I wasn’t terribly bothered about the BBC offending the queen. Faked television phone-ins didn’t bother me. But misreporting scientific research really gets me…
When I speak to Italian friends about the differences between Rai and the BBC, I often say that there are simply not so many newspaper articles about the BBC as there are about Rai. When newspapers do publish things on the BBC, they try (usually) to select issues of genuine public interest and (usually) try [...]
Three items this week, in descending order of importance, increasing order of triviality: The cost of a BBC licence fee was set for the next six years. The fee will increase 3% for the next two years, and 2% for the four following years. The figures roughly follow projections for CPI, but there is no [...]
Minutes of the BBC Governors’ meeting of the 28th and 29th January reveal that Greg Dyke was sacked by the Board of Governors, rather than resigning. As Torin Douglas wrote, For those who have read Greg Dyke’s book Inside Story, there are few surprises in the minutes of the BBC governors’ meetings. Still, nice to [...]
One departure, one arrival, and one return from the brink: Michael Grade left the BBC. The decision was broken, as I understand it, in the Telegraph, and confirmed this morning. No news yet on salary, but it may top £2m. No news yet on how how he will be replaced. A former surgeon, acting Chair [...]
The BBC announced today a review of its coverage of business. The review – which follows previous reviews of coverage of the European Union and the Middle East – will be conducted by a panel of six of the ‘great and the good’, and forms part of the new Trust’s ongoing Impartiality Project. These reviews [...]
I’m just back from the PSA Media and Politics Group conference in Sunderland, where I presented a paper on the screen time given over to Italian politicians. Whilst there, I found out that Guy Starkey has compiled similar data [Powerpoint] on the screen-time given over to different parties on the BBC’s Today programme during electoral [...]
Whilst the BBC struggles to clarify its position on news-readers wearing the veil, Rai nominates a number of office-holders. In short, business as usual. For completeness’ sake, here are the nominees: Luigi Meloni (Unione, allegedly) – vice-director, HR; Alessandro Zucca (CdL, allegedly) – vice-director, HR; Valerio Fiorespino – vice-director, TV Resources; Giancarlo d’Arma – vice-director, [...]
This is London takes up this story about the BBC’s ‘impartiality summit’. The paper’s spin is that the summit was an admission that the BBC is ‘biased’. In particular, “the BBC is dominated by trendy, Left-leaning liberals who are biased against Christianity and in favour of multiculturalism”. If the minutes of the meeting are accurate, [...]