“The integrity of journalism at the BBC has been called into question after its news reports were accused of promoting Microsoft – and the computer giant’s new showpiece – Vista,” Freelance UK reports.
“The offending reports were issued just months after the heads of each organisation met in Seattle, where they agreed to work with each other on future technology projects,” Freelance UK reports. “According to The Times, which reported details of the meeting in September, the agreement centred on ensuring the BBC’s iPlayer would run smoothly with Vista, Microsoft’s new OS.”
“An interview on the Ten O’Clock News with Bill Gates stoked fears the BBC’s impartiality was being lost even further, after critics said the Microsoft boss was given preferential treatment,” Freelance UK reports.
Freelance UK reports, “In light of the claims, John Beyer, director at Mediawatch UK, has called on the corporation’s trust to investigate.”
Full article here.
Related articles:
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BBC reporter blows it, says ‘music downloaded from the iTunes store can be played only on iPods’ – February 07, 2007
Windows Vista woes push BBC News editor to regret never having ‘defected’ to Apple Mac – February 06, 2007
Ask the BBC make upcoming iPlayer on-demand service Mac compatible – February 01, 2007
BBC: Hackers assault Windows PCs every 15 minutes, ignores obvious solution: Get a Mac – October 09, 2006
Geez, if the issue is getting a feature of Vista to work, M$ is going to be having a lot of personal meetings in the days ahead.
Fsck those anti-American, pro-Microsoft scum at the BBC.
Hey There,
Did anyone expect them not to get to this point of favoritism? The BBC seemed very proud of this partnership (I posted the URL of the announcement in a previous MDN article on this).
Not surprised it got to this point of favoritism. I’m betting M$ is trying to crawl in bed with as many companies stupid enough to have them–unless they are getting kick backs.
Hi I am from living in Astralia Born in New Zealand I am cool huh.
PS: who likes New Zealand. PS:> can we put a Question on. What would everyone do with 10,000,000,000 Dollars? LOL.
Poo for UK, I want aLinux PC Comon Dell.!!!!
Get some Balls
Hey Anthony, where is this country “Astralia” you talk of?
Of course, the Beeb has not muzzled Vista critics:
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/12544/
It didn’t take long to get the Trust involved.
How could they have ever thought such a blatant informercial would just slide by is astonishing.
You know the tables have finally, officially turned in our favour when publically promoting a Mi¢ro$oft product, or even Mi¢ro$oft as a company is reason enough to call the professional integrity of a media outlet into question.
Fsck those anti-American, pro-Microsoft scum at the BBC.
—
American company.
“Hey Anthony, where is this country “Astralia” you talk of?”
It’s a little island to the west of New Zealand, winmacguy.
And no, I don’t know what Anthony is doing here either.
It is really very positive news that the BBC is getting called on this one. If this had been ignored….that would have been the bad thing. In the long run, as the public becomes more aware of what is happening here, it won’t be just the BBC’s reputation that will suffer. It will be Microsoft’s, too. Fortunately for Microsoft, its reputation can’t decline much past the bottom where it is now, so it won’t be hurt as much compared with the BBC that still has a better reputation in some quarters.
Proof, proof and more proof.
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Well, maybe this is why ‘ol Darren made an effort at honesty the other day. Prolly saw it coming and tried to smooth things a bit. heh. But the BBC has repeatedly been dishonost with it’s Apple reportage since far earlier than last September, eh? Betcha they never have to account for all that misrepresentation over the years, either.
Hey Canadian… that was a good point but let someone who is not sucking up the British say that… you get all your services from the US yet you still kiss the queen’s rear-end when you pay your taxes.
Sorry if I offended you… it was meant to be a little joke and giggle.
Cheers!
Information Technology in the UK is a great career.
All one needs to do is study to pass a test as a Microsoft certified IT professional
(easy, easy — no need to learn coding or Unix or anything really hard)
Then, you hit the big city of London and get a job — and enjoy the good life.
All companies in the UK use Windows — exclusively — and love microsoft.
The BBC is the voice of the highest authority in the UK: Her Royal Highness.
And the Queen only uses Outlook Exchange Email, and Office documents (Word)
It’s good that young chaps are being steered in the right direction by the BBC.
If you want employment in the exciting world of enterprise information tech:
You must start and finish with Microsoft, its tech, and softaware assets;
No other operating system — Not Linux, Not Unix, Not OS OSX — offer the
career possibilities in the UK as Microsoft and its enterprise software portfolio.
Take a course as an Microsoft certified IT administrator and you’ll be glad you did.
Enjoy a great career servicing Microsoft’s users around in the business world.
good on ya bbc
@ Micro Me
I thought the western island suburb of Auckland was called Australia…???
