When choosing the 2012 Female Faces of the Year, the BBC was tasked with choosing a dozen women who impacted 2012. They were able to come up with 11 women with ease, but the twelfth, well, they decided to use a panda.

In the BBC’s defense, it was a female panda, but that isn’t stopping people from calling the network sexist.

Reuters reports that some of the anger is still lingering from accusations of sexism that were thrown at the corporation last week when it chose its Sports Athlete of the Year from a shot list compiled entirely of males. Putting Tian Tian, the female panda from the Edinburgh Zoo, on the Female Faces of the Year list is just adding insult to injury.

Former deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said:

“So the BBC couldn’t find a woman for Sports Personality of the Year, but they could find a panda for a female face of 2011.”

But the BBC defended the inclusion of Tian Tian by saying that animals have been included in the list before.

“In 2009, Benson the Carp, a much-caught giant fish, was August’s entry on the male list and last year Peppa the Pig was on the female list for April.”

Tian Tian was only part of the reason that the list has been called sexist. The corporation was also criticized for choosing four woman based on their marriages. Pippa Middleton, who married Prince William, Charlene Wittstockwho, who married Prince Albert of Monaco, and the Duchess of Alba, 85, who married a civil servant.

Do you think the BBC’s Female Faces of the Year was insulting?

The BBC is Sexist? Panda Included in 2012 Female Faces of the Year is a post from: The Inquisitr

The BBC in England produces some of the best nature shows in the world but these two videos show that it isn’t as easy as it looks, especially when the polar bears keep beating up on your expensive cameras.

Doesn’t matter how they are disguised either: a giant snowball, a moving snowdrift, or a floating chunk of ice – they all get caught in the end.

via io9

Polar bears: 3 – Polar bear cams: 0 – too much fun. is a post from: The Inquisitr

Public-supported news, or as the news industry would have us believe – state run propaganda machines, is a hotly contested sore point in the US. Of course not all countries look at this way as evidenced by the BBC in England or the CBC in Canada. Even within the US there is the often looked down upon NPR which as an organization has to continually defend itself from attacks not just from their peers in the industry but also the government.

The argument used against these types of publicly-supported news agencies is that no matter how hard they try they will always have to kowtow to the government of the day. You will also hear the argument that publicly-supported news agencies don’t have to compete on the same ground that other non-public (big business) run news businesses and that gives them an unfair advantage.

If this is the case then one has to wonder why the BBC of England has been able to continually grow in this new media environment while big business run news agencies are floundering. Not only is the BBC growing but it is seeing its ad revenues triple in the last year an are expecting to double in the next year. In fact business is so good because of foreign visitors to their news site that they will be launching a US site at BBC.com to meet the need.

Even the US’s own NPR is continually striving forward always finding ways to use new media and new technologies to provide a better service while at the same time you have the big names in the news industry talking paywalls and subscriptions.

Given all this it was interesting to read an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University and First Amendment scholar, where he questions this idea that publicly-supported news agencies are inherently biased and dangerous to journalism.

Interestingly, Bollinger contends that our largest threat to journalism isn’t from government abuse but the corporate sector. “To take a very current example, we trust our great newspapers to collect millions of dollars in advertising from BP while reporting without fear or favor on the company’s environmental record only because of a professional culture that insulates revenue from news judgment,” he argues. “This reinforces the point that all media systems, whether advertiser-based or governmental, come with potential editorial risks.”

He concludes, “In today’s rapidly globalizing and interconnected world, other countries are developing a strong media presence. In addition to the BBC, there is China’s CCTV and Xinhua news, as well as Qatar’s Al Jazeera. [Our] system needs to be revised and its resources consolidated and augmented with those of NPR and PBS to create an American World Service that can compete with the BBC and other global broadcasters.”

Source: Fast Company

It is an interesting argument and one that I believe have a lot of merit. After all one just has to look at the polarization that is happening in the United States and how news organizations align themselves, whether they admit it or not, with those different sides. News has become more and more about the rating, about the mega-dollar advertising deals that sponsor many of these “news” shows that feed into this polarization.

I also find it very interesting to watch the rise, and profitability, of publicly-supported news agencies like the NPR, BBC and other similar “state” news organizations while at the same time the name brand news businesses we grew up with are struggling.

I have never believed that traditional media at its heart was in any danger of vanishing into the sunset. Rather I totally expect it to morph, to grow, to learn from new media, even to blend with it and in the end we will have a stronger and more ethical provider of the news.

