The BBC, the Queen and Ethical Lapses

(Kris Morril is a former student of mine who has been a journalist and now runs her own PR/media consultancy in London. She’s a very bright woman, who, despite that, has been reading our blog. She mentioned ethical issues in journalism in the UK and I asked her to give us her thoughts — and here they are. Good stuff. Thanks, Kris. Bruce) Recently, the venerable British Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC, or the Beeb to those who work there) has come under fire for admitting to some serious ethical lapses. The one receiving the most coverage was the admission that producers of an upcoming documentary on Queen Elizabeth II had manipulated video footage of a photo shoot that the American photographer Annie Leibovitz was doing of the Queen. The video footage shows the Queen storming out in anger after Leibovitz asks her to remove her crown. As it quickly emerged, while the Queen did take umbrage to the suggestion, she did not storm out of the room. Red faced, the BBC quickly admitted...