Daily Mail claims BBC bosses tell news teams to curb patriotic tone of Team GB’s Olympic successes
The Daily Mail has claimed that BBC top brass have ordered their news teams to stop focusing so much on Team GB’s stunning Olympics success.
The tabloid reports that BBC director general Mark Thompson is said to be ‘increasingly unhappy’ with the patriotic tone of the news coverage of the Games.
Apparently, news presenters have received an email instructing them to focus on the achievements of other countries, and not just that of Great Britaim.
According to the Mail, in the message, titled: ‘An order from the DG’, director of news Helen Boaden wrote: “Mark Thompson is increasingly unhappy that we are focusing far too much on Team GB’s performance to the exclusion of all else.
“This is also becoming a theme within the Press.
“As editor in chief, he has issued a directive that this needs to change from today. So you need to get cracking on making that shift.”
The instruction, according to the Mail, is understood to have annoyed news editors at the BBC.
However, Thompson is quoted as having said last night; “I am as delighted as our audiences and the whole BBC team about the brilliant performance of Team GB, and it is quite wrong to suggest otherwise.
“The BBC has been right to focus on sporting achievements which the whole country has been celebrating, and we will continue to do so with pride.
A spokesman for the BBC commented: “This morning’s conversation was part of our usual editorial discussion around our output, and did not reflect a wholesale change in our approach to reporting the Games as part of news.”
“We can do that while at the same time making sure that our news programmes fully reflect some of the other great sporting achievements and human stories of the London Games.”