Spelled it wrong, did’ya? It’s not Astralia, it’s Asstralia, and it’s somewhere between BBCLand and NCCLand. It’s known for a cool Oprah’s House, canned-car-ooze, and prawn barbiedolls. It’s got a great sandy dessert, and a huge rock in the middle of the continent call Airs’ Rock because the windowns it, and a city named for an actor’s birthplace –> Mel-born. The country is owned by a giant telecom that can’t Tell-Straight, who’s in a joint venture with Fux for cable TV [Fux-Tells]. You can watch Fux-Tells in your Mobil phones ($A(where’s the figure) with session limits of 15-minutes because Asstralians only watch shorts, and with a monthly limit of 200-mins or 13-1/3 shorts [about 2-movies]). Terms and Conditions have a “FairPlay” clause (clause No. 14).
14.3 If you view a single channel on the FUX-TELLS by Mobil Subscription Package for more than 30 minutes at a time, we will terminate your viewing session and, if you want to view that channel again, you will have to start a new viewing session. Depending on network capacity, a maximum of 15 minutes per viewing session may apply.
Is that straight or what!? Sadly, I may have to skip the iPhone until it’s carried by a more straight-talking kind of company like Opt-4-Us or Void-a-Phone.
Oh, given a choice, You-See-Landers prefer to live in Asstralia because it’s a more dynamic country with a larger population – about 13 [not counting 3 in Iraq as part of the Grand Coalition of the Willing].
It’s not exactly the integrity of the media being called into question. A clause of the BBC’s charter as a public broadcaster requires it to be free of commercial influence. A private broadcaster like can schill for anyone without anyone batting an eye. This “question of integrity” is unique to the BBC. It has to do with the founding charter, not journalist ethics.
“Hey Canadian… that was a good point but let someone who is not sucking up the British say that… you get all your services from the US yet you still kiss the queen’s rear-end when you pay your taxes.”
Huh? Sucking up to the British? Dude, we practically ARE British. But we…pay taxes to a Canadian government for things like… education and health care. I know. Spooky.
As for the US, we don’t need any help in that department. Maybe you haven’t turned on a TV in 5 years but the American health care system is a disaster. Didn’t you hear about Americans buying cheap drugs over the border?
No Canadian needs help from a country that has 45 milllion uninsured citizens. I can’t imagine where that came from, other than the fact that US is our biggest trading partner.
God only knows what they taught you down there. Canada has been a sovereign country for a while now.
All in good fun.
I thought it was spelled “Strya”, Col. Angus, and we were Newzild?
And wasn’t it that guy in Newcastle with the Holden who had the twin overhead Fux Tells? You know, the one outside the Parthenon Milk Bar, who got monstered by the nine foot tall Hell’s Angel?
Dear Canadian,
I am American. We own the fscking world. We eat steak because its good for you. We start wars because we can. We smoke because its a God-given right, and we carry rifles in the backs of our pickups in case any illegal-ass alien canadians cross the border into the Promised Land. We even invented doctors and you’re mouthin’ off that our bullet-proof capitalistic health care system can even be equated to? I knew the rest of the world was still living in the stone age, but man, sometimes I just don’t get.
the worst bit was the money programme’s 2 parter on vista
most awful ass licking load of crap i’ve ever seen
they treat gates like he’s some kind of deity , rather than the pathetic little fraud he really is
and not a mention of os-x on the show
**** the bbc , and can i have a refund on my license fee ?
ya know , when everyone else is commercial , even the tawdry itv , the one that produces stunning quality tv ie; sherlock holmes , poirot , jewel in the crown , brideshead revisited etc , the kind of high brow entertainment the bbc maintains it’s the only real producer of ( irony alert )
the bbc need all the funding they can get for 2 reasons
pension plans & wages for overpaid tv hosts – £20m to that jonathon ross turd
and
it’s outrageous building contingency plan , they’ve spent MILLIONS of tax payers money on property in the last few years
how excatly does that enrich the televisual experience , pray tell ?
Well this does not come as a real surprise. Ever since the BBC chair has gone to MS Head office in US the tone of the BBC in tech reporting has (not even that) subtly become pro– Microsoft. But I was truly amazed on the infomercial on BBC2 last light. Regardless of what the strategic direction is of the BBC, it is truly absurd that this was broadcast. Especially as the BBC is totally commercial free on all its UK output on both radio and TV. The market value of this infomercial would have been huge!
What the consequences will be I cannot foresee. For my colleagues at work though who have seen it (on an evening out) this has put Visa firmly on the radar and they actually thought it was a very interesting new stimulus for them to buy a new PC. When asking me on my opinion, I briefly said something along the lines of XP with a new face, continued virus etc problems and the DRM with the ‘tilt bits’. I am the only user who never needs the in–house tech support – with the highest level of system availability. But then I am the mac user in the company and what would I know…
So whatever MS paid the BBC to do this (probably not in cash but in more subtle payment) I think the infomercial was a success. If this is the new BBC, well why not more often but not restricting to just Microsoft, but also Unilever, P&G, GM, Dell, etc, etc. The C in BBC can then simply stand for Commercial instead of Corporation.
We can then also abolish the license fee.