hate that stupid weather map it makes me sick ..

What was so terrible about sticking magnetic clouds on a map FFS ..

[leveller]

I love this ... All the excitement over a £92,000 salary ..

Firstly She is very talented and highly qualified, I love "Just reading stuff off an autocue", personally I suspect written by someone who has never had to read something off an autocue (I once did a commercial with an "Actor" reading off an Autocue .. two sentences. Four hours and 42 takes later we had one that "Would do"). She does a massively stressful job for frankly very little money. As far as I know all the newsreaders on either channel (possibly not channel 5) are journo's, All the ITN news readers and reporters certainly were .. I also happen to know that in 1986 Sandy Gall was paid £220,000 basic salary. If the newsreaders get 3-400,000 a year (and they might get a little more) it's certainly reasonable and comparable with other highly skilled jobs (Directors of TV commercials for instance get more). It takes a very special type of person to do the job and of 100 people who COULD do the job (by qualifications) they will usually find one person who can actually do it.

However the rest of the BBC is a LOONY BIN ... The stories you hear are extrordinary ..

One of my favourites was that a few years ago it was decided that all freelancers working for the BBC had to go on a health and safety course. I went and was lectured about "Health and Safety" (Also known as Common Sense) by some pimply 25 year old "Expert" who had no production experience (Oddly I know how much THEY charge it's £800 a day to production if you want to do stunts).

So on the same day they got all the older news cameramen in, these guys had all started off in the late 60's, So they had been through Biafra, Lebanon, The Falklands .. basically if it was dangerous they had been there .. They had grown old together and now they were in a class room with some pimply gimp telling them stuff they have lived through 100 times before. They all used to work for the BBC but were made freelance in the early 90's. They have been told that they have to sit through the lecture but that there will be no quiz. One of them gets out a pack of cards cards and they start to play. Pimply gimp massively loses his temper and splits them up on different desks like primary school children. Pimply gimp goes through the procedure in case anyone is electrocuted, falls etc etc .. then asks for any questions. One of the old boys says "What do you do if someone has gunshot wounds?" Pimply gimp loses his temper and starts screaming that it's not likely that anyone working for the BBC is going to get a ******ing gunshot wound is it?

At the end of the lecture one the cameraman shows the "Health and safety expert" what's left of his leg and explains that that is a gunshot wound aquired while working as staff for the BBC.

You would not believe some of the stupidity that goes on at the BBC .. they now a whole department for "HD compliance" Full of "experts" .. It probably costs twenty time what the newsreader costs and exists only cause more work for other people ..

I agree, Carrie Gracie's job would be very stressful and difficult, I wouldn't be able to do it, or want to do it. All things relative, her £92k at the mo sounds fair if she does what she does full time.

Sub contractors in the building industry who were fast and accurate, well, in my experience at least up to spring 2008, could have earned that, gross. Plumbers, kitchen fitters, etc.

Actually, re reading what I've just typed, since many of the subbies no longer have that wave to ride, as many industries haven't any more, is it going to be loads of financial haircuts all round?

I like your "health and safety" story.

Reminds me of one time in the late 90's, once when I tried the university route for life.

A bunch of us were in the local college tea room, including some 'old boys', we were the only ones in there at the time. Anyway, this one guy, he was over 60, ex army, opened the window next to him, got out his pipe, stuffed and lit it.

A few minutes later some young chap came into the room, spotted pipe smoker, came over to our tables and very rudely and loudly insisted that he put out his pipe as it was against the rules to smoke in there, and would be kicked out if he didn't. Quite over the top.

"thats a fvcking shame" said pipe smoker. That was then followed up by the rest of us other smokers lighting up, as the pipe smoker started to tell some of his more gruesome war stories.

Yes we were all a bit naughty in what we did I suppose, as lit cigs from irresponsible people have been attributed to starting a few fires, and the anti smoking and antisocial brigade will protest about passive smoking problems. The window was open, and flicked ash and cig butts put into the disposable cups with a bit of tea at the bottom, causing no harm. Cleaned up after ourselves, too.

Young guy left the room without doing whatever he came in for, as we wished him well on his way out. Never heard any more from him either.

The "health and safety" lot have now won against those criminal smokers. Dirty, bad lot they were.

I'm off to go and climb some step ladders in my bedroom for a while. I then might go and soak some cutlery in the washing up bowl, may give mrs lev a fright when she does the washing up later! On second thoughts I best not, as I won't get no kiss chase later.

Anyone got any idea what temperature my washing up water should be?

[Jadoube]

News is infotainment. Presenters earn what presenters in other media jobs do, ie a lot.

Who cares? There's a free market in newsreaders and Sky pay a lot too. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the Beeb was on the low side.

Do they expense the cleaning of their swimming pools on license fee money? I sincerely doubt it.

+1

Its a bit like houses. If one house in the street sells that sets the value of all the others - going up or down.

If Sky pay X then the BBC will pay in the region of X or will lose people deemed by their competition to have ability. Now if anyone wants to tell Sky they are not allowed to pay thier staff what they do.... please make the case.