As if things weren’t bad enough….
“The public will be able to gain online access to masterclasses delivered by some of the BBC‘s best-known journalists, including John Simpson and John Humphrys, under plans to be announced later today.
BBC executives plan to let licence-fee payers use the corporation’s internal training website, which includes thousands of hours of material, as part of a range of partnership agreements. Rival news organisations and broadcasters will also be able to use the material.
The BBC claims the website is the most comprehensive of its type in the world. Other journalists who contribute material include the BBC business editor, Robert Peston, and the security correspondent, Frank Gardner.”
Oh no!
As part of my training the first question would be what about ethics in journalism?
At the BBC the old warhorse of newsroom practice — the strict distinction between facts and opinion — has become so noticeably weakened by liberal bias, political correctness, “expert” opinions and green agendas that many people think it has become nigh on impossible to take a face value anything the BBC and it’s journalists say. Discuss.
Don’t get me wrong. Reporting people’s opinions is useful to readers or listeners. It is just that the alternative points of view remain ever-elusive.
Here is my own humble masterclass to the “best-known” journalists at the BBC:
People use fact and opinions to make decisions; please help by showing clearly which is which.
You must attribute all opinions and any facts for which there is no commonly accepted proof.
Never repeat unchecked rumour or speculation
If you suspect someone is lying to you, check what they say with an independent source
This is truly ghastly.
On the other hand, I can see a role for Simpson in an Afghan Cookery Show.
Or better still, in a Papuua New Guinean Cookery Show.
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magiclantern
lol! Good eating all round. Talk about the fatted calf.
I see there is a section on climate change.