The BBC could very well be that model.

Is public-supported news the real evil that the news industry portrays it as? is a post from: The Inquisitr

Ted Koppel at the BBC

On April 12 Pew Research released a report concerning the news industry and how the executives in the industry look to the future of news. The over all impression of the report isn’t all that encouraging:

But the leaders of America’s newsrooms are nonetheless worried about the future. Fewer than half of all those surveyed are confident their operations will survive another 10 years — absent significant new sources of revenue. Nearly a third believe their operations are at risk in just five years or less. And many blame the problems not on the inevitable effect of technology but on their industry’s missed opportunities.

Ted Koppel in an interview at the BBC following the report wasn’t so kind

In response to a question from anchor Katty Kay about a new Pew Research survey — in which 64 percent of broadcast news executives believe the biz is heading in the wrong direction — Koppel said, “I think it’s even worse. I think it’s a disaster.”

“I think we’re living through the — I hope — the final stages of what I like to call the age of entitlement…We now feel entitled not to have the news that we need but the news that we want. We want to listen to news that comes from those who already sympathize with our particular point of view. We don’t want the facts any more.”

Ted Koppel: The news industry is a disaster is a post from: The Inquisitr

TV presenter Kristian Digby, of the BBC show To Buy or Not to Buy, was found dead in his East London flat.

Digby, 32, was found at 7:45am when police responded to a report that a body had been found. Calling the circumstances under which Digby died “unexplained,” Scotland Yard said that Newham CID are investigating his death and that an autopsy would be performed. During his career, Digby appeared on TV’s Nightlife, BBC shows That Gay Show and The Holiday Show, and was series director on The Million Pound Property Experiment.

A spokesman for the BBC released the following statement:

“Kristian was a much-loved and talented presenter for BBC Daytime.

“He brought a real sense of energy and warmth to all the shows he presented for us and will be sorely missed.

“Our thoughts are with his family at this very difficult time.”

Digby’s agent Jo Wander also commented on Digby’s death:

“I am devastated by the loss. He was a lovely guy and a very talented presenter and director. I will miss him hugely and my thoughts at this time are with his family and his many friends. He will be sorely missed.”

[Image: BBC]

BBC presenter Kristian Digby found dead, circumstances “unexplained” is a post from: The Inquisitr

An amusing temple for every segment on every news show, ever:

How to report the news is a post from: The Inquisitr

Never thought you’d see the day?

Christopher Walken does his Christopher Walken thing reading Lady Gaga’s Poker Face, with predictably awesome results.

Christopher Walken makes Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” somehow enjoyable is a post from: The Inquisitr

A YouTube remix with the subtext of last night’s Question Time. Hilarious.

Video: Cassetteboy vs. Nick Griffin vs. Question Time is a post from: The Inquisitr

UK public broadcaster BBC is under fire for changing the lyrics on classics such as Humpty Dumpty and Little Miss Muffet to remove the negatives.

In the BBC version of Humpty Dumpty, the King’s horses “made Humpty happy again” instead of “couldn’t put Humpty together again.” In Little Miss Muffet, Miss Muffet makes friends with the spider rather than being frightened away.

The BBC claims that it’s not a case of the nanny state gone mad, saying that the words had been changed for “creative” purposes.

Labour MP and former minister Tom Harris though wasn’t buying the line, telling The Independent that the changes were “pathetic,” and that “This is what happens when adults try to make these kinds of judgments.”

Nanny State Gone Mad: BBC Changes Lyrics To Humpty Dumpty, Little Miss Muffet is a post from: The Inquisitr

Of all of the traditional media trying to get online in a useful way the BBC has to be one of the best examples of how it can be done. Their latest effort is to bring to you the world’s biggest zoo and all from within the comfort of your web browser.’

After all the BBC has to have one of the largest video libraries of animals, insects, and birds in the world so why not put it all together in such away that we can all enjoy all that information. In order to do this the BBC spent many years planning such a thing and once the funding and technology made it possible they started putting thought into action.

As a result we have the BBC’ Wildlife Finder where you can go to once videos and learn about 370 animals. This is only a start however as staff are toiling the hundreds of wildlife programs to add new videos daily.

