Departing BBC HR boss Lucy Adams has come in for a fair amount of flak following her part, alongside six other current and former corporation figures squabbling about responsibility for signing off controversial severance payments, in last week's "grossly unedifying" Commons public affairs committee hearing. Now some of Adams' colleagues have written a letter saying that "the recent character assassinations in the press [about Adams] are sexist, inaccurate and unfair". In recent days coverage has included a piece in the Daily Mail in which Adams was dubbed "Lipgloss Lucy". The letter, which has been sent to in-house BBC magazine Ariel from her colleagues says their "experience of working with Lucy is that she is a leader of great integrity and honesty whose sole concern is to do what is right, (rather than what is easy), to secure the future of the BBC". They also say they "have been shocked and disturbed by the level of vitriol directed towards Lucy that is so out of kilter with our experience of working with her that we can't let it pass without comment". No word yet on whether they are sending a copy to PAC chair Margaret Hodge but Monkey suggests they change the title of the letter, which is "Lay off Lucy". Unless they intended it to be a literal moniker.
