Following is Ms Bowman's latest e-mail and my reply:
Dear Chris
The football tournament I'm referring to is the 2004 European Cup and there are many articles online referring to the St George's flag debate.
This programme was about investigating how listeners describe themselves and how they feel about where they are from. It was never intended to discuss the complex political issues that you suggest should have been raised.
Whilst I appreciate you continue to have concerns with this particular programme, if you wish to pursue this complaint further, you can contact the BBC’s Editorial Complaints Unit who will independently investigate your complaint. You can write to them at the following address:
Editorial Complaints Unit
Room 5168
White City
201 Wood Lane
London
W12 7TS
Alternatively you can email the Unit at the address: ecu@bbc.co.uk
Please note that any complaints submitted via email must include your postal address as all responses will continue to be issued via letter.
Whether or not you choose to pursue your complaint with the ECU please be assured your further concerns have been registered.
Regards
Anna Bowman
My reply:
Dear Ms Bowman, So, you believe that besmirching the England flag by going back to a debate in 2004 (FOUR years ago) amongst football fans, of which many of us were unaware, justifies the stance your programme took? What about featuring this story from the BBC, dated this year - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/7631733.stm to balance things?
The BBC's Editorial Complaints Unit will independently investigate my complaint? The BBC's Editorial Complaints Unit? How can an arm of the BBC independently investigate the BBC? No, Ms Bowman, I don't believe that is logical or probable.
Correspondence is probably now closed. Unless Ms Bowman thinks differently? She's always very welcome here. And I appreciate her taking the time to engage in quite lengthy e-mail conversation about my grievance. It's not what I've come to expect from BBC staff.
Of course you are right. In looking at UK sub-nationalities, if the BBC was going to include problems with racism, they should have made it plain it was a problem for the Scots and Welsh too.
ReplyDeleteAnd that phone call to The Surgery from the person who said that Scots sports people are always called "British" - why on earth did they let it through? It was a bare faced lie. If they'd known their stuff, it was obvious. In the BBC's own sports coverage, the Scots are Scots, the Welsh Welsh and the English British!
Taken all in, the show seemed to be saying: "Ooh, the English do have a problem with racism, don't they? And they try to overshadow the Scots and Welsh all the time."
ReplyDeleteIt was basically totally unfair.