TONY BARRETT: The sheer irony of MacKenzie outburst
Nov 8 2008 by Tony Barrett, Liverpool Echo
ONE of the most despicable elements of the overblown Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand affair was the sheer number of times Kelvin MacKenzie was sought out by media commentators to tell the BBC where it was going wrong.
Had he been introduced as a kind of Gerald Ratner figure who cocked up so badly his experience now serves as a lesson to others, it might almost have been justifiable.
But the fact that MacKenzie is feted as some sort of media doyen whose every word we should hang on is sickening and perverse in the extreme.
Clearly having forgotten about his infamous "The Truth" headline in the aftermath of Hillsborough, Emily Bell, of the Media Guardian, pointed out that the Beeb should take heed of Mackenzie's words of "wisdom".
"MacKenzie, a long time BBC-baiter, had some top line advice," she reckoned.
"He pointed out that editorial organisations make mistakes, sometimes catastrophic mistakes.
"You apologise quickly and then decide, internally, which backsides to kick and how hard."
Apart from the unwitting irony, surely the free thinking Guardian should be asking if the people of Britain and a public service broadcaster really be placing any store on the moral judgement of a man whose own morality has been in question since April 1989.
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