Category Archives: The news on TV

‘I have to take ultimate responsibility’: Tim Davie’s BBC resignation statement

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Full text of director general’s note to staff and the resignation statement from head of news Deborah Turness

Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, and the head of BBC News have resigned after a former adviser to the corporation accused it of “serious and systemic” bias in its coverage of issues including Donald Trump, Gaza and trans rights.

This afternoon Davie sent the following note to staff:

Dear all,

I wanted to let you know that I have decided to leave the BBC after 20 years. This is entirely my decision, and I remain very thankful to the Chair and Board for their unswerving and unanimous support throughout my entire tenure, including during recent days.

Dear all,

I have never been more proud of the work that you do every day. You really are the best of the best.

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Archaeological dig to unearth wreckage of WW2 hero pilot crash under way

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Exclusive: Excavation, overseen by the US Department of Defense, will feature in More 4’s Hidden Wonders TV series

On 26 January 1944, a 23-year-old US pilot was flying a mighty P-47 Thunderbolt on a wartime training exercise when it crashed in Essex.

Locals witnessed the horror of 2nd Lt Lester Lowry’s aircraft diving to the ground and bursting into flames. Lowry was not seen to bail out and he has remained missing in action (MIA) for more than 80 years. Ironically, his plane was named “Lucky Boy”.

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BBC reporters cannot wear Black Lives Matter T-shirts in newsroom, says Tim Davie

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Director general says it is inappropriate for a journalist who may be covering that issue ‘to be campaigning in that way’

BBC journalists cannot wear T-shirts in the newsroom supporting the anti-racist movement Black Lives Matter, the corporation’s director general Tim Davie has said.

Davie said the BBC stood against racism but it was “not appropriate for a journalist who may be covering that issue to be campaigning in that way.

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‘So aware of their emotions’: Pupils are standout stars in new series about Yorkshire academy

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Educating Yorkshire Part 2 shows inspirational teachers negotiating challenges in young people’s lives

“Basically, there’s summat wrong with me. I’m like … a psychopath. Genuinely!” A teenage girl with the face of an angel is confiding in Mr Wilson, one of the student managers. He listens solemnly, but his mouth twitches with the beginnings of a smile.

“I’m going to start by disagreeing with you,” he says with all the seriousness he can muster. “You’re not a psychopath.” The girl in the sky-blue hoodie relaxes and rewards him with a broad smile.

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More than 400 media figures urge BBC board to remove Robbie Gibb over Gaza

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Miriam Margolyes, Alexei Sayle and Mike Leigh among signatories to letter criticising Jewish Chronicle ties

More than 400 stars and media figures including Miriam Margolyes, Alexei Sayle, Juliet Stevenson and Mike Leigh have signed a letter to BBC management calling for the removal of a board member, Robbie Gibb, over claims of conflict of interest regarding the Middle East.

The signatories also include 111 BBC journalists and Zawe Ashton, Khalid Abdalla, Shola Mos-Shogbamimu and the historian William Dalrymple, who express “concerns over opaque editorial decisions and censorship at the BBC on the reporting of Israel/Palestine”.

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Ofcom fines GB News £100,000 for breach of impartiality rules over Sunak interview

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GB News to challenge decision and watchdog will not enforce sanction until proceedings are concluded

Ofcom has fined the rightwing broadcaster GB News £100,000 for “breaking due impartiality rules” after an interview with the former prime minister Rishi Sunak earlier this year.

The media regulator said it chose to impose a fine over the programme titled People’s Forum: The Prime Minister because it considered the breach serious, and because of GB News’s track record of breaking impartiality rules.

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Plaque honouring Huw Edwards removed from Cardiff Castle

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Mural featuring disgraced presenter also painted over in his home village of Llangennech, Carmarthenshire

A plaque honouring Huw Edwards at Cardiff Castle has been removed after the disgraced presenter pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children.

Cardiff council took away the wall-mounted plaque after Edwards admitted to having 41 indecent images of children, sent to him by another man on WhatsApp.

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HBO hit TV series the White Lotus drops actor Miloš Biković over Russia ties

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Network says role will be recast after Ukraine hit out over casting of Serbian for new season

The makers of hit TV show the White Lotus have dropped actor Miloš Biković from the upcoming series after criticism from Ukraine over the Serbian native’s ties to Russia.

Biković, who was cast for the third season of the award-winning dark comedy just weeks ago, has protested against HBO’s decision as “the triumph of absurdity and the defeat of art”.

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GB News suspends Dan Wootton after Laurence Fox’s remarks on show

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Broadcaster says it is conducting full investigation after also suspending Fox

GB News has suspended the presenters Dan Wootton and Laurence Fox as the channel struggles to contain the fallout after misogynistic comments made on Wootton’s show.

The rightwing news channel said on Wednesday: “GB News has suspended Dan Wootton following comments made on his programme by Laurence Fox last night. This follows our decision earlier today to formally suspend Mr Fox. We are conducting a full investigation.”

