Protestor grabs the Olympic torch in London. (SLYTP)
posted on Apr 7, 2008 - View this thread

The 'bullet magnet' is back. I can't believe that the British press kept a secret for so long (10 weeks is a miniature eternity in journalist time). It was supposed to last six months... I also can't believe that the odious Drudge has broken yet another big story. Was it all just a PR stunt?
posted on Mar 3, 2008 - View this thread

Are we recording all this, Nick? I hope we are. Right here we go... In 2005, the BBC's royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell was preparing a "two-way" regarding that year's VJ Day 60th anniversary commemorations. He and the interviewer Richard Evans just couldn't see eye to eye as to how the story should be covered. Luckily for us, their tetchy conversation and the fall out with the producers was recorded (transcript/mp3). Despite the vintage, it's a rather revealing behind the scenes record demonstrating the process that's often gone through to decide how news is best communicated to we listeners.
posted on Jan 6, 2008 - View this thread

Fairytale of New York... censored! No, not now... Shane will make 50 this Christmas... Sadly not Kirsty.
posted on Dec 21, 2007 - View this thread

Scary and amusing in equal measure, If you like it so much why don't you go live there? is a compendium of bigoted opinions, idiocisms and zenophobic remarks posted on the BBC's Have Your Say site.
posted on Nov 2, 2007 - View this thread

Revisionista monitors news websites and detects when articles change. The versions are viewable and the changes are highlighted. Some edits are miniscule, others are quite interesting. A Recommended Revisions list yields all manner of edits. Also on the News Sniffer site, Watch Your Mouth monitors the BBC's 'Have Your Say' website and detects when comments get censored.
posted on Nov 1, 2006 - View this thread

News Sniffer. It's a site dedicated to monitoring news articles and discussion threads at the BBC. For censored comments from BBC news threads: Watch Your Mouth. And now it has implementation that tracks changes in news articles, to see how things are edited: Revisionista. Here's a couple of examples.
posted on Sep 11, 2006 - View this thread

Sherri Finkbine --as reported by BBC News, on this day in 1962 (video clip too)--her travails and travels, the law, publicity, and what happened afterwards. (more here from American Prospect in 05: ...A Gallup Poll taken that year showed that the majority of Americans supported Finkbine, and her case was a turning point ...)
posted on Aug 26, 2006 - View this thread

All I have to do is change my name to Peyton, motivate my girlfriend to marry me and have a baby, and hey presto! young Peyton will receive a six-figure scholarship to Brighton College in England, explains the BBC because the college can't fulfil the bequest by former pupil Derek Wakehurst Peyton. Brighton looks a nice place so roll up all Peytons, the college principal is spreading "the net wider to the United States, Australia and beyond." Second thoughts ... maybe simpler for me simply to motivate her to change her name ...
posted on Mar 6, 2006 - View this thread

via BBC Ground-based astronomy could be impossible in 40 years because of pollution from aircraft exhaust trails and climate change, an expert says.
posted on Mar 2, 2006 - View this thread

The ashes of the recently deceased contains high amounts of nutrient rich phosphates, just perfect for sprucing up that garden of yours. On the iconic peaks of Scotland though Mountaineers have decided that enough is enough.
posted on Jan 25, 2006 - View this thread

Nick Robinson, the BBC's political editor, now has a weblog.
posted on Jan 8, 2006 - View this thread

BBC Open News Archive Eighty iconic news reports available in a variety of formats. Here is the full directory. For another example of the cool things Auntie as been offering lately, see the downloadable mp3 commentary for the Christmas episode of Doctor Who.
posted on Dec 30, 2005 - View this thread

News, sorted by mood.
posted on Dec 9, 2005 - View this thread

Mating Leopard Slugs entwine - one of the untold wonders of the animal kingdom captured on video.... The BBC gets up close and personal with Life in the Undergrowth in their new wildlife documentary. A must see for any animal, insect or David Attenborough fan... (If the main vid link doesn't work for you try it from here - realplayer needed)
posted on Nov 23, 2005 - View this thread

BBC correspondent Matt Wells lays it down straight
posted on Sep 3, 2005 - View this thread

BBC News' wonderful In Pictures section, including Hiroshima: Now and Then, Space Shuttle Discovery in orbit, and readers' photos of Battersea Power Station.
posted on Aug 4, 2005 - View this thread

The BBC News website has introduced links to other news sites' articles that relate to the stories they cover. Google News is based around a similar premise, but as far as I know the BBC is the first major news organization to link to articles not written by themselves.

