Thursday, July 19, 2007
The BBC Caught in Massive Cheating Scandal
The BBC, one of the three triads of journalistic evil, has been nailed to the wall in the latest scandal by the liars of the Left: they used fake names as winners of phone-in contests.
BBC phone-ins chose fake winners
And here come those "dismissals":
BBC editorial leaders suspended
And what kind of breaches of trust occurred? Check these out:
In one year, nothing will have changed. Then what? Will the BBC have to stop taking the £7 billion it gets from the British taxpayer each year for their rotten, Marxist programming?
The BBC, one of the three triads of journalistic evil, has been nailed to the wall in the latest scandal by the liars of the Left: they used fake names as winners of phone-in contests.
BBC phone-ins chose fake winners
The BBC faced a grave crisis of public trust last night after admitting that a series of flagship children's and charity phone-in programmes had deliberately deceived viewers.
Children in Need, Comic Relief and Sport Relief all featured fake competition winners, the corporation said.
An internal investigation, ordered after the BBC's apology to the Queen last week, also disclosed serious breaches of editorial standards involving a series of other phone-in shows. In some instances production staff posed as competition winners.
After the scale of the deceptions became clear, Mark Thompson, the director-general, immediately suspended all phone-related competitions on television and radio. Interactive and online competitions were also halted.
The inquiry identified cheating on six television and radio programmes. The audit - of a million hours of output since January 2005 - followed the row over a BBC1 trailer that wrongly implied that the Queen stormed out of a sitting with the photographer Annie Leibovitz.
Mr Thompson presented the inquiry's findings at a meeting with the BBC Trust, the corporation's governing body, which had demanded an explanation over the royal fiasco.
The trust called the editorial breaches "deeply disappointing" and ordered an immediate investigation.
A number of executives face suspension over the deceptions. Mr Thompson last night warned that dismissals were inevitable.
And here come those "dismissals":
BBC editorial leaders suspended
A number of senior BBC editorial staff have been suspended with immediate effect in the wake of revelations about faked phone-in competitions.
A BBC spokeswoman said junior personnel were not involved, but declined to comment on numbers or identities.
Meanwhile, BBC director general Mark Thompson has been given a vote of confidence by the BBC Trust.
Chairman Sir Michael Lyons said he was "the right person to lead change", and was "confident he will do it".
But he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme they would "suspend judgement until we have seen improvement".
And what kind of breaches of trust occurred? Check these out:
Serious editorial breaches were found in six shows, including Comic Relief.
The charity said in a statement that "these broadcast problems will not affect its grant-giving or donations in any way".
Sir Michael warned that the Trust, which oversees the BBC's activities and represents licence fee payers, would be "watching very carefully" to ensure the correct sanctions were applied.
"We will come back in a year's time to make sure the BBC is a different place to the one it is today," he said.
In one year, nothing will have changed. Then what? Will the BBC have to stop taking the £7 billion it gets from the British taxpayer each year for their rotten, Marxist programming?
