The BBC has launched a wide-ranging internal investigation into the mistakes that led the controller of BBC1 to claim that the Queen had walked out of a photoshoot "in a huff".
Last night a senior BBC figure said the whole episode revealed a "catastrophic" failure of management. "If you are going to show footage of the Queen having a hissy fit to the press then you have got to make sure of what you are showing," the source said.
Yesterday the row showed no sign of abating. Former BBC chairman Michael Grade, who now runs ITV, told the Today programme he saw a wider problem in broadcasting because an influx of young, inexperienced people.
There has been a huge influx of young talent into the industry as it expands.
They have not been trained properly, they don't understand that you do not lie to audiences at any time, in any show
"We are in an age today where there has been a huge influx of young talent into the industry as it expands. They have not been trained properly, they don't understand that you do not lie to audiences at any time, in any show - whether it's news or whether it's a quiz show ... It's desperately important that we restore trust and that the programme-makers get to understand - whether through hard lessons or through training or a combination of both - that you do not lie to audiences under any circumstances."
The internal inquiry ordered by senior BBC executives will seek to discover how the mistakes were made - not just regarding the latest row with Buckingham Palace but also in the phone line controversy that engulfed Blue Peter recently.
Thompson appealed to all staff to help identify "any further issues or incidents of serious intentional or unintentional deception of the audience".
In an internal BBC email yesterday, Mr Thompson warned that the two incidents threatened to "defy our values and threaten the precious relationship of trust between the BBC and our audiences". He said the corporation could not take that relationship for granted and appealed to all staff to help identify "any further issues or incidents of serious intentional or unintentional deception of the audience".
BBC Vision director Jana Bennett is understood to be overseeing the internal review of procedures. It is understood that she was particularly angry that another row about deception had blown up just as the BBC was attempting to draw a line under the Blue Peter phone line fiasco, which saw the corporation fined £50,000 for "serious management failings".
Following the meeting the BBC issued a new statement in which RDF took the blame for the editing of the tape that was shown to journalists.
#1
"We got caught and we're really, really sorry about it"
I think the new talent doesn't understand *how* to lie effectively. You just put bias into your material, you don't lie outright.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/14/2007 10:36 Comments ||
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#3
British Broadcasting Comintern: We are in an age today where there has been a huge influx of young talent into the industry as it expands. They have not been trained properly
funny even without "training" each piece of the "young new talent" winds up imbued with the anti-America, Hate Bush Spirit.
#4
The BBC is basically far left secular gays. Especially in their news and editorial divisions. It has always been pro-Islam, anti-Judeo/Christian values and very much anti-American. And all of this on license fees that are outrageous. Sooner or later the British public will finally rebel and just refuse to pay the license fee. Imagine if 25 million people just said no!
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/14/2007 16:57 Comments ||
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The head of BBC One said on Friday he would not resign after the broadcaster was forced to apologise to the Queen for wrongly implying that she had stormed out of a photo shoot. The BBC blamed a production company for sending it clips edited out of sequence which implied the monarch had lost her temper when asked to remove her crown. The promotional trailer for a documentary, which was shown to media on Wednesday, wrongly gave the impression that the Queen had then stormed out of the shoot with American celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz.
Peter Fincham, the BBC One controller who presented the footage to journalists, said he had portrayed the events unaware that they gave a false impression. "What is regrettable is the mistake that was made in the editing of this particular sequence," he said. "That came to light, came to my attention well after the presentation. That's why I'm here to apologise for it."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"I presided over an inexcusable screw-up that utterly destroyed the BBC's remaining credibility, true, but that's hardly a firing offense, now, is it?"
Posted by: Mike ||
07/14/2007 7:39 Comments ||
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#2
They got Capone on tax evasion, not racketeering or murder or ...
The Beeb doesn't grasp that it isn't just disliked, it is hated as much as it hates. It just takes the right excuse to give the other guys the means to 'do on to others, as you've done to them'.
#1
For the first time in history, there are elements of the US nuclear capability on the European continent. It simply changes the whole configuration of international security ..Of course, we have to respond to that. -- Putin. Spengler in Asia Times has some almost hilarious commentary on the meeting.
#2
Ah, this is simply more bilge - the weapons have been there all along. The fact that they're being reduced in numbers is now a matter for which the Russians should be happy, not threatened.
By placing weapons systems and radar on Russia's borders the US will have a critical advantage that will disrupt the essential balance of power. This is forcing Putin to restart the arms race.
Russia makes itself into the enemy through continuing support for terrorist and rogue regimes like Iran and North Korea. To simultaneously assist Iran's nuclear weapons R&D and then decry attempts at securing Europe's airspace is the most base sort of hypocrisy.
Putinwho has watched the destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan from the sidelinesknows that the threat of American aggression cannot be taken lightly.
The "destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan"? Russia's track record in Afghanistan was pretty ghastly and makes American efforts look like the definition of nobility. One can only speculate as to Putin's KGB activities during that era.
