CBBC Newsround is usually quite good on reporting animal stories, but one item on Friday was less positive than usual about animal welfare.

With one notable exception, Newsround has been a very animal-friendly programme. Last week, for example, there was a series of reports by Leah on endangered species in the UK, as well as a report on attempts to save stranded pilot whales in Scotland. On Monday there was an item about caring for pet rabbits, and on Thursday about the new penguin enclosure at London Zoo.

So why the sudden out-of-character concern for the financial cost of helping animals in distress? Newsround Blog has been investigating, and I've come with some interesting background.

Newsround - Friday 27 May 2011 at 8.30am

Leah: Fire crews spend millions of pounds rescuing animals. But this morning we've heard they're being criticised by one campaign group who says saving animals isn't their job, and they're wasting taxpayers' money. Fire crews say they'll always help animals in trouble because they see it as part of their job. Call-outs have included: rescuing a cow from a tree, a snail from a wall and a duckling from a drain.

At 5pm the same day -

Ricky: Hello

Sonali: Yes, happy Friday. Ricky and Sonali here to get you in the know before you start your weekend.

Ricky: Yeah, got a packed show today. Here's a taste of what's in store: Firefighters are told they're spending too much time rescuing animals.

Sonali: And we ask Simon Cowell's bff what's really going on with Cheryl and the American X Factor.

In the report proper, Sonali told viewers that "a BBC investigation found UK fire services spent three million pounds rescuing 17,000 animals in the past 3 years. One emergency involved reuniting a duckling with its mum."

The BBC investigation was covered in detail on Friday's Radio 4 You and Yours programme.

Newsround Blog has found out that the origins of the "BBC investigation" goes back a few weeks. Look at this on the Taxpayers' Alliance website and you'll note the nascent story about fire crews being kept busy rescuing animals dates from early in April 2011. But now also look at this Taxpayers' Alliance press release and note that it was embargoed until the start of Friday 27 May 2011. Both these news items appear to have their origins with the Taxpayers' Alliance.

So what's going on? First of all, bear in mind that many of the BBC's traditional supporters - the sort of people who believe public service broadcasting exists for the greater good of society - would be shocked to learn that even one penny of licence fee money is being channelled into private healthcare. And the BBC would have become aware that the Taxpayers Alliance had got hold of the story as soon as they received Freedom of Information requests asking for details.

The BBC was, quite rightly, embarrassed about this information being made widely known, and Newsround Blog posits that BBC bosses decided news management was needed to preserve the Corporation's public service reputation.

The Taxpayers' Alliance story about BBC private healthcare costs was embargoed until 27 May 2011 - the very same day that the BBC pushed their spoiler story about the cost to taxpayers of firefighters rescuing trapped animals. It beggars belief that this was a pure coincidence. And we shouldn't forget that the BBC has form when it comes to burying unwelcome news items.

Newsround Blog can report that the BBC's news management achieved its aim of minimising, and in fact almost drowning out, news about staff private healthcare costs. No major sites went with the BBC private healthcare story.

Newsround's take on the animal rescue story was shaped not within the constraints of their typical editorial judgement, but presumably by a management edict that Newsround was to assist in helping to bury that day's Taxpayers' Alliance press release.

That's why, on this occasion, the programme offered less than wholehearted support for the animals.

Nice to see Newsround helping to improve kids' rights. From Tuesday's 5pm bulletin -

Leah: Ricky's been pretty busy this week, because you've been asking him to look into things for you. His next investigation is one that we got most emails about. Lots of you are fed up with being banned from shops. Watch this.

After Ricky's report Leah asked kids to send in new suggestions for him to investigate. Perhaps Ricky could also help by showing Newsround viewers how to investigate things for themselves.

Talking of which, here's an update into my own enquiries about the BBC (blog on 20 April 2011)

My FOI request about Joe Godwin's expenses was answered last Wednesday. The links on Richard Deverell's disclosure page were put right last Thursday. The information in Joe Godwin's Declaration of Personal Interests is still incomplete, and the BBC's Head of Information Policy & Compliance, James Leaton Gray, is aware of the issue.

I did eventually hear back from Mr Gray personally, and amongst other things he says that his Department dealt with my FOI request "in accordance with international accountancy standards." He rejects my assertion of "a misleading and possibly dishonest response."

James Leaton Gray was sorry I wasn't satisfied with the service provided, and says that he and his team set great store by the work they do on behalf of correspondents.

I'm waiting to hear back from BBC Children's on the matter of the MOTD Kickabout Fantasy Football Leaderboard (blog 24 April 2011) as well as on some other issues.

BBC News first named Ryan Giggs as the injunction-row footballer on Monday at 5pm. Earlier in the afternoon Laura Kuenssberg was telling viewers that, despite the footballer having been named in Parliament, the BBC was unable to repeat it on air. Meanwhile Sky News was openly reporting that Ryan Giggs was the footballer in question. This is from Newsround's bulletin just after 5pm yesterday -

Leah: First, we're talking secrets. Everyone's got them, but up until an hour ago if we told you this one we could be sent to prison.

