The upbeat BBC is coming in for a storm of criticism today over its coverage of the Olympics which has centred on the G4S farce and according to listeners and viewers has been entirely too negative and is leaching the joy out of the Olympics, spoiling the expectations of many.
The complaints have been building over several days but switching on to different programmes I have heard the presenters all admitting they are receiving many complaints.
Victoria Derbyshire had so many complaints that she had to stop her show to deal with them and alter the subject from G4S to defending the BBC and its coverage.
Admittedly the G4S story is a big one but it does seem to be the only story in the world just now…one programme finishes and another carries on where the last left off. Did we really need to hear the live inquisition by grandstanding MPs of G4S bosses? Not exactly riveting nor informative…especially if you’ve switched off.
It doesn’t help that you may have the suspicion that it is just another chance to bash the government…the Police have certainly not wasted any time in taking the opportunity to put the boot into G4S….especially as G4S are going to be part of the ‘privatised’ police force taking jobs from the boys in blue…ie the real coppers.
I have to admit I can’t help thinking the responsibility ultimately rests with Theresa May…who should have been keeping an exacting eye on the big picture…something she failed to do with border control as well…she doesn’t seem to have gripped her brief….I think she should go…and police should not be privatised…but all that is for after the Olympics.
People are right…yes, acknowledge the huge mistakes that have happened, report them, but don’t dwell relentlessly on them to the exclusion of the big event itself.
A final word about the effect of lazy journalism….Derbyshire ‘broke the news’ to us that out of 300 expected G4S employees only 20 turned up for work.
Now if I heard that figure I would immediately query it….the obvious thing would be that maybe the figures were the wrong way round…but they weren’t.
Those figures were released into the world by the BBC without any corroboration…as Derbyshire herself admitted..they came from the completely neutral Surrey Police Federation (ie Union) but she said she didn’t know who at the Federation told her those figures….they were ‘unattributed’.
A tabloid newspaper would of course leap for joy at headlines like that but a serious, trusted and respectable news organisation like the BBC should be expected to make some effort to check those figures before announcing them to the world.
It seems they may have been too eager to damage G4S’ reputation….which they did….despite later correcting the figures, around 42 out of only an expected 70 workers turned up, the 300/20 figures have now attained the state of urban legend…at least twice in her show callers stated the 300/20 figures as fact even after the new figures were mentioned.
The BBC’s eagerness to be first with a story has meant that what essentially may just have been some black propaganda released by a Police Federation has now become truth and G4S’s reputation is dragged even deeper into the mud by lazy or wilfully blind reporting in the search for a headline.
Watched a bit of BBC news yesterday – staying at a friend’s house (otherwise it wouldn’t happen) – and I was not surprised to see the 9 billion rail spending summarised by some c*^t at Paddington as “passengers will end up paying higher fares”…he was so visibly down and miserable when he said it I thought it might be a joke sketch.
Only when labour did anything does it count as good news to the BBC.
So we had an oaf called Richard Caborn telling us why it`s not so bad to have Olympic rings being torn down in Weymouth-the butcher doing the rings of sausages is not a sponsor of “The Games”( reverential hush…bow down!).
Humphrys and Caborn seemed perfectly happy with it all, and even Shami didn`t get the usual endless free time to muse…and she`s “bought into it all” too of course-well Labour left it us, and it stuffs the useless Theresa May as well.
If I were the BBC, I`d begin to suck up to the IOC/ODA and the rest of them…the BBC s “investment” may yet be at risk if they dare to condemn the Great God Sport-its toxic caste of midgets and functionaries in broadcasting them-and all those heroic stump waving misfits and drugsters that seem to want to absolutely anything to be in them.
How come we`ve gone all East German about this state-sanctioned crap?…when did we turn into China?…when we no longer meant anything as a nation I expect-when Mellor and his like removed Thatcher from the scene.
Caborn came across as a bully didn’t he?
Yes, he’d clearly taken lessons from Prescott in bellowing his way past anyone else.
I., too. see the BBC as blind and mindless cheerleaders for the Olympic Boarathon and what I thought was really significant today was the way in which the London cabbies’ protest against the Zil lanes was swept under the carpet.
For INBBC:
“The Olympic Spirit and the Islamic Spirit”
by Daniel Greenfield.
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/daniel-greenfield/the-olympic-spirit-and-the-islamic-spirit/
“London 2012 Olympics a Terror Target”
(3 min video clip)
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/blog/detail/london-2012-olympics-a-terror-target
BBC news is so boring I don’t even bother watching. All you get is the latest attempt at attacking either the government/Murdoch/banks/olympics. Id rather watch one of the other channels RT, fox news or one of the Asian channels. You find out what is happening elsewhere in the world, always more interesting than the scumptonoids reporting anti government propaganda
The INBBC are spending time dissing the G4S debacle in the sure knowledge that if the terrorists get lucky and cause some carnage, they will have an aunt sally set up ready: g4S and they won’t have to blame that certain religion of peace at all!
win/win huh?
Its the same ‘ol same ‘ol.
Reporting unsubstantiated info (spreading rumour) then when proved wrong mentioning that they got the facts wrong but then carry on as though the rumour was in fact correct and not correcting it when mentioned.
The prime example is Millie Dowler’s phone was hacked and messages removed by NofW (hated Murdock and NI). Its now clear that the mobile network deleted messages as expired. The lie persists. When the info came to light; no apologies or inquiries of the new millionaire Dowler family whether they would return the compensation paid by Murdock. The lie persists.
When questioned about this they immediately point out that in fact they did report this and corrected the error. But they do not correct people that quote this as justification of the war against NI.
The real truth is that the BBC is terrified of NI. They have embedded a lie and will milk it for all its worth to protect their their empire.
Group Four Security remains the hated target of public sector unions – the Prison Officers Association, ACPO, all those who support The (incompetent) State as the Only Employer. BBC happy to go along, they are scared witless of market forces. Every problem experienced by G4S is experienced by police and prison staff – criminals trying to run away, deportees struggling to avoid deportation.
The media seem to have fallen for this propagandist line – an echo chamber. . Mock G4S all you like, there is an agenda here. no one seems to notice. Only private sector make mistakes. The solution is to give it all back to the unions, who of course never make mistakes.