Blimey. I’m only away for a couple of days at a compensation and benefits conference, and what happens while I’m away? The BBC’s most highly paid entertainer – Jonathan Ross – is suspended without pay for three months, another has already resigned, and the controller of Radio 2 has hastily found a sword to fall on.

Rarely have I witnessed a mountain being made out of a molehill quite so quickly. Actually, the last time also involved the BBC. Remember the furore over the misleading editing of a trailer to a Royal Family documentary last year? If you do, it’s no doubt not because of an outraged sense of injustice over the treatment of our Liz, but rather for the BBC’s penchant for self-flagellation and a lemming-esque instinct to jumping off cliffs.

Ok, so let’s all take a deep breath and try and be rational about this whole saga. Forget for a moment, that the right wing press seem to particularly relish such opportunities for BBC-bashing, and cries for a return to 1950s family values. Or the mob mentality of ‘Outraged from Oldham’ and their message boarding brethren.

Yes, the BBC is answerable to the public. But its stock in trade, or one at least, is humour and entertainment. Individuals in such areas are tasked to consistently be humorous and entertaining every time they are on air. If they hit a bum note once in a while, it must surely be expected. Ok, this was a particularly low bum note, but is such a reaction from the organisation really proportionate?

Would other organisations that require innovative, risk-taking individuals, react by tendering and accepting resignations so readily? I would suggest not, for such actions would instil a sense of fear within an organisation which would stop people from taking risks. Without a safety net in place, it’s far more sensible to be average.

I do hope that the BBC stands up for itself a bit more the next time something like this happens. Otherwise we’ll end up with a thoroughly bland, entirely inoffensive BBC output, run by timid yes-men and women too scared to make their mark.