Thread by @BrianCathcart

I don’t write much about broadcast journalism but I'm fascinated by the questions about news values raised by the BBC’s refusal to report or discuss the @PeterStefanovi2 viral video of Boris Johnson lies. There’s been a small development... 1/9

I wrote this article (below) saying that, given what I and others (inc ITV and Sky) considered to be the obvious newsworthiness of Stefanovic's film, I could only conclude that the BBC had blacklisted him. 2/9 bylinetimes.com/2021/09/03/the…

Struck by the failure of the entire BBC news system (national, international, regional, local, TV, radio online...) to report about it, I asked the BBC, and they got back to assure me that there was no instruction to staff in relation to the video, and no ban. 3/9

So I wrote to BBC Radio Northampton asking if, given there was apparently no ban, they planned to cover a film made by someone living near Northampton which had had more than 35 million views on Twitter. 4/9

I also asked whether, if they didn’t plan to report this striking local story, they could explain why not. Here comes the small development: I have just had a reply from a ‘publicist for BBC England’ saying on behalf of BBC Radio Northampton that ‘we have nothing to add’. 5/9

This is bizarre and perverse. The local Northampton paper has covered this. So, incidentally, have many overseas broadcasters. The man is famous. But the local BBC radio station won’t say they will do anything and also won’t say how doing nothing might fit their news values. 6/9

To be clear, they aren’t obliged to cover it. It’s just very strange that, barring one brief mention near the end of a BBC website article months ago, not a single department or programme across the whole of the BBC appears to think this story meets their news criteria. 7/9

Have they all independently come to the same decision? Do none of the many news editors working anywhere in the BBC think it would interest their viewers, listeners or readers? How likely is that? 8/9

If the BBC has a valid reason for refusing to discuss or report this video it should surely tell us. If it doesn’t, then let them act like normal journalists. The longer this goes on the worse the Corporation looks. 9/9
Here's the video.

https://twitter.com/PeterStefanovi2/status/1441675773513961472?s=20