The war on terror was basically designed to conceal US geopolitical ambitions in Eurasianot Iraq.
A bit of transference going on here. We need not mask our intentions like Russia so often does.
The personal attacks on Putin are no different than the attacks on Iran's Ahmadinejad or Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.
For once, here the author isunintentionallycorrect. All three of these despots are cut from the same totalitarian cloth.
Missile Defense is an expression of Washington's frustration with its own failures. The Global Resource War (aka The War on Terror) has been so badly bungled that Bush will have to initiate asymmetrical strategies to counter Russia's economic triumphs.
Putin's active role in destabilizing global security is a principal reason why there has not been more progress in the War on Terrorism. While Bush has definitely made some missteps, Putin has always been there to grease the skids.
The USSR may be gone but its policy of promoting tyranny and terrorism is very much alive. Tattered as it is, Bush's political legacy will far outshine that of Putin's for many years to come.
European Union research and development projects could be scrapped to overcome a funding shortfall for Europes rival to the US global positioning system.
EU countries on Friday discussed cutting 548m ($755m, £370m) from the unions competitiveness budget for next year, which would hit transport and energy projects as well.
The Brussels meeting considered shifting some of that cash to other parts of the financing pot, a move that could meet part of the cost of the unions Galileo satellite navigation system.
The suggestion adds to the controversy surrounding the project. Member states agreed last month to end talks with a private consortium and to find an extra 2.4bn funding by 2012 to build Galileo themselves.
While Germany says that Galileo would help the EU gain independence from other countries such as the US, the UK has questioned whether a business case exists for the project.
Member states must finalise next years budget by November, and Fridays talks were merely an opening salvo in negotiations with the European parliament. The chamber has often restored such cuts.
Nevertheless, the discussions signal months of talks on spending, with the EU facing awkward political choices. No extra cash is available for the multi-year spending round but there is room to manoeuvre from year to year.
Any raid on next years 5.8bn research pot could cause alarm, however.
About 1bn in European funds has already been spent on Galileo
About 1bn in European funds has already been spent on Galileo, with France and Germany stressing the need for Europe to gain an independent space capability. Critics say it is a political vanity project.
The US military operates GPS. China is building its Beidou and Russia improving its Glonass system.
#1
The EU is going to go the way of the old USSR if it thinks it can compete with us industrially and technology. They are way behind and piggy-back on us for the manned space program. Militarily they are about 50 years behind. I'd love to see us move NATO to Warsaw or Budapest. That would also put another bite in Vlad's ass.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/14/2007 17:02 Comments ||
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NEW DELHI: India and the US are close to signing an agreement under which their armed forces will provide each other logistics support on a reciprocal basis even as New Delhi may bid to buy another American amphibious warship.
A logistics support agreement is in the final stages, said top Pentagon officials now on a visit to the country. They also said that Washington had offered the giant landing ship, USS Nashwill, to the Indian Navy.
"We have put the offer to the Indian Navy," Lt Gen Jeffrey B Kohler, director of the Defence Security Cooperation Agency in the US defence department told reporters. The amphibious warship is of the same class as the 17,000-tonne USS Trenton that was bought by the Indian Navy.
Referring to the logistics support agreement, Kohler said the accord had been put up to the Cabinet Committee on Security. The Americans usually describe such a pact as an "acquisition and cross-services" agreement.
It was listed as a logistics support agreement at the suggestion of India, he said.
"The agreement will ease joint operations by the armed forces of the two countries during exercises and in coming to the aid of people struck by natural calamities," Kohler said, making it clear that the accord did not in any way imply the stockpiling of weapons on each other's soil.
"The armed forces of the two countries are having frequent interactions and face immense difficulties by way of fuel supplies and other logistics. With such an agreement in place, it would ease things for both militaries," he said.
Posted by: John Frum ||
07/14/2007 23:59 ||
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Two new electric stun weapons unveiled this week suggest that their use may shift from law enforcement to the battlefield. Some critics, however, worry that this could lead to such weapons being used more indiscriminately.
US company Taser International demonstrated a shotgun-fired projectile capable of stunning a target and a weapon capable of firing six individual shock darts at a time at an event held in Chicago, US, on Monday.
The company also recently revealed a a remote-controlled robot armed with shock weapons.
Normally, stun guns are handheld and fire a pair of darts attached to trailing wires over a range of about 10 metres. The wires conduct a powerful electric shock to a target, incapacitating them instantly.
The new projectile, known as XREP can be fired from a standard shotgun. A barbed electrode sticks to the target on impact. The rest of the projectile then falls away on a short tether and another spiked electrode makes a second contact point on the target. This ensures that the two electrodes are sufficiently spaced out to affect the entire body.
Removal protection
If the victim tries to grab the projectile and remove it, they will make contact with additional "reflex engagement" electrodes, providing another channel for an electric shock.
The electroshock projectile has a range of about 30 metres and generates an incapacitating electric discharge for 20 seconds after it hits, which the makers say is long enough for a person to be apprehended.
