The BBC is hoping that its decision to suspend Jonathan Ross for 12 weeks will end the crisis caused by crude prank phone calls he made with Russell Brand on a radio show, media commentators said today.
While newspapers generally welcomed the corporation's action against Ross, one of the BBC's highest paid presenters, the decision by Lesley Douglas, the head of Radio 2, to quit over the furore was greeted with sadness.
The BBC acted yesterday after the "deplorable" messages left on actor Andrew Sachs's phone drew 30,000 complaints, criticism from British prime minister Gordon Brown and media condemnation of its handling of the episode.
Following an emergency meeting between BBC Director-General Mark Thompson and the BBC Trust, the BBC's independent governing body, Ross (47) was suspended without pay but kept his job for what Mr Thompson described as his "utterly unacceptable" behaviour.
However, Thompson said it was a "final warning".
Ms Douglas, who was appointed controller of the music and chat station in 2003, then made the decision to quit.
"It is a matter of the greatest possible sadness to me that a programme on my network has been the cause of such a controversy," she wrote in a letter to Mr Thompson that was released by the BBC.
The prank had already led to the resignation of Brand (33) a flamboyant comic who has branched out into acting in Hollywood films including the romantic comedy
Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
The row erupted after the duo joked Brand had slept with the granddaughter of 78-year-old Andrew Sachs, who played Spanish waiter Manuel in the cult comedy series
Fawlty Towers.
They also joked that Sachs might kill himself after hearing messages left on his phone.
Newspapers said action had taken far too long and Ms Douglas was an unfortunate victim.
The
Mirrorsaid the BBC should have refused her resignation, the
Independentsaid it was absurd she should carry the can, while the
Sunsaid she was the only person to emerge with any dignity.
"It was down to the production staff who let the filth be broadcast to fall on their swords or for Mark Thompson to sack them," the
Sunsaid in its editorial.
"The BBC wakes up to decency," said the front page headline on the
Daily Mail, one of the most vociferous critics of the corporation.
The BBC Trust, which said the calls were a "deplorable intrusion" into the privacy of Sachs and his granddaughter, said the BBC's editorial control in areas other than news gathering was inadequate and must be strengthened.
It said lessons had to be learned.
Reuters