Michael Grade too lazy and old to lead Ofcom, says Jean Seaton

Speaking at the Hay festival, and reported in The Guardian, Prof. Jean Seaton has said that the new head of Ofcom, Michael Grade, “is too old, too lazy, and has too many conflicts of interest to lead Ofcom”. Seaton suggested that his appointment was tantamount to bullying of the BBC, following Grades appointment in April.

The Guardian reported that Seaton, speaking as part of a Hay festival panel on the future of the BBC, said the broadcaster has been under “an enormous bullying attack” through the public appointments process for Ofcom, the BBC chair and its board, where there “clearly is an agenda” from a government with “no appetite for listening to alternative views”.

Seaton went on to say that “the appointment of Michael Grade – in his time a very interesting producer, really innovative – he’s too old to be chair of Ofcom, too lazy to be chair of Ofcom. [There are] conflicts of interest because he has said things against the BBC … but he is in a job which takes enormous detailed, grunt-like application to legal affairs. He was an inappropriate candidate.”

The full article by Rachel Hall can be read on the Guardian website.

Photo: Jim Linwood via Wikipedia. CC BY 2.0