“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:
BBC revises article, clarifies where music downloaded from the iTunes store can be played – February 08, 2007
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.
The BBC have had a deep loathing for Apple since Apple asked them to pay to put the BBC world service on Quicktime TV. They fell out over this several years ago and their reporting of anything Apple has generally been negative ever since.
I doubt the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leoppard in a few weeks will attract anything more than one story in the Tech section, and even this story will draw heavily on the features of Vista and have links to M$ website.
Interesting to note that the BBC website runs on WebObjects. And a lot of the BBC production is done with Final Cut Pro.
http://www.computing.co.uk/vnunet/news/2174256/bbc-slammed-microsoft-lock
I have complained to both the BBC (can’t even complain about this to OFCOM the TV Watchdog) and my MP about last nights Money Programme. Unbiased it was not.
The greatest irony that the Ad agency who created the launch adveerts were using Macs, but interesting the little Apple Logos on the Cinema displays were covered up!
I have never seen such corporate BS. The video on You Tube showing the video of Tiger features with the voiceover of an MS employee covering the new Vista features is an absolute hoot. Perhaps we should insist the BBC show it as pennance?
“…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.”
Everybody eats steak. You invented doctors?
Bullet proof— okay.. this is a freakin joke. Now you’re just being satirical to the nth degree…
Good job. You’re a techie pretending to be a businessman..
Dude, I’m in Business school right now, I know more about Economics than you, and I still think the American Health Care system is the wrong way to go.
http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/38/12/1-a
You know there’s millions of Americans that tell their kids not to play outside cuz if they hurt themselves, the family has to sell the car to pay the medical bill? Think.
PS. You sound like a country song. Drop it.
PPS. I can’t believe you bragged about liking steak. Everybody likes steak.
I remember a few years back when one of the BBC’s top interviewers (nicknamed an attack rottweiller after some of his more critical discussions) talked to Bill Gates.
This was at the height of MS’ legal issues — yet this interviewer was as silkily smooth as a baby’s bum, and fawningly polite into the bargain. It was a long show too, with plenty of time to interject a few awkward questions.
At the time I assumed that a large backhander had been slipped under the table beforehand.
Now I’m inclined to think there were orders from above as well.
My e-mailed complaint to money.programme@bbc.co.uk, following yesterday’s journalism masterclass</dripping with sarcasm>.
The bit that nearly made me puke was where Bill Gates arrives at the British Museum in a people-carrier accompanied by the breathless voiceover “And suddenly he is amongst us” as if he were some messianic figure as opposed to the imagination-free ubergeek that he really is. Although the interview (?) with Dances With Monkeys did nothing to change my opinion of him.
Anyhoo, here is my complaint – mailed at 20:28 GMT last night (unusual for me to be sufficiently riled) – in full (my apologies to those who have read this on another thread)…
Presumably the BBC got paid for that fawning, uncritical look at Microsoft’s latest operating system or will you try to claim that the 60 seconds at the end constituted balance.
Where was the coverage of…
• the fact that many security programmes designed for Vista including Microsoft’s own have been proven to be less than effective.
• the fact that Vista’s much-vaunted “high-definition” functionality simply won’t work because there are no video card/display combinations that will allow HDCP (copy-protected) content to work.
• Gates’ blatant disinformation on his own product (HD, Vista being the only OS on the market to feature parental controls).
• the less than flattering coverage of Vista by many industry commentators
• the fact that many of Vista’s more sophisticated features are only accessible in the higher-value editions (remember there are fourteen different variants to choose from) and that those functions are only made viable using much higher hardware specifications. It should also be noted that, even if you buy a new machine from a Windows OEM (Dell, HP et al), you will probably still face a software upgrade fee to achieve the highest level of Vista functionality.
• the competitors to Vista and Microsoft: MacOS platform computer sales are growing at several times the rate of growth of Windows OEM systems and have been for the last nine months or so. Linux continues to grow in the mission-critical sector and the public sector. Where was the coverage of these platforms or are they and Google going to have share thirty minutes in the programme next week.
