From correspondents in London BBC boss Mark Thompson has ordered staff to root out inaccuracies after the public broadcaster was hit by two embarrassing blunders and had to apologise to Queen Elizabeth. The British Broadcasting Corporation was fined 50,000 ($116,000) this week after the results of a competition in the popular children's program were found to have been faked. It then had to apologise for a promotional trailer which appeared to show Queen Elizabeth storming out of a photo shoot with American celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz.
The BBC blamed a production company for sending it clips edited out of sequence which implied the monarch had lost her temper when asked to remove her crown. Peter Fincham, the BBC One controller who presented the footage to journalists, said he had portrayed the events unaware that they gave a false impression. He said he has no intention of resigning.
After the double blunder, BBC Director General Thompson put out a memo to staff saying the corporation needed to put its house in order. We cannot allow even a small number of lapses, whether intentional or as a result of sloppiness, to undermine our reputation and the confidence of the public, he added. What is this?
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