After Reform demanded a public apology from the BBC for Matt Chorley’s misquoting Farage on Newsnight last night the corporation has acquiesced. Matt Chorley said Farage called for “white cold rage” instead of “pure cold rage.” He was forced to apologise this morning – it wasn’t enough…
The BBC itself has apologised to Farage, removed the Newsnight episode from iPlayer and Sounds for now and will also air an apology tonight. Safe to say the BBC wants Robert Kenyon to appear on the Question Time panel tomorrow night…
A new technical document from Ofcom has introduced the ability for the BBC to mark its own homework. All while it can go about hammering GB News…
Buried in its 11 May consultation response on assessing changes to the BBC’s public services, the internet/broadcast regulator has reserved the right to skip a full competition assessment of BBC changes if it judges it lacks the resources to do one:
“There may be times where, in line with our administrative priorities, we will need to consider whether we have the resources needed to conduct a competition assessment.”
Ofcom’s headcount has grown from 1,483 to 1,608 full-time equivalents between 2023-24 and 2024-25. On the very same day as publishing the document, Ofcom found the bandwidth to reopen a GB News investigation it had already cleared over a re-run of a Bev Turner – Trump interview aired twelve hours later on a different show. If Ofcom spent less time bowing to anti-GB News activists maybe it could find the time to scrutinise the BBC…
Lord Michael Grade, recently-departed Ofcom chairman, said anti-GB News critics are “embarrassed by the fact that there is a news organisation that has a different news agenda to them, that speaks to the agenda of the majority – if you look at the polls, a large swathe of the voting population, who have no voice on the BBC. Immigration, Brexit, these are all issues that don’t get the weight on the BBC, or haven’t been able to, that GB News will give, so what’s the problem?” Quite…
The BBC has edited a headline that suggested the Confederation of British Industry backed “green jobs.” Typical…
BBC Scotland published an article headlined: “Green jobs contributing £10.2bn to Scotland’s economy, says CBI.” Only, it doesn’t…
Actually the CBI’s separate consultancy CBI Economics was commissioned by a pro-net zero think tank to talk up the contributions of eco jobs. The report actually states in a disclaimer:
“This report was commissioned by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) and prepared by CBI Economics on an independent basis. The analysis, findings and conclusions presented in this report are those of CBI Economics alone and do not necessarily reflect the views or policy positions of the CBI, its members, or ECIU.
CBI Economics operates separately from the CBI’s member-led policy and advocacy teams. Its consultancy work is conducted independently and is not influenced by the CBI’s policy positions or by CBI membership.”
So, not the CBI itself. The BBC has made edits and a spokesman said: “The story makes it clear that this study was carried out by CBI Economics for the climate think tank the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) and we’ve clarified the headline.” Which now carries ‘report’ at the end. Net zero propaganda comes easy these days…
As Guido has long predicted, the BBC’s declining audience share meant that YouTube overtook the state broadcaster as the most-watched outlet by Brits earlier this year. YouTube is bigger than the BBC…
Now regulators are running to catch up. New ‘prominence’ rules being considered by Starmer after his ill-advised reset with the EU, the BBC could be given special treatment as an organisation hand-picked by ministers. Attempts are being made to ask social media platforms to change their display algorithms to give more ‘prominence’ to this content. In other words, some want to try to force YouTube and other video sites to give ‘prominence’ to the BBC over every other creator…
That’s ironic as the video sites themselves are massive net givers to the creative economy: YouTube alone contributed 7 billion Euros to the EU’s otherwise faltering media market in 2024. In the UK, that platform alone has added more than £2 billion to GBP…
State regulation of poplar platforms never works. Starmer’s internet crackdown is reaching insane new levels…
While Labour implodes, the Greens are busy accusing the BBC of all places of contributing to a “hostile environment” for asylum seekers. A useful reminder that things can always get worse on the left…
Following the BBC’s investigation showing asylum lawyers are advising their clients to pretend to be gay to support their claims, the Greens said:
“We are disappointed the BBC failed to put this report in context, showing the challenges those genuinely claiming asylum face.
“When they give so much prominence to the report, stretching it out over multiple days of reporting, it ceases to be in the public interest and instead serves to heighten the hostile environment facing those claiming asylum.
“Of course, applications for people seeking asylum must operate under a proper legal framework, but this report gives an entirely false impression of a system that is, in reality, stacked against people.”
For those interested in works of horror fiction, read the Greens’ immigration proposals here…
The BBC has apologised to an ex-Tory SpAd after a radio programme aired in which filmmaker Armando Iannucci and comedian Stewart Lee accused him of ‘spreading misinformation.’ Maybe only the brightest and best comic thinkers should venture out of their stand-up remit…
In an episode of Iannucci’s programme for Radio 4, called Strong Message Here, Iannucci and Lee attacked ex-Nadhim Zahawi SpAd James Price over some comments he made to LBC about the George Abaraonye Oxford Union scandal. Price had said “I think the long-term viability of the place (the Oxford Union) may struggle” on LBC, which Lee accused of being a “technique”:
“The speculation is now a technique. You speculate, and then you get from the speculation into the fact. The guy from a new made-up thing, Concerned Alumni of the Oxford Union, James Price, he’s from the Tufton Street think tank Centre for Policy Studies. He was saying, ‘there may have been donations withdrawn from the Oxford Union, because the bloke criticised Charlie Kirk. There may not be. But, if there have been, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.’
And then you’re into that. And we need a new name for this, and I would like to call it ‘fabulo-speculation’.”
Iannucci joined in and Lee went on: “you can speculate about something that you have no evidence for because the fabulo-speculation gets you to the insubstantiated (sic) point that you want to make.” He finished by complaining that “the lying has become normalised.” Oh look, Stewart Lee has let himself go…
In response to a complaint the BBC has today issued an apology to Price:
“I would judge that there was a strong implication that you were deliberately employing a “technique” in the knowledge that might lead to the spread of misinformation by others. At the time of your appearance on LBC there was some, albeit limited, evidence in the press that funding was being withheld from the Oxford Union by prospective donors in the wake of the row about Mr Abaraonye’s presidency. Given this, the fact that you were personally named in the BBC programme, and that you were not given the opportunity to respond to the allegation I would judge this was unfair to you under the guidelines.”
The BBC told Price he could elevate the complaint to media regulator Ofcom. He tells Guido: “I’m very pleased to get to this result, after the BBC’s multiple initial responses insisted no wrongdoing on their part. I had already been compelled to escalate this to Ofcom because the BBC breezed past their own deadlines for a reply, but it will be nice to update the case with the Beeb’s own admission of wrongdoing. I would be very happy to discuss the issue with Mr Iannucci and Mr Lee on their programme, to show there are no hard feelings on my part. How about it, chaps?” Water under the bridge…
Read the full apology letter below:
Continue reading “BBC Apologises to Ex-SpAd After ‘Unfair’ Stewart Lee & Armando Iannucci Programme”
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”