at the end of Stephen Fry’s second HIV & Me programme on Tuesday viewers were directed to a new BBC website, G.I. Jonny (caution: not safe for work or children), “a viral information campaign produced by the BBC to raise awareness about HIV in the UK”, aimed at 16-24 year olds, running from October 1st until World AIDS day on December 1st 2007. Advising people about the risks of HIV … Continue reading →

Please use this thread for BBC-related comments and analysis. Please keep comments on other threads to the topic at hand. N.B. this is not (and never has been) an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or use as a chat forum. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog. Please scroll down to find new topic-specific posts. Click through to read and contribute comments on this … Continue reading →

. A previously unseen document found in a skip outside Narrowcasting House gives a unique insight into the years of dedicated training that have gone in to producing some of the Corporation’s brightest stars.   Comrades Jim & John: well known Radio 4 Toady presenters An excerpt from the full Handbook of the BBC’s Young Pioneers: “After years of training, John and Jim are finally allowed to run Toady – … Continue reading →

a leader article in the Daily Telegraph, Winds of competition: Not entirely unlike the Royal Mail farrago is the crisis that looms at the BBC. Again, a public sector organisation faces threats of strike action from its unions that could weaken the future of the entire enterprise. But in this case, the decisions of the management seem to be dictated by an irrational bureaucratic mindset. The corporation has set its … Continue reading →

Sorry that I haven’t been posting for a while. Unfortunately my circumstances aren’t likely to change any time soon, so it is not a good idea to write to me with examples of BBC bias for the present. The odds of me posting your observation, however scandalous it is, are small. Best use the comments instead. That said, here I am today, home unexpectedly. And Fausta writes, “If you guys … Continue reading →

: Having ignored former BBC Governor Dame Pauline Neville-Jones’ devastating broadside in last week’s Mail on Sunday, this week they managed to include Jeff Randall’s article from the Sunday Telegraph, All the BBC needs is proper management, and then ignored an article from Monday’s Daily Mail, Faked footage, rigged votes and a culture of bias. No wonder we’ve lost faith in the BBC, where Melanie Phillips goes to town on … Continue reading →

there was a report about the North West Passage being free of ice for, according to Sneerboy, “the first time ever” – which of course sounds a lot more dramatic than “the first time in recorded history”, though even that is debatable. But the thing that really irked was this, in the Stupid BBC category, David Shukman (who of course just had to go to Resolute Bay in Canada to … Continue reading →

Innocent of inserting noddy shots of himself into interviews not conducted by him, anyway. It turns out that: In all of the shows, in the four years since Imagine began, fake “noddies” were inserted into precisely none of them. Not one. So how did it happen then that such a damaging allegation was allowed to gain so much traction? “It’s all my own fault . . . it was foolish … Continue reading →

, the supremely qualified Jeff Randall, writing in the Telegraph, says All the BBC needs is proper management. Some excerpts: Queengate and Fincham’s departure: As Fincham walked, the BBC promised “to implement a comprehensive set of actions to address the weaknesses of communications and co-ordination with other divisions.” Do what? Hello, it’s not that complicated. This fiasco does not merit another burst of expensive training manuals. There’s no need for … Continue reading →

wrote Melanie Phillips in yesterday’s Daily Mail. Some excerpts: The departure of Peter Fincham: [F]eeling is growing that Mr Fincham has been made to carry the can for those higher up the BBC hierarchy, such as the grandly titled Director of Vision Jana Bennett, who was also criticised for showing a “lack of curiosity” once she had been told what had happened. Moreover, the manner of Mr Fincham’s departure is … Continue reading →