Dear BBC – My cat died

A supporter, Ian Allardyce,  recently wrote to the BBC complaining that he hadn’t seen anything on the news about the fact that his cat Tiddles had died. He received this response:

Whilst we appreciate your feedback, we know that not everyone will agree with our choices on which stories to cover, and the prominence that we give to them. These are subjective decisions made by our news editors, and we accept that not everyone will think that we are correct on each occasion. There are several factors that we take into consideration when deciding how to put together our news bulletins. For example, whether the story is new and requires immediate coverage, how unusual the story is, and how much national interest there is in the story. These decisions are always judgement calls rather than an exact science, but we appreciate the feedback that our viewers and listeners give us when they feel a story has been overlooked or marginalised. Thank you again for contacting us, we value your feedback. All complaints are sent to senior management every morning and I included your points in this overnight report. These reports are among the most widely read sources of feedback in the BBC and ensures that your complaint has been seen by the right people quickly. This helps inform their decisions about current and future programmes. Kind regards Nicola Maguire BBC Complaints www.bbc.co.uk/complaints”

 

But of course he was actually complaining that the BBC had not covered a story of £1bn fraud by HSBC involving 5-600,000 high street consumers. Perhaps it’s worth remembering that the Chair of the Trustees of the BBC is HSBC director Rona Fairhead.