BBC BOSS TAKES A BITE (Director General of the BBC bit colleague on the arm 17 years ago)

The junior member of staff said he had to pull his arm out of Thompson's mouth which were "like the jaws of a labrador".

The revelations emerged because Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman was preparing an interview with Thompson for an internal BBC event and emailed the producer to ask if the incident really happened.

The producer, Anthony Massey, replied: "It was late summer or early autumn of 1988 when he [Thompson] was the newly appointed editor of the Nine O'Clock News and I was a home news organiser.

"It was 9.15 in the morning in the middle of the old sixth floor newsroom. I went up to his desk to talk about some story after the 9.00 meeting...

"I was standing next to him on his right and he was sitting reading his horoscope in the daily Star (I always remember that detail).

"Before I could say a word he suddenly turned, snarled and sank his teeth into my left upper arm (leaving marks through the shirt, but not drawing blood). It hurt. I pulled my arm out of his jaws, like a stick out of the jaws of a labrador."

He told his boss that he wanted to take disciplinary action against Thompson but Mr Massey was sent on a job abroad and did not pursue the complaint.

In his email reply, Paxman wrote of Thompson: "The bloke is quite clearly insane... Bloody hell! If any of this came out, he'd be toast."

The BBC played down the incident as "high jinks and horseplay" and said the incident happened when Mr Thompson was about 30.

A spokesman added: "Mark apologised. Our view is that it was a long time ago, there was an apology at the time and it was high jinks and horseplay".

Sky News BBC Email Exchange

BBC EMAIL EXCHANGE

The disclosure that BBC Director General Mark Thompson bit a colleague on the arm emerged during an email exchange between world duty editor Anthony Massey and Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman.

Here are the emails:

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeremy Paxman
Sent: 18 January 2005 15:50
To: Anthony Massey

I've got to interview Mark Thompson tomorrow. Is it true that he once bit you?

-----Original Message-----
From: Anthony Massey
Sent: 23 January 2005 08:50
To: Jeremy Paxman

Sorry I didn't reply in time, I've been away from the office for the last week, and I missed the News Festival or I could have offered this from the audience!

It is absolutely true. It was late summer or early autumn of 1988, when he was the newly appointed editor of the Nine O'Clock News, and I was a Home News Organiser. It was 9.15 in the morning, in the middle of the old sixth floor newsroom. I went up to his desk to talk about some story after the 9.00 meeting we used to have then. I was standing next to him on his right, and he was sitting reading his horoscope in the Daily Star (I always remember that detail). Before I could say a word he suddenly turned, snarled, and sank his teeth into my left upper arm (leaving marks through the shirt, but not drawing blood). It hurt. I pulled my arm out of his jaws, like a stick out of the jaws of a labrador. The key thing is, we didn't have a row first, or even speak, and I had never had any dispute with him before. He was recently arrived in the newsroom, and I hardly knew him. He just bit me in the arm for no reason without any warning or preamble. I don't think it was personal. Something turned in his brain, and anyone who had been standing there at that moment would have been bitten, Linda from the teabar, the BBC Chairman, Keith Graves, anyone. It just happened to be me.

Thompson didn't apologise or explain, so I went to complain to my then boss, Chris Cramer. All Cramer said was "This whole place is full of f****** headbangers", which was a fair point and indeed is still true, but didn't help somehow. I wanted to bring the whole BBC disciplinary process down on Thompson's head, and get the NUJ involved, but Cramer was desperate for that not to happen. So I got sent abroad on some story for a month or so, and when I came back it had lost momentum, and I never pursued it. Also I was on attachment and applying for a permanent job, so I didn't want to rock the boat. And in those days dinosaurs ruled the earth, and it seemed quite acceptable for senior people to bite junior colleagues. But several times since Mark Damazer, who was one of many witnesses, has said to me "You could have ended Mark Thompson's career with a single word, and you never did." He sounded as though he wished I had, though I thought he was meant to be a friend of Thompson's. Thompson stayed in the newsroom for several months until he became Editor of Panorama, and we have met a number of times since then. But in a very British way, neither of us has ever mentioned it. But when he became DG several people who were in the newsroom at the time reminded me of this incident (as if I might have forgotten it) and it went all round the building. To my knowledge the only time it's appeared in print was shortly afterwards, when a brief item appeared in the Londoner's Diary in the Evening Standard. This was nothing whatever to do with me, though I was not sorry to see it. My name wasn't mentioned, which was good. But the story did go round the world, and when I was in Kuwait just after the end of the Gulf War in 1991, an NBC producer said "Are you the person Mark Thompson bit?" Fame of a sort.

Now Thompson is DG, the story is probably more valuable. The joke in the newsroom is that if ever they make me redundant, I'll be off to the Daily Mail or the Sun with my arm in a sling.

I last saw Thompson just after he was made DG, at the BBC News 50th anniversary party in TC1 in May. He saw me across the room and went white. I don't know why. He shouldn't be afraid of me, I don't bite.

Anthony

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeremy Paxman
Sent: 24 January 2005 14:37
To: Anthony Massey

Gosh! I wish I'd got this earlier, although it would have been hard to know precisely how to play it, I think. The bloke is quite clearly insane.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeremy Paxman
Sent: 31 January 2005 15:00
To: Anthony Massey

... If any of this came out, he'd be toast.

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