Walking with dinosaurs

Mark Thompson is expected to announce job cuts at the BBC. Never mind - there is still a creative future ahead, he says in an Aerial interview reported yesterday.

On 18 July 2007 he told BBC staff I have never been involved in a deception of the public. And the same evening on Newsnight he said Deceiving the public is never the right thing to do. (blog dated 31 July 2007) And now he says RDF behaved "disgracefully" over the Queengate affair.

Mark Thompson is well aware of the surreptitious practice regarding Newsround message feedback. I informed him about it some time ago, and so far he's dithered, seemingly content for it to continue as part of his so-called 'Creative Future' (blog 13 September 2006). Yet he knows that the BBC isn't keeping to its own diversity policy and he's aware that kids are still being treated shabbily.

Jana Bennett the BBC 'Director of Vision' was criticised in Will Wyatt's report into the “A Year with the Queen” documentary, more commonly known as the Crowngate or the Queengate affair.

Ms Bennett has either changed her mind recently and is now in favour of LGBT equality, or she was less than honest when she told a conference in summer - We help children understand themselves and their relationships in all their rich complexity and in particular, understand their world – begin to fathom their navigation of relationships, their situation, through the experience of others whom they can relate to.

In actual fact last month the BBC removed "everything you need to know about growing up" which formed the Your Life section of CBBC's website. Why was the advice removed? Why is the BBC not bothering with children aged 14 and over? Only last week, Ofcom pointed to the fact that pre-school and younger children are better served than older children.

If there are to be any BBC job cuts, why not the talented but vastly overpaid Jonathan Ross along with his utterly hopeless house band - Four Poofs and a Piano.

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BBC chief finds there's plenty to celebrate says The Mail:-

As he finalises plans to cut up to 2,800 jobs in a £2billion economy drive, BBC director general Mark Thompson could have found a better time to jet off for a lavish party in Bombay. At an estimated cost of £12,000, I am told Thompson and three of his fellow executives will be among 200 guests at a cocktail party and banquet tonight to celebrate the BBC's success in India. The jaunt is bound to infuriate BBC staff, who are on tenterhooks as they wait for Thompson to say where his axe will fall next week.

"He is getting rid of thousands of staff," says one. "Yet he is swanning off around the world for a party."