BBC staff are combing through hundreds of wildlife programmes, from spectaculars such as Planet Earth to regional TV news items, to create an unprecedented collection. Early stars in terms of hits online include Darwin’s frog, a tiny resident of forests in Chile, which gives birth through the mouth of the male. The process is repeated in slow motion – another feature of the archive’s ability to spy on Earth’s wild creatures to an unprecedented extent.

A New Guinea jumping spider has also leapt into the popularity charts, soaring from a leaf on to the cameraman’s lens. He carries on filming, as a commentary tells us about the exceptional size of the spider’s jaws. "Its jump is only used," the film explains, without the slightest wobble as spider legs skid on the glass, "as a means of getting on to its prey."

Source: The Guardian – BBC opens world’s biggest online zoo

The BBC brings world’s largest zoo to you – online is a post from: The Inquisitr

Tonight’s edition of the BBC’s Watchdog program has aired a report on the PlayStation 3′s alleged lack of reliability. Watchdog apparently received 155 complaints from viewers about the console, leading to tonight’s investigation into the so-called “yellow light of death.”

News of the impending broadcast came out earlier today, prompting Sony to release an impassioned press release, denying Watchdog‘s claims that Sony “refuses to fix” consoles that suffer from the dreaded yellow light. In a lengthy retort (the full version of which can be read here), Sony UK boss Ray Maguire harrumphed:

“From the correspondence to date, I have serious concerns as to the accuracy of these allegations and the likely tone of the Watchdog report. [...] The information that you have provided suggests a fundamental misunderstanding of the technical issues and a mis-characterisation of SCEUK’s Out of Warranty repairs policy.”

Well, the program aired just a couple of hours ago (those in the UK can view the full programme here), and while Sony has yet to respond, its earlier statement contained an ominous message for the BBC:

“If the report is broadcast in what appears to be its current form, SCEUK will scrutinise its accuracy and will take all necessary steps to protect its reputation and that of the PS3.”

Having seen the show myself, I’d suggest Sony actually has a case here. The Watchdog report lacked credibility in my view, drawing conclusions based on very small samples of users.

Furthermore, a stunt on the show (in which Watchdog offered to repair PS3s for free outside Sony’s HQ, to show up Sony charging £128 per repair) backfired spectacularly, with four of the eleven systems no longer working after Watchdog‘s technicians had fiddled with them. Oops. I can hear Sony’s lawyers cracking their knuckles from here.

[Via GamesIndustry.biz]

BBC broadcasts ‘PS3 failure’ report, Sony not happy is a post from: The Inquisitr

This Friday thousands of Brits will tune in to Channel 4, when magician Derren Brown will reveal how he managed to do the impossible: Guess the numbers for the midweekly National Lottery, before they were randomly drawn on live television.

The illusionist wrote the numbers down, before the machine on “Midweek Lotto Draw” showed them, but because of legal issues he was only allowed to show the numbers as they were drawn by the BBC.

Derren Brown revealed his numbers on Channel 4, while BBC ran “Midweek Lotto Draw”. Because of this, many people believe the trick is a scam.

Magician predicts lottery numbers is a post from: The Inquisitr

The BBC has profiled a charmingly articulate 13-year-old boy’s assessment of the Walkman vs. his trusty iPod.

Obvious “mommy totally wrote this for me” aside, it was an interesting article. Reading the piece, I recalled about a decade ago when my mother was driving a cousin somewhere when he started frantically smacking the window crank in the car. It took her a second to realize that the kid, now 19, had never seen a manual open/close window doodad. He had no idea what to do with the crank-thingy.

So Scott Campbell, hailing from Aberdeenshire, gamely traded his iPod for a Walkman for a whole week. Scotty starts his review:

So it’s not exactly the most aesthetically pleasing choice of music player. If I was browsing in a shop maybe I would have chosen something else.

From a practical point of view, the Walkman is rather cumbersome, and it is certainly not pocket-sized, unless you have large pockets. It comes with a handy belt clip screwed on to the back, yet the weight of the unit is enough to haul down a low-slung pair of combats.

“Aesthetics” aside (did I mention this kid is very frickin’ eloquent?), Scott has a bit to learn about the technical limitations of his new old device. After taking two days to realize that the tape actually has two sides, he then “mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser.” In another “man I’m old” moment, you can read about his surprise at the lack of a shuffle option. I’m still impressed by the inclusion of one. Campbell craftily uses the rewind function to create an ad hoc shuffle feature.

