I’ve long pointed out how many of the “successful”, particularly those in the media, are the beneficiaries of manufactured success. Consider how the “mystery” of Banksy was known to the BBC for years before the “unknown” graffiti artist was exposed.
A former BBC reporter who claims he caught Banksy painting a mural in New York confessed that the corporation helped keep the artist’s identity a secret. Nick Bryant the BBC’s former New York correspondent said he saw a man coming out of a coffee shop near a newly completed mural in 2018.
The corporation’s cameraman filmed the encounter as the frazzled artist made his escape.
But when Mr Bryant called his bosses in London to tell them about his world exclusive the response was far from expected.
‘Minutes later, a phone call came through from London,’ Mr Bryant said. ‘A senior colleague told me that his daughter had accompanied him to work that day, and thought it was wrong to unveil. We should not be the news organisation, she reckoned, to tell kids there was no Father Christmas.’
Except Father Christmas wasn’t profiting by selling his art for millions because he was famous around the world for being unknown… And it wasn’t a senior colleague’s daughter who gave the order to prevent the journalist from exposing the artist’s identity, it was more likely someone higher up the Clown World chain.