A good example of this in action is the current headline article about today's bombings in Iraq (look in the right sidebar). Only the top stories seem to have this feature activated, but hopefully (to me at least) it will spread through the site with time.
posted on Sep 30, 2004 - View this thread

The BBC claims that Atlantis has been found.
"We have in the photos concentric rings just as Plato described"
posted on Jun 7, 2004 - View this thread

Man's stomach 'fell out' after op - Abdominal surgery can be incredibly gross.
posted on May 1, 2004 - View this thread

First it was purple frogs that consorted with known dinosaurs, and now they've been joined by their three-headed brethren [warning: gratuitous frogs].
posted on Mar 7, 2004 - View this thread

The history of the BBC
A chronological history of everyone's favourite broadcaster, from Guglielmo Marconi to Ricky Gervais.
posted on Feb 17, 2004 - View this thread

After the lunch hour, we'll help you relax a bit. Mood lit, time of day sensitive programming comes to your favorite local newspaper web portal. Will something like this fly? Has it been done before? Is this being done elsewhere now?
posted on Jan 26, 2004 - View this thread

Star presenter wears hijab and apparently gets "a flood of calls". But, in an odd turn for the BBC, the piece doesn't say what those calls think. Are they all praising the traditional - and controversial - head-dress, or are they up in arms. The story skirts the issue. Islam 101 explains a bit about it.
posted on Nov 26, 2003 - View this thread

That makes four bombings in the last six days in Turkey. Pro-intervention or anti-invasion, I can't tell what I think anymore.
posted on Nov 20, 2003 - View this thread

The BBC introduces it's new grass-roots political website iCan. After research showed (surprise surprise) that "many people are very disillusioned and cynical about politicians and local civic institutions" moves were made to set up iCan, to enable people to get information on and engage in local and national political issues. With search tools to find actions on local issues, message boards, and the ability to create a website for your cause, "iCan aims to make politics accessible to ordinary people confronting a problem." It's also one of the things Rupert Murdoch and The Guardian would like to squash.
posted on Nov 4, 2003 - View this thread

Rupert Murdoch, The Guardian Newspaper Group, magazine group IPC (and others) have formed an unlikely coalition, the British Internet Providers Association, in order to do one thing: decimate the BBC Online website, and protect their own online ventures. They demand that "BBC Online should be scaled back to being a 'news portal' and...should release its internet source code to commercial organisations." Spin-off projects such as iCan, the grassroots political site which the BBC is set to launch in October, would be trashed, and the BBC's use of its website to promote programmes, magazines and services would be restricted. In addition the BBC would face a cost ceiling on its online budget and be forced to "provide links to the news services of its competitors."
The Governement's closing date for submissions to the BBC Online review is November 17th, 2003.
posted on Sep 28, 2003 - View this thread

Oh Why Oh Why Does The Beeb Have All The Best Babes? Oh all right, I confess that sometimes it's not only the news I watch the BBC for. I admit I pay more attention to the Middle East crisis when it's reported in loco by Kate Adie or presented by Anita Macnaught! As for Keshini Navaratnam, I have the sick delusion she reads the news only for me... Yes, you can drag me away now, thank you. (Parting remark, heard before the ambulance doors shut: "When will you Yanks ever offer such intelligent crumpet to the world, huh?")
posted on Sep 17, 2003 - View this thread

BBC News reporters' weblog on the war is closed. It was a great example of how the idea of weblog can be used in mainstream media. (Although it lacked hyper-links) In it's last instalment, reporters record some final impressions and look back at what it was like reporting the war. The daily archives are available on the right column of the page.
posted on Apr 18, 2003 - View this thread

Should advertising be allowed to contain caricatures and satire of major figures without their permission? My opinion is yes they bloody well should. Good luck to the producers with hunting down Osama.
posted on Nov 27, 2002 - View this thread

Avoiding Wrongful Birth Lawsuits , ob/gyn's in France have decided just to "not know" about problems before birth. So, no more ultrasounds. Original wrongful birth thread can be found here.
posted on Jan 10, 2002 - View this thread

Cessna pilot sympathised with Bin Laden...
Does Americas enemy lie within?
posted on Jan 6, 2002 - View this thread

Contribute to the BBC's E-cyclopedia Glossary of 2001 . "Impeachment nostalgia" - phrase coined by novelist Douglas Coupland to characterise depression following 11 September and a hankering for the era in which details of stains on Gap dresses were the main obsession of media and politics.
posted on Dec 19, 2001 - View this thread

Children's News Online - from the BBC. Newsround is their long-running, early-evening TV news show for kids. It was fascinating watching it struggle with presenting the Falklands War in the eighties. I wonder how CBBC News will cope?
posted on Oct 22, 2001 - View this thread