Auntie's Austerities

The BBC is being threatened with a lawsuit on the grounds of racial discrimination for its refusal to broadcast the Gaza appeal - and this in spite of its moral stance being emulated by Murdoch News. The director general, Mark Thompson, who once held "peace talks" with the hero of Sabra and Shatila, has been given a few days to think things over before risking a claim which, according to one lawyer, could run into millions of pounds. Fortunately, since the BBC is not a bank or a member of Parliament, it appears that appropriate measures are being taken. Besides losing their bonuses, senior management at the BBC are to undergo a pay freeze, while the lesser orders will get a "modest" rise - modest, presumably, in comparison with the extravagant two per cent they were hoping for, rather than with anything silly like the cost of living. Supposedly, the idea is to prevent any more large-scale redundancies of the kind for which Mark Thompson has shown such enthusiasm in the past; but, given the choice between laying off a few more staff and facing a multi-million-pound penalty for racism, one cannot easily predict what Mark Thompson and Tel Aviv would consider the most impartial option.