Normally I defend the BBC to my friends who view the license fee as an anachronism, but – following your “infomercial” – that isn’t going to be possible in the future until I see some programming which genuinely covers the industry in which I work in a fair and balanced manner.
You could have made a programme in the vein of Channel 4’s specials on the Boeing 777, the Airbus A380 or the JSF competition and kept some dignity; instead you made a thirty-minute advert for a company that has been convicted on both sides of the Atlantic for illegally leveraging its monopoly status which is truly shameful. A cynic might jump to the conclusion that the fact that the BBC seems so determined to supply its on-demand services on Windows only (but for the intervention of the BBC Trust) might be connected to today’s programme, but doubtless they would be wrong.
A friend who works at the BBC predicts I’ll get a boilerplated response, in which case the BBC Trust will be getting an e-mail.
So what other media companies have similar agreements (as BBC) with Microsoft? I know that the leading newspaper in Finland made a deal with MS a couple of months ago.
Is there a trend here?
Yesterday, BBC2 devoted 30 minutes to Vista. A kind of Making of Vista in 2 parts.
BBC integrity questioned…
like, is water wet?
I note that one of the webpages on the BBC windows site notes that Apple has ‘2.5%’ of the market. Anyone know the true stats of the number of people who actually use Apples?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6343943.stm
Magic word ‘systems’; I use two operating systems: Microsoft at work because I have to and OSX because I choose to.
From a recent post on another subject, but applicable here…
To all interested MacDailyNews readers.
Please submit a formal complaint to the BBC by going here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/make_complaint_step1.shtml
To be maximally effective, please ensure that your complaint:
– is couched in reasonable language
– is generally free from typing and spelling errors
– includes direct references to specific instances of bias
– includes a request for a response
There have been a number of articles from the BBC which have demonstrated bias against Apple, or sloppy journalism. I referred to only one example, and it would be excellent if our community can draw attention to all of the others – so do your research, choose an article and include the links in your complaint along with a clear statement of why it requires correction. Include links to the facts so that the BBC can easily substantiate your complaint.
It is quite likely that biased or careless journalism is restricted to a small group within the BBC. You will be directing your complaint to a different group of people whose job is to ensure that your complaint is taken seriously. So your complaint should be respectful and accurate.
Have fun!
———————————-
My submission follows:
I live in Australia but my family is British. The BBC has long stood for journalistic excellence and high standards of public programming generally.
However I am greatly concerned that the recent agreement with Microsoft ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5390000.stm – The BBC has signed an agreement with Microsoft to explore ways of developing its digital services.) appears to have resulted in a raft of innacurate stories denigrating Apple, and thinly veiled free advertising for Microsoft:
Coming to Your Screen: Microsoft’s…
Fri 9 Feb, 19:00 – 19:30 30 mins
…New Vista
I am an industry veteran of more than 30 years, with extensive experience in the sale, deployment and support of Microsoft’s products. I also have experience with Apple products and I am deeply disturbed by the apparent commercially-driven bias evidenced by innacurate and, in some cases, derogatory reporting on Apple by the BBC.
While I note, with appreciation, the recent correction to a story stating that iTunes only worked with iPod (it works with any PC running iTunes, and any MP3 player where the music is not DRM-protected, and any digital music device which supports MP3 for any playlist the user wishes to burn to CD) it remains alarming that the BBC got it so wrong in the first place.
I believe your agreement with Microsoft has compromised the journalistic integrity of the BBC. This is regrettable and demands a re-think.
In the meantime. I suggest that you provide a specific channel for complaints on this issue. The Apple community worldwide is very proactive and will happily provide the BBC with direct and immediate correction of the factual inaccuracies in your programming about Apple.
@The UK World of Information Technology
“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.”
Matey, you would have been right 10 years ago.
But the worm has turned. If you want a successful IT future, you should be acquiring skills in:
– open systems
– ruby on rails
– linux
– web-standards-based design
– MySQL
My Microsoft based certifications were useful, but they are now somewhat passe…
Stephen J.
