The BBC’s executive complaints unit (ECU) has upheld complaints against the corporation for breaching editorial standards in the wake of the BAFTAs Tourette’s slur debacle. A new mess for incoming director-general Matt Brittin to try mopping up when he starts next month…
BBC chief content officer Kate Phillips said the ECU “found this should not have made it to air and it was a clear breach of our editorial standards… [but] found the breach was not intentional”. The broadcast remained on iPlayer in full until the following morning…
The ECU report itself said “This delay was a serious mistake. The fact that the unedited recording remained available for so long aggravated the offence caused by the inadvertent inclusion of the N-word in the broadcast”. Days since the BBC has reported on the BBC: zero…
Former Google executive Matt Brittin is the new Director General of the BBC. He starts on the 18th May. His statement:
“Now, more than ever, we need a thriving BBC that works for everyone in a complex, uncertain and fast changing world. At its best, it shows us, and the world, who we are. It’s an extraordinary, uniquely British asset, with over 100 years of innovation in storytelling, technology and powering creativity. I’m honoured and excited to be asked to serve as Director-General.
“Working alongside so many talented journalists, creatives and technicians, across the country and around the world, I join with humility, to listen, to learn, to lead, and to serve the public, working hard to earn their trust every day.
“This is a moment of real risk, yet also real opportunity. The BBC needs the pace and energy to be both where stories are, and where audiences are. To build on the reach, trust and creative strengths today, confront challenges with courage, and thrive as a public service fit for the future. I can’t wait to start this work.”
A tall order…
The BBC has published an investigation debunking Zack Polanski’s titillating claim to have apologised after he attempted to grow a Sun reporter’s breasts via hypnosis in 2013. In fact, the BBC has found Polanski stood by the claims…
The Greens claimed Polanski went on the BBC to apologise and claim the Sun misrepresented him the day after the original hypnosis piece came out. The BBC dug into its archives and couldn’t find that particular instance…
What it could cleave from the archives was a BBC Radio Humberside appearance six days later in which he roundly backed the asset treatment method:
“Actually increasingly more and more as I work with people, there’s starting to become anecdotal evidence, at least, of a growth in breast size… the evidence is growing… I believe that it can happen in theory and I think it’s definitely worth investing the time of evidence and research into hypnosis generally.”
No doubt Polanski will now be known as a bizarre grifter to voters all over the globes…
Tim Davie today, writing to the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee Chairman Caroline Dinenage:
“I’d like to make clear: although the racial slur was symptomatic of a disability and an involuntary tic, it should never have been broadcast. It was a genuine mistake, and we take full responsibility for our error.”
On why the slur ever made it to broadcast, given the two-hour tape delay:
“…initial evidence gathering has found that no-one in the on-site broadcast truck heard this when they were watching the live feed.”
That’s at least one more calamity for Davie to apologise for before standing down as Director-General next month. Will it be the last? There’s still plenty of time…
The BBC’s Chief Content Officer Kate Phillips has apologised to all staff after a racial slur involuntarily shouted by a Tourette’s campaigner was not censored from the BBC’s BAFTA Awards broadcast. Phillips said this afternoon:
“I’m so sorry that a racial slur was not edited out of our broadcast. We understand how distressing this was. Award attendees were pre-warned about the possibility of involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette Syndrome at the start of the show, and Alan Cumming addressed it during the broadcast. Of course, this doesn’t lessen the impact and upset. We would never have knowingly allowed this to be broadcast. We take full responsibility for what happened… Again, I am so very sorry for the distress caused.”
She adds that a second slur was caught in the edit, but one nonetheless aired in error. BBC News “understands” that the BBC producers responsible for managing the output simply didn’t hear it. Days since the BBC had to report on itself: zero…
The latest in the BBC’s grinding attempt to catch up with the times has the corporation launching shows specifically for YouTube. The BBC has never put more than trailers and clips there – preferring to direct people to its own bespoke platforms…
The FT reports that shows will be produced exclusively for YouTube before being added to iPlayer at some later time. Talks are advanced…
The BBC will justify the semi-retirement of its own platforms by only putting youth-oriented material on YouTube as part of the deal. The platforms is only getting bigger – and that’s across all demographics…
Obviously the corporation won’t be able to ask for YouTube viewers to pay the licence fee. One step closer to its abolition…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”