BBC IN NEED...
I see that the BBC faces fresh embarrassment after admitting that it failed to pass on £106,000 to charity from premium-rate telephone votes on more than 20 programmes, including last year's UK Eurovision final.
In the latest scandal to engulf the corporation, a "handful" of staff knowingly held back money from calls that should have gone to charitable organisations, including the BBC's Children in Need. So, just for clarity, the BBC HELD ON TO CASH DUE TO CHARITY. In the case of Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up 2007, the BBC also admitted that viewers were wrongly encouraged to vote for a winner before phone lines had even opened. Although the error did not affect the result of the contest, with Scooch rightly being named as the group to represent the UK, the BBC has decided to hand over £6,000 to charity, which covers the cost of the ineligible calls. How kind of them.
I think these phone-in programmes are a scam, and I appreciate that the BBC is not the ONLY media organisation which has its fingerprints all over such fraud, but the BBC is the only media organisation which forces us to pay it money and which claims to operate to the highest possible ethical standards. Plainly, this is not so.
David Vance
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Reader Comments (6)
I appreciate that the BBC is not the ONLY media organisation which has its fingerprints all over such fraud
Indeed. On Thursday ITV was fined £6 million for a series of scams to do with vote-rigging on phone-ins.
Peter,
Yes we all know others are doing, or have done it, but they do not set themselves up to be so high and mighty as the egotists at the Beeb do!...
I hope to God that the BBC does not get a fine of £X million as we, the poor innocent customers will, in the end, have to pay. Better that those in the BBC who knowingly held back money be fired or prosecuted, preferably both.
Peter T,
Don't give those sneaky buggers at the Exchequer ideas!, that would be a very devious way of increasing taxes in the guise of the beebs need to pay any large fine, - after all, the money just goes back to them whether by tax or fine...
The BBC went to town on the ITV fine (fully deserved) when they must have known this was in the pipeline a day later.
One of the worst things about this, is that people will now feel less confident about donating to Children In Need etc, because of this. Shouldn't the Charities Commission be investigating here?