Louise Minchin got a little dig in this morning. They were chatting to Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer, she said something about not being a fan of fishing, Dan joked that he thought she was about to say she wasn't a fan of Paul and Bob, and then she said something like, "Well we are allowed to have opinions. Unless it's-" and then cut herself off and moved on.
It is worth listening to the R4 Media show
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008wph And how the ECU did NOT give thier reasoning or quote the Ed guidelines
As this would have shown that the complaint and the partial upholding ( marginal)
was NOTHING to,do with Racism but everything to do with Impartiality...
And how BBC complaint is viewer driven ...
And Tony Hall probably should not have over turned the judgement,
Basically it was not clear at the start and the whole saga just got even more confused !!!
This incident has made the latest fortnightly Ofcom Complaints and Compliance bulletin. They have concluded on the substantive point that they will not follow up on the incident itself.
However they do agree that the ECU's processes, role and responsibilities do need clarification. Their summary is reproduced below
Ofcom considers that some of the public concern about this case has been due to the lack of transparency around the BBC complaints process and the reasons for the decisions that it reaches. The BBC ECU has not published the full reasoning for its partiallyupheld finding. Neither has the BBC published any further reasoning for the Director-General’s decision to overturn that finding. We consider that this case highlights the need for the BBC to provide more transparency on the reasons for its findings on compliance with its requirements that reflect the Code. Transparency is important for public confidence in the operation and effectiveness of the BBC’s complaints process. We will be addressing the BBC’s lack of transparency as a matter of urgency.
Ofcom have also published their correspondence with the BBC over the matter - some of it from Kevin Bakhurst, a former bigwig in BBC News, and now director of content and media policy at Ofcom.
Ofcom have also published their correspondence with the BBC over the matter - some of it from Kevin Bakhurst, a former bigwig in BBC News, and now director of content and media policy at Ofcom.
Yes, Kevin is a former Editor of the Ten O'Clock News, and I think was the editor who relaunched BBC News 24 as the BBC News Channel, before moving to RTÉ where he was Head of News and Current Affairs and latterly Deputy DG I believe.
Ofcom have also published their correspondence with the BBC over the matter - some of it from Kevin Bakhurst, a former bigwig in BBC News, and now director of content and media policy at Ofcom.
Yes, Kevin is a former Editor of the Ten O'Clock News, and I think was the editor who relaunched BBC News 24 as the BBC News Channel, before moving to RTÉ where he was Head of News and Current Affairs and latterly Deputy DG I believe.
Ah, so he's to blame. I never agreed with the decision to remove the "24" moniker. I know they wanted it to be referenced as "BBC News" rather than "News 24", as had become the common shorthand, but in the end people just called it the "News Channel" which is even less recognisable. "News Channel" could be anything; at least "News 24" was well associated with the BBC. Apart from anything else, "BBC News 24" was catchy and it accurately described what the channel was about. I guess it would have had to change eventually though. They could hardly call it "News 24" now when they are only producing something like 6 hours of output a day, if that! They'd be done under the Trade Descriptions Act!
:-(
A former member
To be fair I’d say the vast majority of people refer to it as just BBC News these days. Job done.
Ofcom have also published their correspondence with the BBC over the matter - some of it from Kevin Bakhurst, a former bigwig in BBC News, and now director of content and media policy at Ofcom.
Yes, Kevin is a former Editor of the Ten O'Clock News, and I think was the editor who relaunched BBC News 24 as the BBC News Channel, before moving to RTÉ where he was Head of News and Current Affairs and latterly Deputy DG I believe.
Ah, so he's to blame.
I didn't say he took the decision to rebrand the channel - just that he was the editor who relaunched it with the new name...