Articles revealed in The Eye are written by a workforce of contributors and edited by the multi-award profitable former BBC information and present affairs reporter, Phil Parry.
Throughout 38 years in journalism (together with many with BBC Cymru Radio Wales [RW]) our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, noticed quite a few examples of people that left a legacy of catastrophe of their wake, being promoted, and right here he appears at one in all them. From the station the place he offered quite a few programmes.
Earlier he has described how he was helped to interrupt into the South Wales Echo workplace automotive when he was a cub reporter, recalled his early profession as a journalist, the significanceof expertise within the job, and making clear that the ‘calls’ to emergency providers in addition to court docket instances are central to any media operation.
He has additionally explored how poorly paid most journalism is when trainee reporters needed to stay in squalid flats, the important function of bills, and about one in all his most necessary tales on the now-scrapped 53 year-old BBC Cymru Wales TV Present Affairs sequence he offered for 10 years, Week In Week Out (WIWO), which received an award even after it was axed, lengthy after his profession actually took off.
Phil has defined too how essential it’s really to talk to folks, the advantage of velocity in addition to accuracy, why information of ‘historical past’ is significant, how sure materials was faraway from TV Present Affairs programmes when secret cameras had for use, and a few of these he has interviewed.
He has additionally disclosed why investigative journalism is required now greater than ever though others have completely different opinions, and how data from trusted sources is essential at the moment.
I all the time discovered it unimaginable to observe those that left behind them a file of catastrophe, climb the greasy pole.
I’ve witnessed quite a few situations the place this has occurred, but it surely nonetheless by no means ceases to amaze me.
Don’t the individuals who appoint them KNOW?!
I’ll take only one instance – the ONLY all Wales English-language radio service at controversial BBC Cymru Wales (BBC CW). BBC Radio Wales (RW).
Its former Editor (the tiggerish Colin Paterson), was made head of BBC Wales Sport (BBC WS) along with his function at RW, and went on to be appointed supervisor of BBC Audio for Wales and the West of England. Right here he was to run (amongst many different programmes), Any Questions?, Farming Immediately and Composer Of The Week.
However these promotions appear weird within the context of the wreckage that he leaves behind, and the items his alternative (Carolyn Hitt) shall be compelled to choose up, for Mr Paterson has presided over record-breaking low listening figures at RW, and had an unwise affair with a married presenter.
The newest viewers RAJAR figures reveal simply how appalling the state of affairs has now turn out to be. Figures launched at midnight, present that now the weekly ‘attain’ of the station has collapsed by 11 per cent (sure you learn it proper).They’ve, although, been simply as dangerous beforehand.
Within the first quarter of 2022, there was a ten per cent plunge within the variety of hours folks tuned in, and his station had a weekly ‘attain’ of simply 314,000, which was a drop of seven factors. In December the entire weekly viewers determine was 371,000, however now it is just 306,000.
These dreadful statistics in contrast with a weekly ‘attain’ within the first three months of this 12 months for BBC Radio Scotland (RS) of 877,000, whereas the equal figures for BBC Radio Ulster (RU) have been of NO DROP WHATSOEVER in listening hours, and a ‘attain’ of 34,000, which was an INCREASE of three per cent!
Nevertheless these AWFUL figures got here onerous on the heels of different latest controversies. The quarter ending December 2021, marked RW down from 5.9 to five.3 per cent, as a share of the accessible Welsh viewers, and confirmed that almost 95 per cent of individuals in Wales ignore the station ALTOGETHER, but different radio stations within the UK (as additionally proven within the newest RAJARs) attracted a far larger viewers share.
Previous years have been virtually as dangerous for RW too. In 2020 the figures exhibited a slight improve on 2019 however a considerable drop in contrast with two years earlier, a large lower on the 12 months earlier than that, and the way greater than 40,000 listeners had been misplaced in a single three month interval, regardless of an enormous sum of money being spent on new schedules. Additionally they confirmed that the entire listening hours have been 2,667,000, down from 3,074,000 in September 2019.
However Mr Paterson has additionally attracted controversy in his out of hours spare time activities.
He posted a video on Fb (FB) about how he went to the seaside over Christmas 2020 at Ogmore, which he stated was “Balmy”. But the Welsh Authorities (WG) guidelines on the time appeared clear sufficient: “In case you are travelling away from dwelling, you need to journey to fulfill your Christmas bubble and return dwelling in the midst of 25 December...It’s best to maintain taking steps to scale back the unfold of the virus, and it will assist be sure that you take pleasure in Christmas Day as safely as attainable.” Journey recommendation from South Wales Police (SWP), additionally warned folks then about not going to seashores, saying: “you shouldn’t be driving to those locations”.
On November 4 in 2017 we revealed how new schedules have been about to be revealed by the BBC, however the fashionable Sunday programme of Mr Jones didn’t seem. On the time the BBC informed The Eye, that they did “make modifications to when programmes run”.