Ricky: Yeah, that's because a judge ruled no-one was allowed to name a world-famous Premier League footballer who was trying to keep details of his life private.

Leah: It's got lots of people talking about what celebrities should be allowed to keep private, and in the past sixty minutes that's all changed. The footballer went to court to ban people reporting claims about his private life. He said it was no-one else's business. So nobody was allowed to say who he was - not on TV, radio, in the papers or online. If they did they could be fined or go to jail.

Ricky: But there was a problem - the Internet. It's easy to write whatever you like online, and lots of people did name the player. And today an MP called John Hemming used a special rule to name him as Ryan Giggs.

Leah: Making all this public is good news for people who think we should be told absolutely everything about celebs' lives - and role models. But it's bad news for famous people who think they have a right to keep some things private.

CBBC's Leonardo establishes that, in spite of Joe Godwin's reassurance, children's TV has made no meaningful progress on LGBT inclusiveness. Luckily a small number of schools are making a real difference.

Teachers at Stoke Newington School are working right now to make things better. The School's activities during LGBT History Month 2011 included a project called LGBT Creative Day which was turned over to celebrating LGBT human rights. The banner for LGBT Creative Day was:-

Claiming our history
Celebrating our present
Creating our future


Stoke Newington School say they've almost eliminated homophobic bullying. Unfortunately their heartwarming work and achievements haven't yet been reported by CBBC Newsround.

Ricky was in the studio on his own for Newsround's 5pm bulletin yesterday. Sonali reported live from a tiny Mediterranean island called Lampedusa. Thousands of refugees are fleeing unrest across North Africa and making their way to the Island. Sonali's report was very informative, and an example of Newsround at its best.

The First Post reports: A burly World Cup winning rugby player, with a wife and two children, may not appear to be an obvious candidate to become a gay rights activist. But 6ft 3in Ben Cohen has done just that. The former England winger has announced his retirement from the sport, aged 32, to dedicate his life to tackling bullying and homophobia.

Sport is often thought of as a bastion of homophobia, so it's good to see people like Ben Cohen stand up against prejudice. The showbiz and media worlds on the other hand are thought of as LGBT-friendly, but in reality homophobia insidiously pervades the industry, making it potentially far more harmful than the overt prejudice found in the sporting arena.

Simon Cowell is an exemplar.

Simon is quite happy to appear as Mr Nasty - the tough judge who doesn't suffer fools gladly. At the same time he likes the public to think of him as protective and supportive to those under his wing as mentor and agent. Despite Cowell's overt support for Joe McElderry when Joe came out as gay last July, it seems that Mr Cowell is very far from the well-meaning, easy-going and benign person that he'd like us to believe. Joe's career wasn't helped by the way he was treated by the BBC.

Newsround frequently covers stories about Simon Cowell's TV shows. At the end of yesterday's 5pm bulletin they reported that the X Factor axe has fallen on Dannii Minogue. Then this -

Leah: Talking of the X Factor, head over to the website because we want to know who you think should be on the judging panel. Let us know your thoughts this very minute!

There's no doubting that Simon is a mummy's boy but his credentials as a ladies' man are somewhat more suspect. What is the relevance of Simon's sexual orientation, you might ask. Well it's this. The showbiz and media worlds are generally seen as modern-thinking and entirely comfortable with LGBT people. So why does Simon Cowell pose as hetero when supposedly no-one really cares any more?

The truth is that people do care. No-one knows that better than these media types. They know it makes the difference between success and failure on talent shows, they know it affects marketability, they know that "straight is safe" and "gay is a gamble." Note on this YouTube clip Paula Abdul's indignant response to a reference to Simon Cowell's sexuality, although Simon himself sensibly makes light of it. But in this clip he loses his cool after Dannii Minogue quite properly raised the issue of the altered lyrics in Danyl's song (see blog on 11 October 2009)

Had Joe McElderry not fibbed about his sexuality at the start of his X Factor challenge his chances of winning would have been greatly diminished. He knew it. Simon Cowell knew it. In fact everyone in showbiz knows it. So we end up with a vicious circle whereby media moguls feed this prejudice for their own self-advancement.

That's why it's important that more people like Ben Cohen stand up and be counted.

It's that day of the year again - 17th May - International Day Against Homophobia - IDAHO

Friday Download is possibly a sign that children's TV is spreading its wings, perhaps appealing to a wider range of kids including teenagers - a group which has, in recent years, been poorly served by the BBC.

The thinking behind Friday Download owes something to Channel 4's programmes for teens, but it seems CBBC is still reluctant to stray too far from its namby-pamby attitude.

On Friday 6 May 2011, the so-called 'TV download' segment - a selection of recommended television programmes presented by Ceallach - included this about Leonardo -

Ceallach: .. OK, the next show is Leonardo which is on CBBC. This show is based on Leonardo da Vinci as a teenager. Now some of you may know Leonardo da Vinci was a very very famous artist ....... but this is him as a teenager and what life was like for him hundreds and hundreds of years ago. It's a really factual show. It's really enjoyable to watch. You've got all his friends - Machiavelli, Lorenzo. And it's about him as a teenager doing his drawings and making some inventions, but at the same time people are trying to take his inventions. And it's all about what he goes through in the town of Florence. Let's take a look (video excerpt from Leonardo - Episode 6 - The Lightning Box)

Ceallach, for one, believes that Leonardo is factual (see previous blog for context,) and Friday Download did nothing to disabuse kids of that belief - in fact it reinforced it. Kids who take the trouble to do a few minutes research on the Internet - say by checking out Newsround Blog - know the truth about Leonardo da Vinci, and of course the truth about CBBC.

