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gfloyd

The head of programmes for BBC Radio 6 Music, Ric Blaxill, has resigned today after the corporation admitted that producers had fixed four more audience votes and competitions.

Mr Blaxill, a former Top of the Pops executive producer and creative director of Capital Radio, is the most senior casualty at the BBC so far over the growing scandal.

He has been one of the most distinctive and influential figures on the music and broadcasting scene for 20 years and has been on leave for two weeks while the BBC investigates his conduct.

The BBC said in a statement that members of a production team invented fictitious winners on the Clare McDonnell show and the Tom Robinson programme, both on 6 Music, a digital radio station.
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His name was ernie ........ and he drove the fastest milk cart in the west.....

mark occomore · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 9955 Location: UK

Some Phone in Quizes on Asian Network were mentioned and no one even called in. I suppose with 6 Music should have dropped the competitions if no one had phoned in. It's been going on for years, but the BBC want a squeeky clean image now.

It looks like Pop Master and The Big Quiz will continued to be shelved for a while.

mark occomore · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 9955 Location: UK

Didn't Ric work on Radio One for a while?

Mark Mayhew · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 2897

I don't think this is the end of matter at all-further folk are going to be named and shamed.

By the way is this subject posted on the correct section of this board

mark occomore · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 9955 Location: UK

The BBC has admitted to four more "serious" editorial breaches following an internal inquiry, and some BBC staff have lost their jobs over issues of fakery.

The BBC said that "a number of disciplinary proceedings" had been undertaken as a result of the incidents. It has been reported that former Blue Peter editor Richard Marson and up to 25 other staff have been disciplined and some dismissed.

It is understood that some of those dismissed are seeking legal advice about contesting the decision.

BBC 6 Music producer Leona McCambridge was sacked yesterday for alleged misconduct after being blamed for the use of researchers posing as competition winners on the station's Liz Kershaw show.

Online voting

The admission of the new examples of fakery was made by BBC director general Mark Thompson this week as he provided an update to the BBC Trust.

He outlined two breaches involving online voting. The first was a vote used to determine the name of a new Blue Peter kitten. The name Cookie was selected by online voters but was overruled by part of the production team in favour of Socks which was deemed to be a "more suitable" name for the kitten.

This took place between the 4 and 11 of January 2006 on BBC1 and CBBC.

An apology is to be broadcast to Blue Peter viewers in the first edition of the new series on 25 September and the show is to introduce a new kitten next week, who will be given the name Cookie as voted for by viewers. Socks will also remain on the show.

The second online voting misdemeanour, which occurred on the BBC Asian Network on 17 February 2007, was an audience vote for awards winners in Bollywood programme Film Café.

The vote was effectively overruled by a member of the production team in two categories, once as a result of an error in reading the results and another on the basis that the genuine winner was unavailable for interview.

Flawed competitions

Two BBC 6 Music competitions were also found guilty of fakery. When the Clare McDonnell Show first aired in September 2006 there were insufficient winning entries for a competition run, so a member of the production team supplemented audience winners with some fictional winners.

Over time, a very small number of winning entries were also disregarded as they came from listeners who had repeatedly won previous competitions on BBC 6 Music. The BBC said McDonnell was not aware that this was the case.

On the Tom Robinson show, also in September 2006, the offer of tickets from a band led to the creation of an ad-hoc competition, for which no entries were received.

A member of the production team invented a fictional winner for the competition whose name was then broadcast. Robinson was not aware that this had been the case.

Neither of the 6 Music programmes involved the use of premium rate phone lines.

Apologies to viewers

Director general Mark Thompson said: "I would like to repeat my apology to viewers and listeners who were misled by these editorial lapses. The BBC has taken a wide range of actions in recent months to strengthen our editorial guidelines and processes to address the very significant concern rightly felt over editorial misjudgements."

He added: "Although these lapses amount to 10s of hours across one million hours of broadcasting, the BBC's standards must be as high in small scale competitions as they are in the most major news story. I believe that the actions we have and are taking demonstrate the central importance the whole BBC places on getting it right."

Compliance measures

The four new revelations come at the end of the BBC-wide review of output since January 2005. Thompson confirmed to the Trust that a package of "tough and rigorous" measures had now been put in place to address concern over recent editorial breaches in competitions and voting.

These include:

* an editorial standards board, chaired by the BBC's deputy director-general Mark Byford, which will meet weekly;

* a programme of editorial training, known as Safeguarding Trust, to begin in November;

* a full independent inquiry into the incident involving the BBC1 autumn season launch and The Queen, being conducted by Will Wyatt and expected to report to the director general in October.

Thompson has told the Trust that he has commissioned a major new online project which will enable the public to explore how contemporary media content is produced. This will be spearheaded by BBC2 controller Roly Keating,and Chris Burns, executive editor of factual programmes in BBC Audio and Music.

A review of staff and freelance contracts has also been initiated, and all publicity materials are now subject to formal editorial compliance.

The BBC has drafted new editorial and operational guidance for the use of premium rate telephony in programming, and its policy on the use of premium rate tariffs is being reviewed with the possibility of a system of approved service providers of telephony being set up.

The BBC temporarily suspended all phone contests in July.

Thompson is to meet Channel 4's Andy Duncan and ITV's Michael Grade among others later this month, to discuss ways of working together to build and restore public confidence and trust in the light of editorial issues across the industry.

The Trust

In a statement, the Trust said: "Whilst these breaches represent a very small number of the programmes broadcast in the last two years, they indicate an underlying problem in non-news areas that management has failed to apply satisfactory editorial controls…

"The Trust endorses the firm grip being taken by Mark Thompson which includes clear messages about what is expected of BBC staff and, where appropriate, disciplinary proceedings. We are satisfied these steps, and others now underway will help to inspire confidence both inside and outside the corporation that the BBC remains committed to its public service ethos. The Trust wishes to make clear to all the BBC's audiences – on radio, on television and online – that we are confident the vast majority of BBC staff and suppliers work hard to provide fair, honest and accurate programmes.

"The director general will present his final report on his action plan to the Trust in January and will continue to report progress to the Trust's Editorial Standards Committee over the autumn. Thereafter an independent review will be undertaken on behalf of the Trust by Ronald Neil to assess the impact of the BBC management's actions and changes to procedures so we can be sure the BBC can and will comply with its own Editorial Guidelines and external regulation."