Russell Brand, the man the Daily Mail likes to call “the lewd braggart”, has fallen on his sword over Manuelgate. Meanwhile his partner in crime, Jonathan Ross, awaits his fate, having been suspended by the BBC, while Georgina Ballie is rumoured to be closing a deal with a Sunday tabloid for her story. It’s all quite remarkable, but are there lessons to be learned from the affair? Could any of the protagonists have done things differently?
We think so. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but a modicum of simple, ethically-founded foresight would have served the main players well. Here are 12 Lessons To Be Set In Stone from Manuelgate so far:
1. Be Careful Who You Kiss.
The old saying is that love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop. But in Russell Brand’s case, it seems that sex begins with a smile, grows exponentially (he claims to have slept with over 2,000 women), and ends with indifference. Should Georgina Baillie have been more circumspect before sleeping with the wild-haired Lothario? Perhaps. Then again, she can’t have known that he would choose to broadcast their liaison on BBC radio.
2. Be A Gentleman.
“Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage.” So said Theodore Roosevelt, and the 26th American President’s aphorism remains on the money a century or so after its utterance. If Brand had observed the time-honoured rule that a gentleman never discusses, still less publicises, his amours, he would still have his job with the BBC.
3. Embrace Feminism.
This is one for both Brand and Ross. The pair had evidently discussed Brand’s adventures with Ms Baillie prior to the broadcast (Brand’s first breach of Rule 2), but their subsequent on-air quips about her suggest that both have some way to go before they could claim to be rounded, 21st century men. The talk of Brand having “enjoyed” Baillie “on a swing” wasn’t just as crude as the use of the antecedent F-word; both betrayed the unconscious misogyny still rife in much male discourse.
4. Respect One’s Elders.
Another simple rule, adherence to which would have spared a lot of blushes.
5. Remember That No Player (Even One As Good As Stan Bowles) Is Greater Than The Team.
History reveals that football managers perennially refuse to be dictated to by great players when they tend too much to prima donna-ism. As yet, we do not know how the calls to Andrew Sachs’ answer-phone were approved for broadcast, but it seems possible that the BBC’s editorial team were cowed by the stellar qualities of the two presenters. All involved would do well to note that they are part of a team which, like all teams (whether on the football pitch or elsewhere), will only succeed if it plays by the rules.
6. Make Sure Everyone Knows The Rules.
It’s no good taking to the field if some of the players don’t know the manager’s formation. What was the BBC’s pre-publication policy with regard to gags which might infringe a third party’s privacy? Did Brand and Ross even know?
7. Use Your Lawyer.
The BBC has a phalanx of highly trained media lawyers whose expertise lies precisely in assessing legal risk pre-broadcast. It seems unlikely that one was consulted in this instance, given what prima facie amounts to a clear invasion of Ms Baillie’s privacy. If ever there was a time and a place for measured legal advice, this was it.
8. Act Quickly. Act Decisively. Above All, Act.
Even if all the foregoing rules are observed, mistakes can still happen. We wouldn’t be human otherwise. Once the complaints started to roll in and Fleet Street wheeled out its big guns, the BBC should have announced that an investigation was underway as a priority and suspended the two men at the centre of the storm. Instead, they procrastinated, thereby allowing the story to gain momentum. Within hours of Brand’s resignation, the media had started to turn, questioning whether it had all gone too far; prompt action by the BBC might have produced the same result, but with the possibility that its stars could, in due course, return to the fray. The BBC’s dithering amounts to a gross breach of one of the first rules of crisis management: act quickly and decisively, and above all, do something.
9. When You’re In The Wrong, Admit It.
More procrastination here, as Brand and Ross were too slow to acknowledge their mistakes. An already pronounced sense that they might be cursed with a dose of hubris only intensified as they, like their employer, dithered.
10. When You Get Knocked Down, Get Up Again.
Brand and Ross will be feeling somewhat battered. However, if they are prepared to learn from their mistakes, there is no reason why the pair won’t continue to blossom in the contemporary media landscape. They should, however, pay heed to the famous exhortation of ‘Gentleman’ Jim Corbett, the legendary heavyweight boxer of the early 20th century: Fight one more round, when your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round, when your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you are so tired that you wish your opponent would crack you one on the jaw and put you to sleep, fight one more round – remembering that the man who always fights one more round is never whipped.
11. If You’re Going To Deal With The Devil, Ask For Max.
Which Sunday newspaper has done a deal with Georgina Baillie? Has she indeed gone down this route, or is she contemplating suing for invasion of privacy and then selling her story? All will soon be revealed, but in retaining Max Clifford, she’s obtained the assistance of a man who knows the dark arts of Fleet Street better than anyone.
