‘Why not name and shame Tom English?’ ‘Has he posted a tribute to Shane Warne yet?’ ‘Maybe Tom English should be issuing an apology himself?’ No respite for English despite BBC apology

FILE PHOTO: Australian captain Shane Warne celebrates after taking the wicket of England's Adam Holliaoke for a duck during the first final of their international one-day series at the Sydney Cricket Ground February 10. England are facing Australia in the best-of-three finals of their one-day international series, ending in Melbourne./File Photo

Acknowledgement by the BBC that Tom English had not met their editorial standards raised as many questions as it did provide answers. 

Seven days after his crass comment following the sudden death of Shane Warne the state broadcaster was forced into apologising to Celtic over the social media content of one of their employees. 

Apart from the obvious issue of there being editorial standards at the BBC it seems strange that the culprit isn’t named. Having someone as limited as English as chief sports writer explains a lot about the sports content and standards of BBC Scotland.  

While the BBC have apologised there has been no apology from their chief sports writer or from BBC Scotland. This weekend English is enjoying a working break in Italy as the state broadcaster go overboard with their coverage of a meaningless game of egg-chasing. Chief Sports Reporter Chris McLaughlin in also on the trip. 

To claim that the Warne tweet was a lapse from English shows how out of touch senior management at the British Broadcasting Corporation really are. It wasn’t a lapse or one off, this one crossed a certain line but was hardly a shock or out of character.

With dozens of heavyweight issues surrounding Scottish sport English spends an unhealthy amount of time on Twitter. Perhaps if he took some fresh air, got out and about meeting people outside of the BBC bubble he might be able to contribute with some authority on the issues that he is paid for. Instead he trawls Twitter looking for offense to be outraged at, it is easily done. 

If BBC bosses in England want to gauge the reaction to English and their acknowledgment of failing to meet standards they should take a look at the quality of the replies to their tweet. 

Almost all are well thought out and expressed raising relevant points. Next time they are looking for a chief sports writer for Scotland they could cast their net a little further and harness some of the very obvious talent that is out there.  

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