M.C.S.E.
Sydney, Australia
Best thing on BBC TWO’s the MONEY PROGRAMME special about launch of Microsoft Vista last night was…
…UK advertising and marketing campaign for Vista designed on Macs!
However, with all the pieces shot in design company they carefully tried to keep the Macs out of shot. Boo hiss! But anyone familiar with the silver edged, clean designed cinema displays and white keyboard and might-mouse combinations was not fooled.
But it was odd they went out of their way to hide the Macs.
STOP PRESS: Answer from BBC…
Thank you for contacting the BBC
This is to let you know that we are dealing with your recent complaint
but are waiting to clarify some points with other colleagues in the BBC
before we reply more fully to you.
We will of course respond as soon as possible but trust you will
understand that the time taken can also depend on the nature and number
of the other complaints we are currently investigating. The BBC also
issues public responses to issues which prompt large numbers of
significant complaints and these can be read on our website at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints
We would be grateful if you would not reply to this email and, in the
meantime, would like to thank you for contacting us with details of your
concerns.
Regards
BBC Information
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
This e-mail (and any
attachments) is confidential and may contain personal views which are not the
views of the BBC unless specifically stated.
If you
have received it in error, please delete it from your system.
Do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in
reliance on it and notify the sender immediately.
Please note that the BBC monitors e-mails sent or received.
Further
communication will signify your consent to this.
@ well –
unfortunately the Trust is not involved at this stage, judging by what the Freelance UK report had to say, as Mediawatch UK is a private body of concerned citizens -normally reporting decency and pornographic issues – but having stated that, they can apply public pressure to certain government offices on issues they deem in the public interest.
As i have said here before, please do not tar the whole of the BBC with the same brush as there are thousands of talented people who work for the BBC who do not deserve to be pilloried, due to the actions of the majority of the board of directors and some others.
The BBC is an incredibly vast media enterprise. It is true that while the Television sector of the BBC has made some awful programs for the market, it has and continues to produce some of the best programs the world ever seen.
The whole programme is on BBC news websiteon this link (not sure if it will work outside the UK)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/default.stm
sorry …Has ever seen.
Bill’s Broadcasting Corporation
@Well…
You are right, and not quite right…
Journalistic integrity applies to all those who relate information in the media. An obviously biased piece runs contrary to the standards of jourmalism wherever you are.
The BBC charter is another matter, definitely no less important, and certainly a matter for comment.
In this matter the broadcasts may contravene both journalistic integrity and the BBC charter.
In my view the BBC have compromised their integrity in a shameful manner and may never recover. It is no matter what issue is involved – if the BBC cannot be trusted to deliver unbiased truthful reporting then why should british taxpayers support them?
Then there is the FUD that the bald headed dweezle Alki Beltchy has been spewing on CNN morning….
My complaint sent…..
I have just watched your ‘programme’ on the launch of Windows Vista. I put the word in inverted commas because it most closely resembles the sort of programme on a shopping channel that might try to persuade me to buy cheap diamond rings or a set of super sharp kitchen knives.
The deal with the consumer is that you have been bound, since your inception, to be fair and entirely unbiased. In this respect the programme shows no disinterest in the subject whatsoever: no mention of other operating systems, no mention of any functional problems, no hint that the consumer has a choice.
The programme does seem to mention adverse criticism, but this is entirely in relation to problems of how to market, when to release and the cost of making Vista. Quite how this is relevant to its usefulness to the public is hard to see.
I would welcome an explanation as to why you seem to have thrown aside your charter in the interests of producing an infomercial for Microsoft.
As I posted in a related MDN thread yesterday, this thing will boomerang badly for both the BBC and Microsoft. The reviews of Vista — howls of pain — are starting to pour in. As the stench of the Vista steaming pile of os dung wafts through the land of the Brits, the issue of the Beeb acting as jail house bitch for Gates, Ballmer and company will elevate to a wide public scandal.
