We are too focused on Team GB: Astonishing memo from 'increasingly unhappy' BBC boss over patriotic tone of news coverage

• TV and radio newsroom staff were astonished by an email sent yesterday, which told them to focus on the achievements of other nations
• Last night’s Six O’Clock bulletin led on the two golds for boxer Nicola Adams and dressage rider Charlotte Dujardin

Memo: Director general Mark Thompson is said to be 'unhappy' with the patriotic tone of the news coverage

BBC chiefs have ordered their news teams to stop focusing so much on Team GB’s stunning Olympics success.
Director general Mark Thompson is said to be ‘increasingly unhappy’ with the patriotic tone of the news coverage of the Games.
News presenters such as George Alaghia and Sophie Raworth have celebrated Team GB’s performance as the number of gold medals rocketed to 24 yesterday, with many of the winners featured at the top of every bulletin.
TV and radio newsroom staff were astonished by an email sent yesterday, which told them to focus on the achievements of other nations as well as our own.
In the message, titled ‘An order from the DG’, director of news Helen Boaden wrote: ‘Mark Thompson is increasingly unhappy that we are focusing far too much on Team GB’s performance to the exclusion of all else.
‘This is also becoming a theme within the Press.
‘As editor in chief, he has issued a directive that this needs to change from today. So you need to get cracking on making that shift.’
BBC news editors were irritated at the tone of Miss Boaden’s email.
One insider told the Mail: ‘We never get direct orders like this.
‘It is only natural that our viewers and listeners want to hear about Team GB’s successes. All the other countries celebrate their own medal winners.

 

‘It would be a shame if we had to water down our coverage to satisfy an abstract notion of fairness.’

Indeed, last night’s Six O’Clock  bulletin led on the two golds for boxer Nicola Adams and dressage rider Charlotte Dujardin.

Home turf: Last night’s Six O’Clock bulletin led on the two golds for boxer Nicola Adams and dressage rider Charlotte Dujardin

The BBC has been widely praised for its Olympics programmes, hosted by sports presenters including Clare Balding, Gary Lineker and Gabby Logan.

The email was sent by the BBC's Helen Boaden

Last night a BBC source told the Mail: ‘This is most definitely not about the sports coverage – it has been flawless – and it is certainly not meant to denigrate the sterling work of the presenters.
‘This is about our Six O’Clock and Ten O’Clock news. We want to make sure the entire games is covered.’ 
The Olympics coverage has come as a welcome success for the Corporation after its Diamond Jubilee presentation in June was attacked for being inaccurate and banal, and attracted almost 5,000 complaints.
Writing on the BBC’s own online message board, viewers were quick to defend the BBC’s coverage of the Games against charges of ‘jingoism’.

One wrote: ‘If you can’t blow your own vuvuzela when you’re the host nation, when can you?
‘I think it’s been a great games so far . . . exceeded all expectations for me, and though the Beeb messed up the Diamond Jubilee on a grand scale, they have redeemed themselves with the fantastic coverage this week.’
Last night Mr Thompson said: ‘I am as delighted as our audiences and the whole BBC team about the brilliant performance of Team GB, and it is quite wrong to suggest otherwise.
‘The BBC has been right to focus on sporting achievements which the whole country has been celebrating, and we will continue to do so with pride.
‘We can do that while at the same time making sure that our news programmes fully reflect some of the other great sporting achievements and human stories of the London Games.’

Praised: The BBC has been widely praised for its Olympics programmes, hosted by sports presenters including Clare Balding, Gary Lineker and Gabby Logan