Dad comes in all buzzkilly here and tells the kid about the Walkman’s “tape munching” feature. Even I’d forgotten about that, despite having spent hours at the age of thirteen myself tearfully untangling my beloved Doors cassettes. Also mentioned is the Walkman’s insatiable thirst for batteries, all but forgotten to us now as our toys charge mainly via USB or in a wall socket.

The kid isn’t all unimpressed though, he liked the two headphone jacks to share music with a friend. But his overall impression is that of horror- each tape only held about twelve tracks!

[Image: Flickr]

Whippersnapper trades iPod for Walkman, shame is a post from: The Inquisitr

Foxes, usually hunted and generally disliked, aren’t an animal you would immediately consider to have any element of grace. And yet surprisingly they do.

This ad for the BBC series Yellowstone shows a Fox diving. Not diving from a ledge, but from a standing position, and used as a way of capturing food. It’s the least thing you’d expect to see from a Fox, which perhaps is why it’s worthy of watching.

The gracious dive of the wild Fox is a post from: The Inquisitr

British Actress Stephanie Parker has been found dead in Wales two days after the series she appeared in had ended.

Parker played the role of Stacey Weaver in the BBC Wales show Belonging since she was 15 (she was 22 at the time of her death.) She has also appeared in Doc Martin, Doctors and on Casualty.

Police say there were no suspicious circumstances and that the death was being treated as suicide. Some reports suggest that Parker might have hung herself, although other reports say she was found on “open ground.”

Parker lived in Pontypridd, Glamorgan, 10 miles from Bridgend, a Welsh town which has seen a spate of teenage suicides over recent years.

British Actress Stephanie Parker found dead is a post from: The Inquisitr

As a way to show its viewer how easily their computers could be a part of a botnet the BBC technology show Click went out and purchased what they called a low value botnet from one of the many underground Internet chatrooms. They then used that network to spam a Gmail and Hotmail account specifically setup up for this investigation.

After successfully leaving thousands of spam emails in those accounts in a matter of hours they turned their attention to performing a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on a site provided by security company Prevx. Once they completed all that they wanted to do the show left messages on the infected computers in the botnet that they were infected and then disabled the botnet.

BBC shows what happens when you buy a botnet is a post from: The Inquisitr

British artist, presenter and actor Tony Hart has passed away aged 83.

Hart spent over 50 years on television and appeared on TV shows including Playbox, Titch and Quackers, Vision On, Take Hart, Artbox Bunch, and Smart Hart. He’s best known outside the UK for his role on the BBC series Heartbeat from 1985 to 1994.

On many of his shows, he shared his love of art, demonstrating small-scale projects and creating large-scale artworks. Hart also created the original design for the Blue Peter badge, also used as the program’s logo.

Hart received two BAFTA awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.

He is survived by his daughter, Carolyn, and two grandchildren.

Tony Hart Dies Aged 83 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Shows such as “EastEnders,” “Heroes,” and “Never Mind The Buzzcocks” are among the titles that will be offered live on the Internet in real-time as they first play on the broadcast channels. The move will bring the BBC One and BBC Two channels online in fully streamable forms, joining several — BBC Three, BBC Four, CBBC, Cbeebies, and BBC News — that are already broadcasting both online and on-air.

The network describes the decision as being part of its “commitment to make channels available online.” BBC cites recent research showing the number of people who watch TV online has doubled in the last year alone. A similar report released earlier this year echoes that sentiment.

BBC to Begin Offering Online Simulcasts of Shows is a post from: The Inquisitr

BBC Worldwide has revealed plans to launch an Internet-based music download service in competition with Apple. The store will feature tunes from the BBC’s archives with the option to pay to download or pay less to “rent” — meaning the track would be downloaded with a temporary lifespan. The service will also let you stream anything in its entirety for free, if you don’t mind pre-, post- and mid-roll advertisements. All purchased and downloaded content will be DRM-free and is expected to run about 79p (USD$.89) per track.

The interesting thing here is the service will actually offer something new compared to its competitors. Rather than standard album tracks, the catalog will be made up of live performances that have aired on the BBC over the years — anything from “Top of the Pops” to various music festivals and radio or TV specials. Some will even date back to the 70s-era “Old Grey Whistle Test”, a program that had performances ranging from John Lennon to the Eagles.

A beta version is expected to debut in November with a full launch following early next year. The name of the service has not yet been decided.

BBC Preparing to Take on iTunes is a post from: The Inquisitr