Wednesday 10 November 2010

Scrabble champion: the BBC replies

    Yesterday a reply to my complaint about the misgendering of the Scrabble champion Mikki Nicholson arrived from the BBC. Here it is:
Thanks for contacting us about the ‘Today’ Programme broadcast on 01st November.

I was sorry to read that you were unhappy with the content of a report during this programme. I also note that you felt the presenter referred to the transsexual as being the wrong gender.

We aim for the highest standards with all our output and I can assure you that it’s never our intention to upset our listeners. I can assure you that we strive hard to be accurate, balanced and fair. I’m sorry that you felt this wasn’t the case with this report.

We’re guided by the feedback that we receive and to that end I'd like to assure you that I've registered your complaint on our audience log. This is a daily report of audience feedback that's circulated to many BBC staff, including members of the BBC Executive Board, programme makers, channel controllers and other senior managers.

The audience logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions about future programming and content.

Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.

Kind Regards

Christine Thompson
BBC Complaints
www.bbc.co.uk/complaints
    Something a little better than the form letter I was expecting, the BBC being a public corporation means they have to respond to their licence payers. I asked a couple of BBC insider friends about the audience logs, it seems they are taken some note of. Let's hope mine was not the only feedback they received on this subject.

4 comments:

  1. If you don't ask you don't get do you? If it were not for people making objections an unfair representation may result and in some cases do more harm than good. I hope they reflect on what you have written and make the necessary adjustments to their reporting activities.

    Shirley Anne xxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you don't ask you don't get do you? If it were not for people making objections an unfair representation may result and in some cases do more harm than good. I hope they reflect on what you have written and make the necessary adjustments to their reporting activities.

    Shirley Anne xxx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Something wrong with your comments widget methinks.........

    Shirley Anne xxx

    ReplyDelete
  4. Blogger obviously has my Lurgy from last week :)

    I feel it is worth making such representations where I think there is a chance they will not be dismissed out of hand. It would be nice to think that next time Mikki wins a tournament she is simply "Scrabble champion Mikki... " as a result.

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.