Has this ever happened to you? You're enjoying a nice nap at work when someone in your office suddenly shouts 'Boom!' and wakes you from your happy slumbers?
Well, it must be like that many a night at the BBC - at least according to The Sun who splashed today with the 'TV scandal' that BBC News Channel staff are snoozing the night away at BBC licence fee payers' expense.
A BBC snitch told The Sun that "during a 12-hour night shift some staff do around an hour of work" and sent them a dozen or so photos of BBC staff 'sending exclusive reports from the Land of Nod', so to speak.
Sir Peter Bone MP (and, one presumes, Mrs Bone too) is aghast.
The BBC hasn't taken this lying down - or slumped over their desks fast asleep either. BBC staff have taken to Twitter en masse to mock The Sun and the BBC Press Office has re-tweeted that poll graphic about trust again, with a Sun-baiting tweak:
Alas, not one person (not even a BBC editor) ever bothered to shout 'Boom!' when I wrote a truly sleep-shattering piece recently about this very poll, but the fact remains that this BBC-commissioned IPSOS Mori poll is old - and some might say [see what I did there?] ' fake' - news.
It's a reheated poll from January/February this year, which ex-BBC Trust head Rona Fairhead was already using to defend the BBC back in March.
We've had an election in between then and now. Peoples views of the BBC might have changed over the last nine or more months. The BBC's stock could have plummeted. Who knows?
Yet the BBC Press Office tried to pass the results off as a new poll with new findings earlier this month - like some dodgy restaurateur passing off last week's leftovers as 'a Chef's special'.
Right, you can all go back to sleep and watch the BBC News Channel now........
Are the sleepies (or "waking-challenged", to use a less pejorative term)the ones on Trump twitter watch? Or maybe looking for Virtue Signalling Memes on You Tube? Or have they been asked to go back over every Boris Johnson quote since 1983 to see if they can find anything embarrassing? Or perhaps they are the ones assigned to putting together pro-Brexit stories ("who shall we put on gathering together pro-Brexit stories for the BBC News Website"..."how about that guy with the serious case of narcolepsy?").
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the survey question was. I don't take any newspapers, watch TV or listen to commercial radio which makes me a sometime listener to BBC radio news. Does that make me part of the 57%? I certainly don't trust them, the 'some say', the 'over to our ----editor', 'controversial' and 'despite' keywords sound a clear warning.
ReplyDeleteA particular favourite of mine: “A BBC investigation has revealed…”
DeleteThe coverage of the 2016 US election should give even the most ardent supporter of our 'national treasure paid for by taxation broadcaster' a moment of doubt as to whether they may not be wholly truthful in their every waking minute.
ReplyDeleteLaura K is making her pitch to four letter word glory with 'OUCH!'
ReplyDeleteThese BBC editors and producers are so woke (see what I did there, Emily (Maitless, not Golden Nuggets)?).
Oo, it has been noticed in high(er) places:
Deletehttps://twitter.com/oflynnmep/status/931466570014117888
Sorry but it is a copy and paste effort.