The kerfuffle surrounding Russell Brand, Jonathan Ross and the BBC came to a conclusion of sorts a few days ago with Brand quitting, Ross suspended and the BBC’s head of Radio 2 resigning.
This story has many of the ingredients of the type of soap opera you typically see on British television these days including in-your-face foul language, mean behaviour masquerading as comedy, and sex.
If you’ve not been following the events that have been the top news headline in the UK all week, the BBC timeline can help you get up to speed with it all.
In brief, this is what it’s about:
- Lewd phone calls made to actor Andrew Sachs (Manuel in TV show Fawlty Towers) by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross on Brand’s Radio 2 show on October 18 – calls regarded as distasteful, even offensive, by around 30,000 people who complained to the BBC – prompted an escalating and highly-public row that culminated in Brand quitting his show and the BBC and flying off to the US.
- Subsequently, Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas resigned, and Ross has been suspended for three months without pay (he earns £16,000 a day from his BBC contract).
Yet it’s actually about much more than these bare facts, igniting as it has mainstream media editorials left, right and centre plus wide commentary and opinion across all sectors of society about moral standards, acceptable behaviours, overpaid radio and TV presenters, the generational divide, the role of a public service broadcaster in modern society and of course that hardy perennial, the television license.
The only thing I want to add to the mass of opinion out there is this.
I read the transcripts of the phone calls made by Brand and Ross. Be aware, they are extremely frank. If you haven’t read them, I suggest you do that before expressing an opinion. Otherwise, how can you have a considered opinion about them?
So, my opinion? I haven’t had the benefit of hearing what Brand and Ross said when they said it on Brand’s radio show, so I may be missing lots of context. All I have to go on are the bald words in the transcripts.
But I think both men are pathetic. If this is what passes for comedy on the radio, then I’m a banana, to adapt Ian Hislop’s famous quotation.
Be that as it may: it’s just one opinion among the many. But if Brand and Ross were still broadcasting on radio and TV in the UK, here’s one less listener and viewer they would have.
And what of the sequence of events and the communication angle?
One thing I felt was that events in what was undoubtedly a crisis were moving very fast indeed, much faster than any effective communication from any of the protagonists and in particular from the BBC.
As anyone who’s ever been involved in crisis communication knows, whenever there’s a communication vacuum from the subject of the crisis, others will rush in to fill that vacuum, which is exactly what happened repeatedly during this week.
So it’s timely that the BBC itself published How to manage a crisis, a useful article by Clarence Mitchell, probably best known for his role as official spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann.
Mitchell nicely summed it all up like this:
[…] Common symptoms for bodies mismanaging a crisis are apologies, where obvious and appropriate, that are still seen to be slow in coming, grudgingly given or issued in stages, despite the rising clamour from stakeholders growing ever louder.
Equally damaging is the appearance that the organisation is being buffeted by events. Worse still, the public perception that its actions are merely reactive, responding to events rather than controlling them.
Yes, things this past week looked exactly like this.
While the debate continues about the BBC and its role as a broadcaster and in society, I’m thinking of what next for Jonathan Ross. Has he blown it entirely? Few would argue that his reputation has taken a massive hit.
Whether that’s terminal or not in relation to a continuing future with the BBC – and possibly any other UK broadcaster – remains to be seen.
Mitchell’s conclusion in his BBC article on crisis management applies equally to Ross:
[…] Reputational crises don’t die away any more, they just get posted online for posterity. That world is here and now and effective crisis management has never been more relevant or valid.
How Ross deals with his own crisis is likely to be a major influence on whether it’s ‘when’ or ‘if’ we see him on the BBC again.
Related post:
11 responses to “An easy guide to destroying reputations”
Ross used to be funny, in a London wide-boy sort of way. But judging by his photo, he’s gone to seed and now trades in purile schoolboy humour. Pathetic.
As our friend and colleague Allan Jenkins once said, “Your reputation is becoming increasingly dependent upon what Google says it is”.
I first saw Russell Brand doing standup on telly about four weeks ago. I watched it because the girls in my office keep telling me how funny he is. He read a newpaper article about him self and described a sex act with a hoover. I know I’m not his market, but I didn’t even crack a smile. I can’t believe the BBC ever had him on contract.
Lee, the shame about Jonathan Ross is that he should know better. He’s been around, he knows where the line is. But I guess he doesn’t know better.
Sherrilynne, I found Russell Brand to be the most cringeworthy celeb person I’ve seen in years. Totally unfunny, just plain weird. Perhaps that’s one of the signs of the ‘generational divide’ that’s been talked about a bit this week.
Another indicator of that divide – the “Support Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross” group on Facebook has over 33,800 members. You probably couldn’t imagine more widely-different groups than this Facebook group and the over 30,000 who’ve complained to the BBC.
Only 30,000 complained?
But don’t underestimate the forgetfulness of an audience.
On Jan 13, 1982, a plane leaving Washington crashed into a bridge just after takeoff. 78 died.
The next morning, alocal talk show host called Air Florida, the carrier, and asked to book tickets.. “Oh, and is the 14th Street Bridge a stop, or can I fly nonstop?”
He was fired,… but still around.
And now a couple of Canadian DJs have prank-called Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin, pretending to a French President Jac Chirac. I’m no Palin fan, but this is funny? http://www.mahalo.com/Sarah_Palin_Prank_Call
Oops…make that Sarkozy. That’s what happens after a five-hour flight in an economy middle seat.
True, Allan, but I think this situation is a bit out of the ordinary, touching as it does so many raw nerves as I mentioned. It’s not really only about two foul-mouthed and idiotic individuals on the radio.
Not my cup of tea in humour either, Shel (I never found Candid Camera that funny, either, but most people I know did). At least the nasty vulgarity of Brand’s and Ross’ escapade aren’t in the Palin prank.
The Palin Prank wasn’t funny, but it was instructive. Palin happily treated the call as a “fan call”…. she said nothing of substance, never cotttoned on to the fake out.
And she bought it. Can there be any doubt that she would have treated a real call from Sarkozy the same way?
The most frightening part of the call is at the end…. you hear Palin giggling in the back, talking about a prank call.. while the aide takes the phone and cuts off the conversation.
Not funny. But important.
Wow – I just read the transcript and I’m horrified. How could they not know that they were crossing the line? No – scratch that – they were so far over the line … the line disappeared on the horizon.
I have to admit – I do think Brand and Ross both deserved to be fired after that. They should also apologise for being so rude, insensitive, vulgar etc etc.
I always thought Brand was an idiot – I didn’t expect this off Ross though. My respect for those two … well, I have no respect for them now.
[…] captured was a moment during a lively exchange of views between Damien Mulley and I about the Brand/Ross/BBC fiasco and what the driver of public complaints was: the media and Daily Mail in particular (Damien’s […]
I think Brand is an inteligent bloke, being contraversial and load is his career. If you read the transcript you'd see it's Ross, not brand, that started the whole 'He banged your grand-daughter routine'. Brand also had the dignity to resign while Ross hung on and each got what they deserved; Ross has been suspended while Brand is still going.