MS astroturfing in general is being called out by internet sites regularly and this latest outrage presents the biggest target. The Beeb pitch, astroturfed by MS, will now get extreme attention. This stinking mess will not disappear soon.
Someone was paid off probably by Mr. Bill Gates and company.
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We should me more concerned about things here. Like for example, our own federal government, while prosecuting MS, only uses and supports MS products. I ran into this problem when the new system for submitting proposals for federal grants came on line last year and requires Windows.
Born in the U.S.A. but I’m half British on my mother’s side. Ever since the personal computer revolution got started in the UK (maybe 10 years after it started in the U.S.) the British have always had an odd preference for Microsoft. “The UK World of Information Technology” got it dead on. The British like to see themselves as very serious and business oriented. For cultural reasons they came to associate being serious and business oriented with Microsoft to a far greater degree than here in the U.S.
In newspapers like The Economist (which I have read for years and consider to be pretty level headed on most issues and one of the least biased news outlets anywhere) they have always had this odd bent against anything Apple even when Apple clearly had a technical advantage in some area. Of course, for years The Economist was published using Apple technology, but well, desktop publishing was a small and unimportant niche in the overall business scene, right? You certainly wouldn’t use it for “serious” number crunching would you? (Oh, but wasn’t Excel developed on the Macintosh first? Bhehh – a minor detail.)
The established press over there has the mentality of Windows = serious and Apple = toys for kids or maybe desktop publishing. The joke is that while the British establishment consider themselves serious and impartial when it comes to selecting their technology, they’re just as irrational as those they say only buy the iPod because it’s “cool”. Never mind the fact that the iPod has a sweet interface and just works, just like the Macintosh.
So the BBC is on the take. This is news?
Hey, John B – that depends on which branch of the govt you’re dealing with. The DOD uses Xserves and PowerMacs (probably Mac Pros now) in some applications.
I liked the BBC reports. Very accurate and informative. Nice work, BBC!
Your potential. Our passion.
“The established press over there has the mentality of Windows = serious and Apple = toys for kids”
Recently Apple started airing British ‘Im a Mac’ ads… but really, most major markets outside the US will feel snubbed by Apple, so there is resentment there…
Regarding their computers, Apple’s share is so small they have to focus on USA, mainly..
I mean, Jonny Ive is British, and the iPod is a hit over there, but again, Apple clearly isn’t going to be spending a ton of marketing dollars over there..
From: JWSC
Feb 10, 07 – 10:30 am
“Born in the U.S.A. but I’m half British on my mother’s side.”
Which half? Top or bottom or bisected another way?
Just kidding.
As a Canadian who has needed life saving surgery twice in the last 10 years, let me tell you, the only thing wrong with the greatest heath care system in the world is that I have to get a passport to fly down to the USA next time I want to use that system.
The up to two year wait for surgeries in Canada make our ‘free’ system, which takes about $20,000 a year in extra taxes from me, is the Third World’s best rationed health care system.
The 6 month wait for a Passport will be a piece of cake for most Canadians.
@gedboy
well said!
The irony is just now registering with me that the BBC’s service is called “iPlayer.” Okay, so I’m not really the sharpest tool in the shed. (Either that or it doesn’t surprise me that Great Britian’s pre-eminent news service is just as corrupt and easily bought as the U.S.’s.)
I wish the BBC would use Quicktime instead of Real and Windows Media Player for there news site videos. But that’s just me.
@Toby
Well, you speak for all of us who use Mac and want to watch BBC programming. Can we elect you to lodge a complaint?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/make_complaint_step1.shtml
Be nice – perhaps lodge it as a request from the wordwide Apple Mac community. If you can include any reasons why Quicktime is a better option you may have more impact. I am not up on the technicalities here but I always shudder if i have to load anything microsoft on my mac…
“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.”
Not a penny of taxes in Canada goes to royalty, other than toward expenses incurred on royal visits, as in the United States.
Typical American ignorance of anything beyond the outhouse.
