The much maligned fact-checking service BBC Verify is expanding amid massive job cuts at the corporation. Ironclad…
The BBC is cutting up to 2,000 jobs, nearly one in ten of its staff, to save £500 million. At the same time BBC Verify has snuck out job ads for two new roles paying a combined £90,000: a senior data journalist and a “journalism researcher.” This follows previous expansion in salary costs for the large unit. Meanwhile all departments are being told they face cutbacks and need to tighten their belts…
Verify already has 95 staff. The brand was the pet project of former head of news Deborah Turness, who quit over the Panorama Trump edit scandal. Her brainchild is getting bigger…
The hiring raises some questions about new director of news Rachel Jupp, who has set out her stall on “being where our audiences are”. Media sources tell Guido that Verify stories are not well read, nor are its video productions well watched. At the BBC 550 jobs are going in the first round of cuts including around 200 in news. The often-wrong fact-checkers being protected is sure to dampen morale further at the corporation…
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock was asked if Burnham will take Britain back into the EU:
“Yes, sure – his commitment is authentic. He really does understand from the grassroots up why restoring what I think of as normality in our continent is vital for every party economically, politically, culturally, in terms of security, and he’s able to articulate it in language that people can understand. So yeah, he is definitely”.