John Sweeney spends 8 days undercover in North Korea. BBC News head of programmes Ceri Thomas said: “This is an important piece of public interest journalism.” Asked whether that justified putting student lives at risk, he replied: “We think it does.”    So what exactly was the public interest that merited the James Bond approach? We are informed that North Korea has been indulging in a great … Continue reading →

  Gordon Carera in the US was more balanced than the team in the Today studio (8:13)…mentioning the ‘dark skinned’ suspect and that a Saudi Student was being sought. However other conclusions have already been drawn. After the wise words of Rick Nelson, from US Homeland Security and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Evan Davis said ‘Everything points to keeping calm, play it slowly, be accurate and don’t jump to … Continue reading →

I posted earlier how the Authorities swiftly move in to manage the Public’s perceptions of an event and thence its reaction….and how the BBC obliges them by ‘managing’ its news output.   The horrific attack on the Boston Marathon is an example of this in operation.  Here it is the US government but there are certain elements to the situation that make the BBC want to control your idea of … Continue reading →

I am off to Hong Kong and then to Australia on Tuesday so blogging will be MUCH less frequent for the rest of this month. I hope the other B-BBC writers will keep you entertained but I will be travelling for next 24 hours.

BBC reporting a horrendous terrorist attack in Boston. This is breaking news and it will be interesting to see how the BBC covers it as I suspect this is a Jihad attack.

North Korea seems to have jammed Panorama on the iPlayer so here’s another open thread to play with…fill it before Kim Jong Un nukes the BBC and it is no more…..

  One for the diary…this Wednesday the BBC shows: Israel: Facing The Future John Ware journeys to Israel for a fresh look at how it has responded to the changes sweeping the region in the wake of the Arab Spring. He meets Israelis from all walks of life to go beyond the news clichés and analyse what is next for the world’s only Jewish state as both the religious and … Continue reading →

….move house.   It might be a bit extreme but beats not paying the license fee as a statement. BBC World Service fan ‘plagued neighbours’ by playing Radio 4 non-stop A BBC World Service fan “plagued” his neighbours to the point of moving house by playing Radio 4 non-stop.  The court was told Thomas became increasingly aggressive towards the family – and at one point threw a garden ornament through … Continue reading →

  This may have been mentioned in the comments somewhere but I think it is so extraordinary that it merits a wider audience…. This is John Sweeney trying to defend his actions (and failing): North Korea is….‘A state that is more like Hitler’s Germany than any other state in the world, It is extraordinarily scary, dark and evil….. We maintain all of the students were aware of the risk.’   … Continue reading →

David’s already commented on this but I thought it was worth contrasting the far more serious nature of the BBC’s actions in comparison to ‘phone hacking’.   The News of The World hacked a few celebrity phones and of course Millie Dowler’s…..tasteless, intrusive, immoral and illegal. But not the end of the world and nobody died as a result of it. However the BBC’s own undercover/underhand operation to obtain a story … Continue reading →