Monday, August 25, 2008

BBC caught out again.

From this morning's Independent: "The BBC was forced to apologise yesterday after admitting that its flagship news bulletin had inadvertently misled viewers (my italics) over the withdrawal of the Chinese athlete Liu Xiang from the Olympics."

"The bulletins showed Liu withdrawing from the race - he had an Achilles tendon problem - then appearing to kick a mat in frustration. But the footage of the athlete in the warm-up zone was filmed before he had entered the Bird's Nest stadium."

I italicized the 'inadvertently misled viewers' because this is a repeat of the error that led to Peter Fincham losing his job as BBC1 controller earlier in the year. On that occasion they showed a video clip of the Queen apparently flouncing out of a photographic appointment because of the photographer's apparent impertinence. Careful editing had created a story where there was no story.

It is clear to me that the Liu Xiang was made to seem unsporting and a bad loser by piece of inventive editing deliberately to enhance a story. No wonder the BBC was not keen to publicize the attempts by Hezbollah to enhance their stories with photoshop editing last year. They clearly feel vulnerable on these techniques.

It is a sad day when the BBC's reputation for fearlessly telling the truth has been so besmirched of late by cheap tricks by post-modernist twerps who have no regard for right and wrong.

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