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Ron Cephas Jones, This Is Us actor who won two Emmys, dies aged 66

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Actor had a double lung transplant in 2020 because of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Ron Cephas Jones, a veteran stage actor who won two Emmy awards for his role as a long-lost father who finds redemption on the NBC series This Is Us, has died at age 66, a representative said.

Jones’s manager, Dan Spilo, said the actor died “due to a long-standing pulmonary issue”.

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Al Jazeera English announces plans to move from London’s Shard to Qatar

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Move of London’s live broadcast centre to Doha could involve dozens of job losses

Al Jazeera English plans to close its live broadcast centre that operates from London’s Shard skyscraper and move programming to Qatar, with the possible loss of dozens of UK-based jobs.

In an email to staff, the network’s managing director, Giles Trendle, said Al Jazeera was “looking to undertake a restructure involving the move of AJE live programming to Doha. The move would include the news bulletins between 1900GMT and 2300GMT produced from London, and The Stream programme produced from Washington DC.”

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Losses deepen at GB News as network moves to fend off rival TalkTV

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Hiring costs for presenters such as Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg balloon while advertisers stay wary of right-leaning channel

GB News made a loss of more than £30m in its first year on air, as the right-leaning news channel invested in hiring presenters to combat the launch of rival TalkTV.

The controversy-prone channel which launched in June 2021 racked up a pre-tax loss of £30.7m in the year to the end of May 2022, a period in which it hired former Ukip leader Nigel Farage to host a nightly primetime show.

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Jane Hill and Ben Brown among anchors axed as BBC merges news channels

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Insiders say departure of popular BBC News presenters – with Martine Croxall also going – could prompt ageism row

Some of the BBC News channel’s most famous faces, including Jane Hill, Ben Brown and Martine Croxall, have been axed before the launch this spring of a channel that combines international and domestic news.

The trio have become familiar to UK viewers during times of political and economic turmoil and their departure could prompt a row about ageism, according to BBC insiders.

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Hiker missing in California named as British actor Julian Sands

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Actor, known for roles in Leaving Las Vegas and Warlock, was reported missing on Friday evening

A hiker reported as missing in southern California has been named as the British actor Julian Sands.

The 65-year-old was reported missing in the Baldy Bowl area of the San Gabriel mountains on Friday evening, with searches by local authorities continuing over the weekend.

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Barbara Walters, pioneering US TV news anchor, dies at 93

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First female network news anchor in US achieved a celebrity status on par with the rulers, royalty and entertainers she interviewed

Barbara Walters, the foremost American TV interviewer of her generation and the first woman to lead a US network evening news program, has died aged 93.

Over the course of her 50-year career, Walters was queen of the “get” – a term for securing the first interview with prominent figures making news, whether that was a movie star, politician or figure of criminal notoriety.

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Broken and distrusting: why Americans are pulling away from the daily news

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A Reuters Institute survey found that a rising number of people are avoiding the news or just don’t believe it

This might be just another negative news story. And if it is, there is evidence that many of you will turn away in despair.

The Reuters Institute revealed last month that 42% of Americans actively avoid the news at least some of the time because it grinds them down or they just don’t believe it. Fifteen percent said they disconnected from news coverage altogether. In other countries, such as the UK and Brazil, the numbers selectively avoiding it were even higher.

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EU to ban Russian state-backed channels RT and Sputnik

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Ursula von der Leyen says stations will ‘no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war’

The EU has announced it will ban the Russian state-backed channels RT and Sputnik in an unprecedented move against the Kremlin media machine.

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “Russia Today and Sputnik, as well as their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war and to sow division in our union. So we are developing tools to ban their toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe.”

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The Activist: reality TV show to be ‘reimagined’ as documentary after backlash

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CBS says it will drop X-Factor-style competition from celebrity-fronted show after widespread criticism

A reality TV show that planned to pit activists against each other in an X-Factor style contest judged by celebrities is to be drastically “reimagined” after it sparked a backlash from campaigners.

The Activist, which had been due to air in the US in late October, prompted incredulity among many campaigners and elsewhere when its format was revealed last week, with many labelling it a “tone-deaf” distortion of true activists’ values.

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The Activist: ‘tone-deaf’ new TV show has activists compete to lobby G20 leaders

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CBS programme has caused a social media storm for its crass choice of format and ill-qualified judges

Producers have billed it as an exciting new twist on reality television: an X-Factor style competition between campaigners that will give them the chance to lobby world leaders at the G20.

But The Activist, a show announced last week by the American network CBS, has already learned to its cost that people power can be unpredictable, ruthless and highly effective.

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UK agrees to consider providing safe haven for Afghan journalists

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U-turn over those who worked for British media follows outcry from newspapers and broadcasters

The foreign secretary has agreed to consider allowing Afghan journalists who worked for the British to flee to the UK if their lives are endangered by the resurgence of the Taliban, after an outcry from a coalition of British newspapers and broadcasters.

Dominic Raab signalled the policy U-turn on Friday, saying he recognised the bravery of the Afghan journalists. A scheme that was set up to offer a safe haven to Afghans who worked with the British will be expanded to include those who worked as journalists, it was reported.

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