12. Have The Dignity Of Andrew Sachs.
The veteran Fawlty Towers star has been an exemplar of dignity, restraint and courtesy. He was amenable to the media at the same time as he supported his granddaughter; he played down the effect of the prank calls on his own feelings and is writing letters to Ross and Brand thanking them for their own, somewhat belated, missives. He says he hopes that Brand will move forward, turning this disaster into a positive, and we believe him. Why?
Because, unlike Brand and Ross, he’s a gentleman.
[...] Manuelgate: The 12 Lessons To Be Set In Stone By admin Meanwhile his partner in crime, Jonathan Ross, awaits his fate, having been suspended by the BBC, while Georgina Ballie is rumoured to be closing a deal with a Sunday tabloid for her story. It?s all quite remarkable, but are there … Spada Professional Services PR Firm – http://www.spada.co.uk/ [...]
[...] this point, Blade has this to say: where were Auntie’s lawyers? As previously noted, the BBC has a phalanx of them, and of those who specialise in pre-broadcast risk assessment, all [...]
Woe betide those who freelance and fail to return a call.
We say this upon hearing of a normally prolific freelance journalist who picked up a voicemail from an editor at one of the nationals on Tuesday afternoon. Please call us, was the message, and it could mean just one thing – a commission.
Our hero’s habitual practice is to return such calls as soon as is reasonably practicable, as m’learned friends might put it. In practice, that would habitually mean within a couple of hours. Most atypically, and for reasons we have yet to fathom, our man failed to call back for a full 24 hours.
By then, said editor had looked elsewhere. One of our man’s competitors had the gig, an interesting piece about cricket and the law, one which might just be in The Times today and which, we assume, asks whether the Pakistan cricket team have been caught out (in the legal sense, you understand).
We make no judgement on the no ball scandal, save to say that it is a scandal, but in another sense the moral is clear: in the fast-paced world of modern media, he who hesitates is lost.
Pictured courtesy of PrintedClothing.com: a fast-selling shirt.
Susan Casey’s new book, The Wave, is soon to be published. It brilliantly illumines the world of professional big wave surfing, at the same time as exploring the phenomenon of rogue waves (specifically, those which top 100ft).
Suitably inspired, we thought we’d take a look at a different kind of professionalism than is usually to be found on these pages. Those featured in our magnificent seven of alternative professionals may not wear suits for a living, still less spend their time in the boardroom, but they couldn’t do what they do if they weren’t every bit as dedicated, focused, driven and downright professional as those at the helm of a City law firm, finance house or PR company.
Hamilton is the star of The Wave, and no wonder. Based on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, the man is a force of nature, a 6″3′ powerhouse who makes big wave surfing look like a walk in the park. But it isn’t. The wave known as Teahupoo, surfed by Hamilton in Tim McKenna’s picture below, is a killer. Only years of focus, training and preparation make Hamilton able to ride this wave with such aplomb.
2. Danny Way
Warning: do not watch this footage if you are afraid of heights (and squeamish). American skateboarding star Danny Way has been rebuilt more times than the bionic man. He’s also made a small fortune from a sport so often wrongly derided as ‘for kids’. Definitely not one for a suit and tie, Way nevertheless deserves respect – as much as he would appear to need a permanent personal medical staff.
3. Shane McConkey
Professional skier Shane McConkey died in March 2009 while skiing in the Dolomite Mountains in Italy. His death robbed the world of extreme sports of an athlete known for combining BASE jumping with skiing, as seen in such feats as skiing into a BASE jump off the Eiger. RIP.
4. Shaun White
There are those who say that White, snowboarder extraordinaire, has the kind of hair that is inimical to success. We say, like Forbes magazine, that if White earned $9 million from his endorsements in 2008 alone, what’s he worth now? We also say: don’t try what White does at home. Or anywhere, really.
If BMX riding is jejune, does it matter? Not to Macaskill, a man who’s worth a lot of money thanks to his remarkable ability on a bike.
6. Lynn Hill
There are rock climbers, and there’s Detroit-born Lynn Hill, the woman who made the first free ascent of the infamous Nose Route on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. Currently sponsored by the Patagonia gear and clothing company, Hill has done it all, taking phenomenal risks in the pursuit of her calling. Take a look at the intensity of her gaze: this woman would have been a genius at whatever she’d chosen to do.
She has the best name of any sportsperson, ever. She also looks pretty good, too, and is even better at her chosen discipline, wakeboarding. And discipline is the name of the game: as with everyone here, however outre their worlds, however extreme their sports, if they weren’t disciplined they’d not only be impoverished but also, quite possibly, dead. Respect.
Fantastic sting by the News of the World, whose legendary undercover reporter, Mazher Mahmood, has pierced the heart of some disgraceful match-fixing in professional cricket. Hats off, yet again, to Mahmood, but, strangely, we feel slightly sorry for him. Will he ever be able to retire into the sun and live a normal life? Somehow we rather doubt it.
Pictured: something which is decidedly not cricket.
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