Nevertheless it transpired that the Songs of Reward presenter wouldn’t be on the airwaves in any respect on the BBC, whereas the broadcaster investigated alleged inappropriate behaviour greater than a decade earlier. The singer and TV host from Anglesey, who discovered fame on the age of 12 together with his high 5 Christmas hit Strolling within the Air, stated he was “deeply sorry” for any upset brought on however strongly denied any “inappropriate contact”, and a spokesman for Mr Jones stated that whereas the matter didn’t relate to any broadcast work, he had voluntarily agreed to not go on the BBC whereas it was investigated.
In an announcement, the spokesman added: “While he accepts that his (Mr Jones’) behaviour over a decade in the past was often juvenile, as was that of others, he by no means supposed to harass or misery and he strongly denies any inappropriate contact. He’s, nonetheless, deeply sorry for any upset brought on and hopes this matter is resolved quickly.” Mr Jones’ spokesman stated that the allegations from a single feminine complainant of inappropriate messages and get in touch with, reported within the Solar, didn’t relate to any broadcast work, and associated to a matter greater than 10 years earlier than
In addition to participating in hugely-contentious practices and presiding over plunging listening figures, Mr Paterson has performed a relationship with Lucy Owen, and the story about it was included in a Digital Spy (DS) remark regarding RW with the message above the hyperlink saying “…the file low listening figures at Radio Wales below it’s (sic) present administration (have been) amplified this 12 months by criticism from former award profitable reporters and presenters”.
An ex-senior determine at BBC CW, who has labored in a number of departments, proclaimed to me: “The lame excuses about viewers consumption traits and the shift to digital platforms is tiresome & evasive.
“It’s about high quality. The decline in Radio Wales has been profound & deep rooted. The accountability sits with The Editor – nobody else. It’s intriguing how the BBC can immediate failure utilizing licence payers cash.”
I offered on RW, the lunchtime programme, Wales at One, the drive-time present Good Night Wales, in addition to the weekly debate sequence Folks’s Meeting, for seven years till 2006, and have stated publicly that this CANNOT go on. These in cost have to take accountability for a way PUBLIC cash is being spent.
However RW (in addition to Mr Paterson, and his superior when he was on the station, Rhodri Talfan Davies), has typically hit the headlines for unlucky causes, and, for instance, my journalists have been alone in reporting particulars of the affair he had.
For a lot of workers at BBC CW, his romance with Mrs Owen represented a serious potential battle of curiosity, as a result of officers had commissioned a RW programme hosted by her, referred to as ‘Sunday morning with Lucy Owen’, and media executives each inside in addition to outdoors the company have declared to me that they have been frightened about their partnership’s attainable influence on the method.
The one-time presenter on the station, Mike Flynn, informed me: “If Paterson has been having an affair with a Wales Immediately and Radio Wales presenter it brings his administration abilities in to query and he must be suspended instantly”.
When the newest figures emerged, Mr Flynn stated: “I feel it’s a tragic reflection of how out of contact BBC Wales has turn out to be if their target market is a 59 a 12 months previous listener to Wynne Evans and Owen Cash’s dire caricature of the nation.
“The output is a humiliation to the folks of Wales who deserve much more from their nationwide broadcaster”.
Mr Paterson’s successor, who takes up the function this month (Ms Hitt), additionally has an intriguing background.
She is homosexual, but this could be problematic in her function as head of sport, overseeing soccer protection from the World Cup in Qatar, as a result of homosexuality is against the law there.
Ms Hitt has, too, trumpeted her Welsh nationalism views, however at RW, she might need to entice listeners with views which might be against her personal, and the information service she is to supervise is (in idea) impartial.
She has publicly said on-line that she used to vote Labour (L), but now helps the Welsh nationalist social gathering Plaid Cymru (PC), and tweeted: “I’ve voted @UK Labour all my life however right now…I voted @Plaid_Cymru”.
In February 2020, she appeared, as effectively, as a keynote speaker at a convention of the Welsh independence organisation YesCymru (YC). There she stated that she was “prepared to choose up the ball and run” for independence.
This might, although, conflict with the company’s said emphasis on impartiality after the Martin Bashir affair. The ‘Serota evaluation’ declared: “The BBC’s responsibility to audiences signifies that the core editorial values of accuracy, impartiality, equity, and editorial integrity will need to have primacy amongst wider BBC company values.”.
Ms Hitt’s appointment has made headlines, too, in UK media shops with one story about it headlined: “Plaid Cymru’s Quiet Take Over of BBC Wales”.
It stays to be seen whether or not she is going to now preside, as effectively, over the type of terrible listening statistics that we’ve got seen up to now at RW, however she’ll most likely be promoted anyway…
The recollections of Phil’s astonishing prolonged award-winning profession in journalism (together with among the tales he coated throughout his 23 years on the BBC) as he was gripped by the uncommon neurological disabling situation, Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been launched in a serious guide ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the guide now!
