. He has discovered that: Five senior BBC production staff were suspended yesterday as Britain’s most senior policeman raised the prospect of a criminal investigation into the corporation’s rigging of phone-in competitions. The staff, all senior producers or editors, were the first casualties of the row over viewer deceptions involving a series of flagship charity and children’s shows. A fraud inquiry now seems inevitable after Mark Pritchard, the Tory MP … Continue reading →

in today’s Daily Express. Forsyth rails against the BBC’s recently noticed problems, their continued employment of Peter Fincham, “day after day of servile grovelling to Tony Blair, Cherie Ditto and Alastair Campbell” and the question of “whether Radio 4’s Today programme is passionately pro-EU. It is like starting a board of inquiry to ask if the sun rises in the East”, before getting in to his stride on the subject … Continue reading →

around 12.40pm: BBC Suspensions Number of editorial leaders suspended Presenter Matthew Amroliwala also mentioned that Stewart Purvis said earlier that there is “a culture in the BBC that needs to be examined”. Well, you’re not wrong there Stewart, but can we trust the people who’re going to do the examining? This story is also on BBC Views Online, BBC editorial leaders suspended – an article that cries out for a … Continue reading →

(now being rebranded as ‘climate change’ it seems), Gmail’s keyword advertising suggested this website, The Great Global Warming Swindle, promoting a DVD of: …an expanded and improved version of the film [of the same name] broadcast in the UK on Channel 4. More interview material has been added, covering a broader range of subjects than was possible in the broadcast film. The producers note: It would be nice to claim … Continue reading →

The BBC will admit today that it has uncovered irregularities in the operation of its Children in Need charity, The Times has learnt, after an appeal to staff to report instances where viewers were misled in the wake of controversies over Blue Peter and the editing of a programme about the Queen. The revelation — which will be one of several errors that the BBC is expected to own up … 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 … Continue reading →

featured a panel labelled The Big Picture, with a button to ‘Reveal image’. Clicking on the button popped-up an enlarge image pop-up page, featuring singer Lily Allen, with the caption: Singer Lily Allen signs autographs for school children in London’s Parliament Square as she launches the Make Space Youth Review. The report demonstrates worrying trends in teenagers lives such as antisocial behaviour. (my emphasis) Would this be the same Lily … Continue reading →

former BBC producer Antony Jay remembers those brave anti-establishment days : “For nine years (1955-1964) I was part of this media liberal consensus. For six of those nine years I was working on Tonight, a nightly BBC current affairs television programme. My stint coincided almost exactly with Macmillan’s premiership, and I do not think my ex-colleagues would quibble if I said we were not exactly diehard supporters. But we were … Continue reading →