So If You Were Tim Davie Tonight?

[DTCwordfan]

What would you be looking to do to cool the Beeb situation dow and respect the victims and Edwards mental issues? A PR nightmare that this may be....

Constructive ideas?

[jno]

offer regrets, say that since no crime was committed a BBC investigation woulld have gone nowhere, and point out that neither the BBC nor any other business has the right to monitor the after-hours activity of its staff.

[bazwillrun]

If no offence has been committed id leave it now...people will have forgotten it in a week if that...the press will be bored of it by tomorrow, unless they got some more schit to throw at the fans..wouldnt put it past them...but if as suggested hes got mental issues theyll probably realise its best to just let it go....

[Spungle]

Begin a complete purge starting from the top down. Get rid of the ridiculously overpaid sleazebags and begin hiring some quality talent.

[tomus42]

Which is why you've probably never been asked to be in charge of anything Spungle.

[Hopkirk]

Carry on as normal. What were they supposed to do?

[tomus42]

It's not clear yet who did what and when, and how true it was.

I'd be looking to find out the exact timeline of what happened within the BBC and whether it complied with all their rules. I'd avoid any temptation to cover anything up.

[andy-hughes]

I'd dial down the 'scandal' aspect and be upfront about what the BBC did, and when.

[naomi24]

I read that junior members of staff have made allegations against him but apart from investigating that, I would do nothing. It’s a private matter.

[DTCwordfan]

thanks for your replies and for Roving in reopening it. There's some good comments here and I too favour what AH and tomus have said in being upfront and work through the time-line of events - and then, behind scenes, were there any failures in the Beeb's process for such 'complaints'/PR issues.

the one thing that I would not do is sack HE as this could unleash a storm of protest from those who 'adore' him and also worsen matters for him nd his family. I would also convey to him that his resignation wouldn't be accepted until he had come out of wherever and that there needs to be a considered meeting over this before any termination.

And, yes, be honest and strictly factual and vey much keep Rupee's hacks at arms-length if not more.

[naomi24]

As far as we’re aware no crime has been committed. Indiscretions in his personal life should be between him and his family. That said, I don’t think he can work in a public capacity again… but he probably wouldn’t want to.

[barry1010]

I thought he'd resigned from all his positions within the BBC

[andy-hughes]

Barry - Sophie Rayworth said in an early evening broadcast that HE had resigned, bur corrected that moments later.

I don't believe he has resigned at the time of writing.

[THECORBYLOON]

"Indiscretions in his personal life should be between him and his family."

If indiscretions bring an employer into disrepute, misconduct action can be taken with dismissal being one of the possible outcomes.

[naomi24]

We know that, Corby, but I answered the question.

[Barmaid]

I think they are better termed "complainants" rather than victims. Indeed, the young person around whom the initial complaint was made has issued a statement through their lawyers saying that the Sun's published claims of the parents were "rubbish".

If I were him I'd be thinking (the opening lines of 4 Weddings and a Funeral spoken by Hugh Grant).

I'd hope I'd be saying 1) I'm not sure how well we handled this whole thing and I really need to look into it very deeply but it is clear damage has been done 2) If we have made mistakes we intend to identify them and put in further measures to try to ensure that we do not repeat those mistakes 3) we will then consider the next steps and we will do this openly and transparently whilst protecting people's privacy.

That's as likely to happen as me running a marathon tomorrow.

[jno]

has damage been done? Only to Edwards, by the sound of it, and it was as a result of his own actions in the first place. This isn't like Savile preying on kids in the course of BBC work and on BBC property: I haven't heard anything to suggest the BBC did anything wrong - if it proves correct that they did try to investigate and got nowhere - or that there was anything they could have done better.

[drmorgans]

In some people's eyes the BBC does wrong simply by being the BBC.

[DTCwordfan]

that's definitely true, drm!

[andy-hughes]

drmorgans - // In some people's eyes the BBC does wrong simply by being the BBC. //

The BBC does itself no favours whatsoever by clearly not 'learning the lessons', as they always say, from previous situations.

They are professional ditherers, and as an organisation with a duty to its licence payers, it should have learned that Lesson One is - Don't sit on a powder keg and wait for it to explode, get cracking defusing it before the media find out.

Once again they failed comprehensively to do that.

[DTCwordfan]

there were enough signs of 'trouble in Utopia' ahead of what has happened - a lot of the staff were wary of his antics - so the DT has written this morning.