C’mon lads, there’s pro and anti mac everywhere. you can’t possibly be expecting everyone in BBC likes Apple. Even some editor on PCmag worship Apple. Do you still remember the article written by BBC editor to Bill Gates? Here have a look:
http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/vista_woes_push_bbc_news_editor_to_regret_never_having_defected_to_mac/
And what’s this thing about anti-American? Both Apple and Microsoft are American products, using them or not has nothing to do about your opinion about America. Of course only stupid Americans can came up with such an opinion. Duh!
I am anti-American, doesn’t mean I don’t worship Apple.
Canadian.
LOL… you are a funny boy. I guess there is more to learn for you and thinking that you can watch TV and learn stuff is just plain funny… you cool. I guess a long way to grow up and learn about reality and facts.
Canada is not just trading with US.. but a great deal of communication services in Canada is maintained and provided by the US… so is a great part of Canadian gorvernment military training and other forces… even fire departments… Canada is also getting a great help from the US electric power… I should also remind you that most of the US industries have also help Canada by taking some plants and businesses there… like GM, FORD, Microsoft, Apple, etc.
I should also let you know that contrary to what you think that Canadians are British… Canadians are from all over the world… and only the government is stuck in a ass kissing deal with UK. I feel bad for you poor Canadians thinking that you have learned the right things in school… oh well, I guess this is just another deal about Canada that is not perfect.
If you rate a country by how people are insured then you must be living in a delusional world… which is almost predictible from you as the odd Canadian who thinks that you are British. Good thing that I know some real Canadians who are not going to let you and people like you ruin the very little pride left of Canada.
By the way… almost anyone in the world thinks of Canada as a joke… and that is definitely supported by US and British governemts or else they will be dead in the sea.
Cheers! Keep on making me laugh.
They told us that our taxes only go towards the royal visits… yeah.. that’s right man… hey… hey…. hey..? well… I am Canadian and I am not sure but I really hate people of US… they are ignorant and they think they know everything about us… but they don’t… War is not the answer man… hey hey hey?
I am Canadian and I am correct… and you are American and you are wrong. hey hey hey?
Did I say I hate the US? uh… uh… well… here I said it… yeah! hey hey …. hey?
@MacDaddy
Well at least Canadians can write in English, and spell correctly.
Keep itcoming!!! You know how to kick thier stpid ass!
I’ve just watched The Money Programme and as others have said it really was unbelievable. As mentioned, twice the commentary said that MS’s competitor was Google. Since when did Google sell operating systems?!
The only conclusion that I can come to was that The Money Programme’s agreement with MS for “exclusive access” stipulated that Apple would not be mentioned as a competitor. That may have been a verbal rather than written agreement but it’s the only logical explanation for why the programme was nothing but an infomercial for MS.
I’ve also put a complaint in on the BBC site so we’ll see what the response is.
PS It was very funny that the marketing campaign was being done on a Mac. The black mouse cursor was a giveaway!
@Martin
Thanks for actually lodging a complaint. All the noise on here will have little effect if no-one tells the BBC. After all, with all their focus on Microsoft I doubt that they read this site!
I received a response to my complaint about Bias. The writer denied there was any bias and referred me to a video of a viewer complaint programme…
… which was only viewable on Microsoft Media Player ot Real Player.
There was no option for Apple Quicktime;
… which set off the process for another complaint.
I too received a response which denied bias. The response failed to address in anyway my specific complaint that Google was named twice (in commentary) as Microsoft’s competitor.
There is no comeback apparently on official responses because the reply is set to info@bbc.co.uk which bounces back.
@Martin
Yes I had my reply bounce also. But the simple way to deal with that is to lodge a follow up complaint through the site, and again insist on a reply. I meant to post my follow up on here but forgot to save it before I hit the button. If i get a reply from the beeb i will post it and my responses on this site.
If we can encourage enough respondents, the powers that be in the Beeb may pay a little more attention. Keep trying – don’t let them snow you with an irrelevant response…
Yep I’ve done exactly that.
What is MSNBC? (something tells me it’s a dumb question:D)