“The BBC goes from being a hero broadcaster to a pariah, in two months.”
Roger Mosey’s BBC career has seen him occupy some of the most prestigious roles at the corporation. Getting out Alive details his early life in Bradford and the University of Oxford as well as his path at the BBC from Radio Lincolnshire in 1980 to the Director of the London 2012 Olympic coverage. He speaks to The Conversation List from Selwyn College Cambridge, accompanied by his loyal Basset hound YoYo.
As a boy growing up in in Bradford, did you ever think you’d be able to Google your name, and the fourth result would be that dog?
The one and only basset cat: Yoyo
The dog is a good example of the way the media can be both delightful and surprising. The New Statesman asked me to write an article about Newsnight, and I did. We thought the story would be what I thought about Newsnight but there was a throwaway paragraph about the dog and that then is reported on websites from Brazil to China.
Do you get that in your career where something seemingly insignificant gets seized upon?
You often get it where you are under attack from the external media. They come up with some line from some minutes from ages and ages ago. The same is true of this book. I talk about immigration in the context of 2003/2004. It’s reported now as though this is a current assessment of the BBC now and it’s not.
As the dissenting voice on some of these issues, do you think part of this reason is where you are from?
Not really. I wouldn’t say that if you come from Bradford you are more sensitive about immigration. But if you come from an ordinary background and maybe the North, you might be more in touch with popular sentiment. That was the problem for Ed Miliband, his world was intellectual North London. Some people think that he never quite got the whole of the UK. He lacked that non-metropolitan view.
How does the BBC deal with the metropolitan centring in its own ranks?
As a manager you have to keep challenging assumptions. In the same way that the BBC was slow in recognising the rise of UKIP maybe we are slow in recognising rural issues. It’s not a political thing. It’ not like everyone living in London is left wing. It was a good idea to put Breakfast and 5live up in Salford so you can change the view, but it is still an urban view. You always have to be aware about mindset.
Would you agree that their are issue ignorances rather than political agendas?
I think that’s right.
When the Labour press office stepped up its game in the run up to the 1997 election, did you conceive that they could win?
Yeah. You need to have the policies, but they did run an incredibly aggressive media operation. That is how you get into power. It was very unpleasant being on the end of it. For that matter, the Tory press office was very ineffectual. You had a not very nice Labour operation which worked and a nice Tory one which didn’t. This time for what I can hear for 2015, both sides were pretty rumbustious.
Did you vote during your career?
Yeah. Some journalists don’t. but most do. You vote as your conscience dictates. This idea that the BBC are a load of Labour supporters is not true. I don’t think there are political agendas in the organisation. When I left, I didn’t know whether I would be comfortable taking a political view on things and I’m afraid that BBC gene is still in me. As a head of house also, I think it would be counter productive to come out for one party or another.
Jeremy Vine said that the one issue he struggles to remain impartial on is Cycling. Are there any issue that you struggle on?
On all big decisions, you always run things past friends and colleagues. The Middle East is a good impartiality example. For the record, I think the BBC does a good job of its coverage but when you are giving individual pieces from a Palestinian refugee camp or from an Israeli whose town has been rocketed, the sympathy in a particular item may appear to be with one side or the other which is why you have to achieve due impartiality over a period.
If you could only relive one, would you relive the Olympics of the Today programme?
Two things make me cry. One is graduation, the other is the Olympics. I found it an enormously emotional.There is some politics in there as well. You had a glimpse of what a new Britain could you like: multiracial, lacking in hierarchy. A lot of things that felt rather good.
Why didn’t you bow out at the closing ceremony? because you could have left the brewing storm that was the Savile Scandal behind you?
The truth is, the timing would have been all wrong for election at Selwyn. Maybe the fact that I had gone back to being editorial director at the BBC showed that I had management as well as sport. But you’re right, though it wasn’t entirely my choice. I was 54 and could retire at 55. They wanted me to continue.
During the scandal, what was it like getting phone calls, checking if people could run pre-recorded obituaries about other journalists?
The long running issue that Autumn was what you could broadcast that on Top of the Pops. You take Savile out of it, but there were starting to be questions about other people who appeared in it. They had not been arrested or charged but we were sometimes becoming aware of police interest. For instance, there started to be rumours about Rolf Harris. Yet you cannot pull a program based on rumours about others who may be innocent. That’s a great injustice too.
Donald trump tweeted that you are a lightweight, How do you rate his presidential chances?
I think he’s fascinating actually. It causes an interesting problems for Republicans in the debates. It’s hard for Jeb Bush with Donald Trump sat beside him.
Getting out Alive is available now.
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