BBC football cov erage improves exponentially

[Stevie H]

excellent. now for that vacuous self-adoring tosspot lineker.

 

Mihir Bose and the pitfalls of moving from page to screen

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrind...g/05/mihir-bose

 

"What is the point of Mihir Bose?" asked one newspaper last month. Certainly the former Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times journalist has not enjoyed much of a profile in his two and a half years as BBC sports news editor, a job he left yesterday with immediate effect. But was it his fault?

 

I always thought Bose worked better in print than he did on TV or radio. Like Robert Peston, another former Telegraph journalist who joined the BBC, Bose did not strike me as a natural broadcaster. Peston grew into the role, now Bose won't have the chance.

 

But while Peston's credit crunch scoops deservedly took top billing on the BBC's bulletins, it is in the nature of the sports stories Bose covered that they rarely earned more than a few seconds, if any, on the corporation's flagship news programmes.

 

Bose's critics, such as Charles Sale in the Daily Mail - a rival on the sports news beat - claimed it was a "botched appointment". They argued that the BBC's deputy director general, Mark Byford, and its former director of sport, Roger Mosey - the man now in charge of the BBC's Olympics coverage - had appointed the wrong man.

 

But the BBC has always had an uneasy relationship with sports news. Its nightly BBC1 sports news programme, Inside Sport, presented by Gaby Logan, disappeared without trace in a graveyard slot and was hardly the heavyweight approach I hoped for when it was first announced. Not so much a sporting Newsnight as The One Show with balls. And not very big ones at that.

 

I preferred BBC2's investigative sports series, On The Line, presented by John Inverdale, and I quite enjoyed Inverdale's sports chat show, On Side. But I might be in the minority on that one.

 

Anyway, back to Bose, whose BBC tenure is a reminder that successful print hacks don't always switch easily to TV. Peston did it, and so did his predecessor in the BBC's business editor job, Jeff Randall. But the former Heat editor Mark Frith did not look entirely comfortable fronting BBC3's (now defunct) Liquid News. And ex-Smash Hits editor Kate Thornton? Her broadcast career suggests that most people rate her rather higher than I do.

 

Bose was also reported to have refused to sign up to the BBC sports department's controversial move to Salford in 2011. His wife runs a financial PR consultancy in London. If the sports news editor had not made the switch, it would have put a serious question mark against the BBC's commitment to Salford, and would hardly have encouraged others to make the move.

 

Bose's immediate departure means there will be no farewell post on his blog, where he was a particular target for readers' vitriol. "Not your worst blog Mihir - b4 every1 slates u" says the first comment on his final story. High praise indeed. "Just re-read this for the 3rd time and still trying to work out the point of this." Now they are going to have to find someone else to moan about.

 

But with the London Olympics less than three years away, the appointment of the right successor is going to absolutely crucial for the BBC. And they could do with giving Inside Sport a revamp - and a decent slot in the schedule for once.

[fyds]

He had the delivery skills and charisma of a wet lettuce. He could be reporting the most important event in sport in a centurey but I would defy anyone not to end up looking out of the window or thinking about their sock draw within 30 seconds of the start of him talking.

 

Has Motson gone yet?

[Stevie H]

i'd imagine that when motson eventually does go there'll be a week of tribute shows on the bbc. national treasure and all that. despite him having been crap and well past it for at least ten years.

 

thing with bose was that you always felt he was completely making it up. i knew a few football journoes at the nationals and they always said that they didn't know how he got the gig as he didn't seem to have any contacts and rarely attended press conferences. didn't put the donkey work in as it were. that story about bose on the day bob woolmer died seemed pretty indicative.

[Swipe]

Never knew the point of any of his ramblings.

 

Full of "I can reveal" and "I understand" style b****x, but nothing of any actual interest

[John am Rhein]

All journalists sollen vernichtet werden

[stressederic]

I refuse to believe this until Garth Crooks confirms it for me.

[Knox_Harrington]

Didn't want to move to the North West. There may be a few of these.

[fyds]

Didn't want to move to the North West. There may be a few of these.

To be fair, it is Salford!

[dorgie]

They've got live Championship games this season. Newcastle v West Brom is on Saturday.

[Herbie von Smalls]

i thought this was an alan green has choked on his own bile thread when i read the title. damn you, stevieh

[mick]

I remember watching John Inverdale doing Onside. He had Johan Cruyff on and during the interview produced a football for Cruyff to do a few solos! i couldn't believe it - the man is generally regarded as one of the top 4/5 footballers of all time I think we know he can do a few keepy uppys.

 

Inverdale's a c***!

[pipnasty]

Didn't want to move to the North West. There may be a few of these.

 

There are indeed - it is hilarious.

[Knox_Harrington]

There are indeed - it is hilarious.

You know of any other high profile ones? I know the drama move hasn't been a bed of roses but that's as much to do with the centralised decision making and how that impacts upon the attempt to be more Mancunian regional

[pipnasty]

You know of any other high profile ones? I know the drama move hasn't been a bed of roses but that's as much to do with the centralised decision making and how that impacts upon the attempt to be more Mancunian regional

 

Every department to be honest - not everybody but enough for it to be funny.

 

John Humphrys gave us a quality rant / tantrum about the North of England being a 'f***ing s***hole' a few years ago. Vowed never to come back.