Mass media is often perceived as a weapon of politicians and moguls. People are accustomed not to trust anyone. Nevertheless, there is one company that in split 100 years of activity raised its authority very high. No doubt, we talk about BBC…
From the moment
of the channel’s appearance in 1922, a million of airs, interviews and
investigations were held. Employees of the company received awards of different
classes, some of them were lucky to become Knights of the British Empire.
Journalists from all over the world have dreamt and still dream of working for
BBC. It isn’t only a matter of prestige but also a kind of quality seal for
your work.
Nevertheless,
no one carries an insurance against unpleasant stories and amusing incidents,
including BBC professionals. Sometimes it was funny and comical, sometimes –
tragic and cost some people more than just a job. Now, let’s have a look and look
at our colleagues in oddish situations.
In a
distant April of 1930 one of BBC news readers announced that the news that day was
such that it wasn’t even worth discussing. The whole day piano music was
playing on the radio. Melodies pleasant to the ear are wonderful, of course,
but it still isn’t advised to repeat such an experiment nowadays. It became far
harder to hold the audience.
Crazy pace
of TV and strive to maximum promptitude has a reverse side. Thus, on May, 8,
2006 an expert Guy Kewney was to appear live in front of the audience. But in a
wild rush of the TV-chain employees of the channel made a mistake and instead
of Kewney brought to the air an unemployed Guy Goma who came for an interview
hoping to get a job at BBC. He was waiting in a special guest room and it was
decided to do a stand-up with an external expert from it. On hearing his name,
the man confidently came to the microphone…
The company didn’t disclose their miss. After the incident Guy Goma was several more times invited for predeterminedly jocose interviews. Blunder of the company’s employees made him incredibly popular in Great Btitain.
But some
mistakes didn’t have a happy end. In November, 2012 Director General of BBC,
George Entwistle, resigned because the company accused a high official in
pedophilia. After the investigation the accusation was found wrong. Entwistle
said that in addition to the main position he was also an editor in chief. And
it is inexcusable for the editor in chief to make such mistakes.
November,
2012 was all together a hard time for BBC. In a couple of week after the
resignation of the Director General, the company was accused of incompetence. Documentary
"Andrew Marr's History of the
World" caused it. It pictured representatives of ancient African peoples
wearing breechcloth. But African historians declared that their predecessors were
starkers and if the movie seeks veracity, its actors were supposed to appear
nude on screen. BBC staff admitted the mistake but stated they weren’t going to
change anything for censorship will not allow naked people on air in the
daytime…
We would like to add that only those don’t make
mistakes who don’t do anything at all. Therefore despite all the misdeeds BBC
is believed to be one of the most authoritative companies in the field on mass
media anyway. And in conclusion, here comes a recent fun fact to amuse you.
Newscaster Simon McCoy was in such a hurry to make to the beginning of the news
show that he appeared on screen with a pack of paper instead of an iPad. But
he managed all right to present the news even without an electronic assistant.
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