Who should get the top salaries?

[Grand Moff Muffin]

A spin-off to the Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross thread.

The public have just realised that they are paying Jonathan Ross £16,000 a day to behave in a manner that they don't want people in this country to behave, and would like that money to go into the pockets of someone more deserving.

Unfortunately, most BBC salaries are not in the public domain so we can't tell who we are paying too much for by watching their programmes.

Without getting into a debate about the licence fee, but starting from the position that we have a TV station funded by tax alongside all the other commercial ones, and the amount of money it gets is fixed, how do you think the money should be spent?

Who deserves the top salaries? War correspondents? The interviewers who the politicians fear? The top actors and script-writers? The likes of David Attenborough? The likes of Stephen Fry? The likes of Frankie Boyle? The likes of Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand?

Martin

[The Doctor]

I think it says something about how society values people's work. People who work in emergency services should get £16,000 a day, not folk who present TV programmes. I look in job newspaper sections and most jobs don't pay that in a year.

Entertaining people is a hard job like any other and requires skill and effort and should be well paid. Fair enough. If someone doesn't make me laugh today, I won't die. If a nurse is so stressed out and tired due to worry about how she/he'll feed themselves and as a result makes a mistake, well that's far more serious for all concerned.

On a tangent, I'll say what is rarely admitted: that I'm jealous of high salaries and that colours my views. I'd love to earn £16,000 a day. If I was offered that, would I turn it down? Not in a million years.

-Ralph

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Yes, but supposing you had a fixed amount of money that you had to spend on TV/radio salaries...

After nagging Graham to post his views in the threads he starts, I'd better practice what I preach:

I think the top priority should be to get the very best talent (interviewers and experts) for BBC news. The BBC isn't flawless, but I think it's the best news service in the world and that it's in the public interest not to cut any corners. It should be as good as money can make it.

Second priority - top talent and production values for documentaries, primarily programmes such as Big Cat Live that hook all age groups.

Martin

[Deleted]

People like Bruce Forsyth should get high salaries. They have been in entertainment for many decades and are still going strong today. They started their careers when entertainment was non-offensive and non-violent and as such they know the values of good family entertainment.

Its the stars of today which are however paid the most money - the stars that I don't expect to be around for anywhere near as long as the veterans.

[karla]

MEEEEEE!!!!!