Author Archives: DB

CREDIT WHERE IT’S DUE…

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Vanessa Feltz on BBC London this morning showing up Alastair Campbell for the hypocrite he is. She puts all the big boys on Newsnight, PM, the Today programme, Radio Five Live etc to shame.

Alastair Campbell v Vanessa Feltz: listen to their sharp exchange over phone hacking… (mp3)

UPDATE. Talking of hypocrisy, great stuff from Cityunslicker: “The voice of the people” (h/t George R.)

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AGENDA DRIVEN

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Further to David Preiser’s post about the BBC’s use of an apocryphal quote in a far from subtle article on media barons, here’s one of the co-authors of that piece on Twitter yesterday:

Last week the BBC ran another De Castella article in which he attacked the News of the World for daring to quote Orwell’s Decline of the English Murder in its final edition.

And they have the nerve to call others “agenda driven“.

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SINGING FROM THE WRONG HYMN SHEET

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Christine Rice on Woman”s Hour (mp3)

Hat tip to Millie Tant in the comments for drawing our attention to Jenni Murray’s interview with mezzo-soprano Christine Rice on Thursday’s Woman’s Hour. At one point Dame Jenni asked Rice about her pre-singing career researching “global warming”, and I don’t think the response was quite what was expected. The singer recounted her disillusionment with the field of climate change studies, which she described as “the buzz subject… with a lot of money”:

I was amazed really by the inadequacy of what we had, because we’re talking about climate change which is over tens of thousands of years as opposed to the twenty years of data that we had. So in a way we were putting out a lot of ideas and not really having concrete scientific research to support it, and I suppose at that point I did lose a little bit of my spark, thinking well I could propose an idea and I could probably draft a thesis that would support it and yet I wouldn’t really convince myself necessarily.

At this point Murray changed the subject.

It would be fascinating to know how many other people have turned their backs on a career in science because they didn’t want to play the climate change game. The wilful lack of curiosity displayed by Murray suggests it’s not the sort of investigation that would interest the BBC though.

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IRONY ALERT

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Screengrab from the BBC’s US & Canada page:

Pretty rich, huh?

Here’s the report by Tom Brook. How very different to the BBC’s treatment of the Obama documentary We The People which even the Obama-friendly Washington Post described as a “stultifyingly naive, please-drink-a-little-more-Kool-Aid paean” and “a very long commercial for Obama”. The BBC didn’t assign a journalist to cast a critical eye over that film, chosing instead to broadcast it as part of its teenage fan-club Obama season on the first anniversary of his, like, totally awesome victory.

Agenda driven indeed.

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COORDINATION

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Is the BBC trying to mastermind the attack on Murdoch? Here’s the assistant editor of The Independent Ian Burrell a short while ago (h/t MySiteC2E in the comments):

Fishing around for a “safety in numbers” line of attack, perhaps?

And as an update to my earlier post about the BBC and Guardian combining forces, the BBC’s Kevin Bakhurst has explained how they are able to claim the Gordon Brown interview as an exclusive when the Guardian’s Nick Davies says it was “an interview with the BBC and the Guardian”:

Hope that clears things up. No? Well, for the time being perhaps it’s best we all just assume that the BBC and the Guardian are one entity.

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BBC/GUARDIAN JOIN FORCES, POOL RESOURCES

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Most newspapers are trying to come up with new angles on the phone hacking scandal but it seems one in particular is getting some extra help from the state broadcaster.

Yesterday afternoon (at 17.14 according to the time stamp) the Guardian posted audio of a phone conversation in which Barry Beardall, a scam merchant working for the Sunday Times, tricked someone at the solicitors Allen and Overy into giving up information about the sale of Gordon Brown’s flat.

A short time later the audio was taken down, as noted on Twitter by Reuters’ Anthony De Rosa and the Times’ David Rose:

@DRoseTimes David Rose
Guardian pulls audio of Sunday Times obtaining Gordon Brown’s property details “pending investigation” http://soup.ps/piKWTW HT @AntDeRosa

Adrian Monck, the former head of City University’s journalism department, suggested this was probably done at the BBC’s behest:

@amonck Adrian Monck
@DRoseTimes Audio prob pulled as BBC wanted exclusive at 10 – they just ran it

David Rose found it hard to believe that the Guardian and the BBC would be so cooperative (where has he been?) :

@DRoseTimes David Rose
@amonck And you think the Gdn would just back down over that? Or share editorial decisions? Also no mention of Sun Times defence on Beeb!

Monck replied:

@amonck Adrian Monck
@DRoseTimes Depends who scored the audio. Besides reporting was v weak + Beeb led on royal angle..

A clip of the Beardall phone call was then played on Newsnight as part of a Michael Crick report into the Brown revelations which, Crick said, “came from investigations by the BBC and the Guardian.”

Monck informed Rose:

@amonck Adrian Monck
@DRoseTimes Crick just nailed it as Beeb tape… co-investigation with Gdn

Rose checked with Kevin Bakhurst (Controller, BBC News Channel and Deputy Head, BBC Newsroom):

@DRoseTimes David Rose
@kevinbakhurst – is this correct? RT @amonck: @DRoseTimes Crick just nailed it as Beeb tape… co-investigation with Gdn

Bakhurst replied:

@kevinbakhurst Kevin Bakhurst
@DRoseTimes @amonck yes I think so yes

So, a co-investigation.

Once the BBC had broadcast the audio as an exclusive, the Guardian was free to re-post it on its own website.

The licence-funded BBC joining forces with the loss-making left-wing Guardian to attack Murdoch. Agenda? Perish the thought.

UPDATE 11:00. The BBC claims this morning’s interview with Gordon Brown was an exclusive:

Gordon Brown has alleged News International used “known criminals” to get access to personal information when Labour was in power, in an exclusive interview with the BBC.

But the Guardian’s Nick Davies says:

In an interview with the BBC and the Guardian…

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UNIQUELY FUNDED

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Reported in the Telegraph:

The BBC’s annual report, published tomorrow, will show that it paid 19 presenters, actors and journalists more than £500,000 last year, at a cost of £22 million. However, despite promising MPs that it would reveal how many stars are paid between £500,000 and £750,000, as well as the number on £750,000 to £1million and those on more than £1million, the broadcaster has now dropped the plans.

BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten has defended the U-turn.

So, sod you licence payers.

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