No Biffo ban
How good of the Republic’s Broadcasting Complaints Commission to strike a bold blow for freedom and decide not to punish RTE and News at One Sean O’Rourke for asking the harmless question: “Did Biffo Blink?” At least he didn’t use the f-word version of the big fellow from Offaly’s nickname. What a crisis it would have provoked had they found against the broadcaster. Instead of solemnly poring over the case the way such bureaucrats do, they should have dismissed the complaint out of hand as merely frivilous. Not that the UK is immune from stirring up a fuss over lack of reverence to the high and mighty. The sacking of the BBC1 Controller over Queengate was an example of ridiculous over-reaction. These may seem minor cases but vigilance is need to avoid slipping bad to the bad old days over Republican censorship, self- or imposed or otherwise, as with RTE from the 70s to the 90s and the BBC in various forms over the same period.
The BBC lied about an 80 year old woman/the head of state (as you prefer, for the level of unseemliness): needlessly walking out of a photo shoot with a US photographer; they then lied that they had lied about that; they then lied that they had looked into it; they then lied that they were sorry and rilly, rilly won’t ever do anything like that again (and can we please leave it there?); they then lied and said it was all the production company’s fault; they then lied and said they would take ‘full responsibility’; then, after Fincham finally fell on his sword, they then lied when they said they would ‘learn their lesson’. I can appreciate why a BBC pensioner like Brian feels that the Corporation should never be held to account for anything. But thank God the rest of the world doesn’t don’t wear those blinkers.
Wow Rooster, good to see you up in the saddle and rearin’to go! But Fincham’s firing was an over-reaction in my opinion – just like your comments.
‘But Fincham’s firing was an over-reaction in my opinion – just like your comments.’
Why Brian? Do you believe it is acceptable for the BBC to lie just because it is, you know, the BBC?
“vigilance is need to avoid slipping”
It certainly is:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/aug/27/bbc.alqaida
My comments were an over-reaction? My God but it’s been a sheltered life for some, working for government telly. My comments were reaction, that’s all. If you want, I could translate them into, for example, smug, self-satisfied, liberal-autospeak, but that would be an over-reaction. Fortunately, as I say, neither Fincham nor the BBC’s Head Shed agrees with you that lying, then lying again, then lying some more about the centrepiece of their then autumn schedule (which, er, was a programme about the Queen, not, say, wan of them wans off of an early Noughties Big Brother) isn’t worth resigning over. Certainly it’s worth resigning over when you’re found out.
Make up your own minds here:
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007/10_october/05/investigation.pdf>
Though the top line is:
It is worth emphasising that I do not believe that anyone consciously set out to defame or misrepresent the Queen in the tape which was prepared for the BBC One season launch.
Nor was there ever a possibility that the misleading sequence could have been included in the finished documentary to be broadcast by the BBC.
That said, the incident reveals misjudgements, poor practice and ineffective systems as well, of course, as the usual helping of bad luck that often accompanies such sorry affairs.
Do you mind if we *don’t* make our minds up about the BBC’s misdeeds just on the basis of what the BBC itself tells us about its own misdeeds?
“That said, the incident reveals misjudgements, poor practice and ineffective systems as well, of course, as the usual helping of bad luck that often accompanies such sorry affairs.”
and that comment was complete nonsense.
A lot of the things that have happened since are a massive over-reaction. Television often needs artifice. Put the average member of the public on a quiz show and you are guaranteed that 1 in 4 will be an inarticulate idiot who cant stop swearing or scratching their balls on camera. So they have always selected them. Shock horror!!!!
But the Queen issue was different. It wasn’t the out of sequence editing per se. It was the fact that that was done to create a completely false sense of drama and conflict and portray her as a cranky old bitch. The thruth was the exact opposite. They should have been sent to the Tower.
Don’t forget – Stormont would like control of broadcasting in N Ireland. What then, dear citizens?