Development of XREP was funded by the US Office of Naval Research for Marines engaged in "clearing facilities" tasks like raiding buildings for suspected insurgents.
But Neil Davison, head of non-lethal weapons research within the peace studies department at Bradford University, UK, points to potential hazards of XREP. "It combines the well-known dangers of impact projectiles inaccuracy, potential for serious injury with a Taser shock four times longer than usual, which also carries an increased risk to the health of the victim," Davison says.
Second shock
The six-dart launcher called Shockwave has several barrels pointing in different directions. When discharged, it fires six Taser darts across a twenty-degree arc. The shock delivered by each dart lasts for five seconds, but the controller can reactivate them to give additional five-second discharges.
A video clip shows an array of eight Shockwaves 48 Tasers in two rows.
The US military already has non-lethal weapons capable of firing hundreds of hard rubber balls across a wide angle to disperse rioters. These include the M5 Modular Crowd Control Munition. But there is currently no civilian equivalent.
Again, Davison sees a risk that targets may be hit more than once. "My overall concern with all three developments is that they would further remove the process of human interaction, negotiation and reasoning from the decision by police to use force," he says.
Taser could not be reached for comment by time of posting.
#1
". . . weapons unveiled this week suggest that their use may shift from law enforcement to the battlefield."
This is a horribly mis-guided path to take. The LE model already plays too important a role on the battlefield. The aim of combatants on the battlefield should be death to the bad guys, not arrest.
Catch and release is only appropriate for your state department of natural resources. (Barely - don't get me started.)
#2
The US military already has non-lethal weapons capable of firing hundreds of hard rubber balls across a wide angle to disperse rioters.
we already have a better version for the ME: a .50 cal on a swivel
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/14/2007 11:45 Comments ||
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#3
I can see a use for this technology in apprehending high value targets. As GORT noted though, we really need to be offing these maggots in huge numbers. The Iraqi police's revolving door policy is getting our soldiers killed. Taking a lot fewer prisoners is the only answer. Death is the best assurance against recidivism.
Malaysias main Islamic opposition party would only field candidates who did not smoke, or were willing to stop, for the upcoming general elections, its leader said. Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, the spiritual leader of the Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia) - commonly known as PAS - said smoking was un-Islamic and people who smoked did not fully understand Islam, state Bernama news agency reported late on Thursday. Some Muslims consider smoking haraam (forbidden), the elderly religious leader said. I prefer to choose candidates who do not smoke. By now they should understand the partys requirements that to contest in the election, they must have the characteristics of a true Islamic leader, he said.
PAS-endorsed candidates must also be teetotal non-gamblers, he said. The party, which controls only one state in the northern heartland of Kelantan, has been trying to revamp its image after being trounced in the 2004 general elections. The loss was seen as a vote against the fundamentalist partys conservative policies, which aim to turn Malaysia into a theocratic state under Islamic rule.
PAS has also tried to capture support among Malaysias Chinese and Indian communities and urban youth. Malaysia must hold polls by early 2009, but an election is expected to be called before then. Analysts said PAS would struggle to gain votes as its policies had not changed, including its aim to create an Islamic state in Malaysia.
#1
God is a tourist. Smoke comes out of his nose. F your country... in fact curse it. It is nowhere anyone wants to go anyway you moslem idiots. Learn the hard way.
A court in Sanandaj, in Iranian Kurdistan, has sentenced to death Mosleh Zamani, 17, on charges he had sexual relations with his girlfriend before the two were married.
Another 22 minors along with Mosleh are reportedly today on death row in Iran.
#2
Well, their execution method is pretty gruesome as well. If its not stoning, then they hang them for death by strangulation. That is, the put the noose around them, then hoist them on a crane, where it takes several minutes and a lot of kicking and such before they die.
I look forward to the day when the Iranians finally get tired of the Mullahs, and hang them from the lamp posts, by their own intestines.
#3
Good Thing Billy Clinton wasnt an iranian.. or maybe it would hve been better if he was.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
07/14/2007 12:00 Comments ||
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#4
Different cultures have different traditions that are often as valid or superior to western culture. We have no right to judge them. At least they are not racist, sexist, and homophobic like American culture. Besides, it's all Bush's fault.
Posted by: The Left ||
07/14/2007 14:05 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The BBC has launched a wide-ranging internal investigation into the mistakes that led the controller of BBC1 to claim that the Queen had walked out of a photoshoot "in a huff".
The head of BBC One said on Friday he would not resign after the broadcaster was forced to apologise to the Queen for wrongly implying that she had stormed out of a photo shoot. The BBC blamed a production company for sending it clips edited out of sequence which implied the monarch had lost her temper when asked to remove her crown. The promotional trailer for a documentary, which was shown to media on Wednesday, wrongly gave the impression that the Queen had then stormed out of the shoot with American celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. 
European Union research and development projects could be scrapped to overcome a funding shortfall for Europes rival to the US global positioning system.
