BBC suspends phone competitions

There's a prize at stake for both though isn't there? I's not just the financial side in terms of the amount to enter that's the problem

Typically mail rubbish. Headline - "They even fixed the name the cat phone-in " - it was a web vote, which it quite clearly states several times. They even managed to bring the queen into it. Which has nothing to do with Marson. And then the last bit is even more irrelevant. It's like they've stuck another article onto it.

TBH I don't think a free online poll is quite the fraud that the previous phone-in was and certainly not as bad as the Liz Kershaw show, which I think was probably the worst of them all as the others all seemed to be live incidents and not regular and planned deception.

I think also if the name was deemed unsuitable then they can't really go on air and say "well you all suggested sh*tface as a name for the cat. So we'll call it socks instead." The obvious question is why put it into the poll in the first place?

Not sure who to believe about this. Konnie Huq refused to comment on the affair when questioned this morning by Lorraine Kelly on GMTV. Ceefax is also reporting the BBC refuses to comment while Teletext (another Associated Newspapers outpost) claims Richard Marson has been suspended.

If there has been any wrongdoing hasn't BP learned from Phonegate it never pays to hush things up? On the suggestion that the name the viewers chose was rejected as unsuitable, the honourable thing to do would have been to go back to the viewers, but then why would this name have made the final online vote if it really was inappropriate?

Looks like Blue Peter has hit the bad wave of truth again. How can it go wrong when there's no more phone competitions. Well an internet poll has now paid the wave with bad for Blue Peter when kiddywinks were asked to name the new Blue Peter cat.

Cookie they cried and it was that name which won the poll. The production team took the authoritive stance and decided that instead going for the kiddies choice that they would go for second place "Socks" and now a mini riot at the Beeb has occured again.

There will be an apology made during the first new programme on Tuesday.

Edit: Apologies looks like this is already being talked about in the BBC supsends phone competitions thread. As this wasn't a competition and did not use a phone, I didn't decide to look in that thread. You know it makes sense.

Will they never learn - Cookie is a better name than Socks anyday.

(imagines cheeky CA on BBC2 tomorrow afternoon: "Has Blue Peter really socked it to the viewers over the name of its latest cat? Find out on BBC One now...")

"Well now, looks like the cat that's got the cream now on CBBC..."

Now on Ceefax:

TV cat poll was fixed, BBC says
The BBC has confirmed its children's TV series Blue Peter broke editorial rules in an online vote to name its cat.

The cat had been named Socks after staff changed the results of a poll on its website. Viewers had wanted the cat to be called Cookie.

Earlier this year the BBC was fined £50,000 after it was found to have faked a Blue Peter phone-in contest.

BBC 6 Music's head of programmes Ric Blaxill has resigned following breaches on his station, the BBC said.

Oh, so it was just a rumour that it was actually "Pussy" that topped the poll?

BP themselves have begun the grovelling:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bluepeter/content/articles/2007/09/20/socks_apology_feature.shtml

Possibly although that could be a cover up by the Beeb.

I doubt they woulld have let Pussy into the poll, in fact I reckon the poll options were picked by the production team.