Why the title Friday Download? Well who doesn't like Friday, being as it's the start of the weekend. And everyone believes downloading is popular with kids. So put the two together and, hey presto, you get Friday Download.

---
Newswatch, on Friday dealt with the BBC move to Salford, but surprisingly failed to mention the recent news that Peter Salmon's second-in-command, Richard Deverell, has pulled out of the venture.

Peter Salmon was left with the last word on Newswatch -

Raymond Snoddy: You've managed to persuade about 55% of the staff involved to move to Salford, but isn't it a bit odd that some of the top brass like yourself haven't moved here permanently?

Peter Salmon: Well a lot of us are in the process of moving. I'm renting, for instance, this year and I'm buying a home next year. Lots of my senior colleagues are already here - they've bought their homes. We don't tend to hear stories of BBC bosses committing to buy homes. It just tends to be the odd individual who's still renting. That's because a lot of us are, you know, in a particular place in terms of our family lives. In terms of kids at school, all the rest of it, partners etcetera etcetera. But we're all very committed to this project. Inevitably bosses come and go just like staff. Presenters come and go just like staff. That's our business model. We encourage fluid careers, but we're very committed to this Centre.

Regular readers of Newsround Blog should be aware that Joe Godwin, Director of BBC Children's, attends the Kidscreen Summit in New York. This year he participated in a session which discussed children's heroes and superheroes (blog 10 April 2011)

Leonardo is being heavily promoted, and few kids who watch children's TV will have missed seeing the series trailer. The website describes it as a "drama following the adventures of the teenage Leonardo da Vinci and his friends." The opening title sequence of every episode broadcast so far sets the story in Florence in 1467.



Nowhere are kids cautioned that Leonardo is makebelieve. It is a false and misleading account of the teenage years of Leonardo da Vinci.

The fifth episode 'It Must Be Love' portrays Leonardo as head-over-heels in love with a girl called Valentina, and apparently it's love at first sight. Chatting to a friend, Leonardo exclaims - "She is so beautiful. When I look at her I can barely breathe."

Leonardo and Valentina flirt together

The series fails children on multiple levels. One of the many issues with Leonardo is that, in reality, the eponymous superhero would have been more likely to be head-over-heels in love with one of his male friends (blog 13 April 2011)

Since my earlier blogs on this topic, I've found out more about the Kidscreen Summit Heroes And Superheroes session, and it seems the issue of LGBT heroes was not raised by any of the panel. This was particularly unfortunate because the reality of the My Hero project is so much at variance with its founding principles. For example there is currently no information about LGBT History Month on their website. I have raised this with them.

Despite CBBC's profoundly misleading account of the life of Leonardo da Vinci, it seems that Joe Godwin has, for years, been telling LGBT rights and support groups that CBBC inclusiveness will improve. On 12 March 2011 he spoke to Families Together London (FTL)

CBBC's Leonardo series is contrary to everything LGBT History Month stands for, quite apart from also being at odds with the BBC's Mission, Values and Public Purposes.

Leonardo is broadcast on Mondays on the CBBC Channel at 5.15pm.
Episode 5 - 'It Must Be Love' is repeated tomorrow at 10am on the CBBC Channel. The series is also presently available online in the UK.

By way of an update on certain BBC disclosure pages, the broken links on Richard Deverell's page, which were listed in my blog dated 21 April 2011, are still not working.

The link to Joe Godwin's declaration of personal interests, mentioned in my blog on 24 April 2011, is now working although the declaration does seem curious in some respects.

I should mention, at this point, that the BBC department which has overall charge of Freedom of Information is, based on the evidence in my possession, bereft of credibility, as I hope was clear from the detailed sequence of events shown in my blog on 20 April 2011. The email was not rebutted by James Leaton Gray, and the matter was referred to the BBC's Chief Operating Officer for her comments.

Newsround's mistakes and editorial misjudgements just keep on coming. Take the news about Emma Watson. This was how Newsround reported the story yesterday:-

Harry Potter star Emma Watson has denied a report that she's being bullied. The 24-year-old star says she's never been bullied in her life, and reports that she's taking time off university because of being teased about her role as Hermione just aren't true.

Emma isn't 24 years old as Newsround said - she only turned 21 last month.

Honestly, CBBC ought to check its facts and accuracy before allowing programmes on air which mislead kids. Other examples - see blogs on 28 April 2011, 21 October 2010 and 11 December 2010

I can't track down the section of Sentamu's interview which Newsround broadcast on Wednesday afternoon, but it seems the clip (see yesterday's blog) was most likely taken from his recent pronouncements about the Royal Wedding, and the benefits of marriage as against just living together. That particular bit isn't included in the Archbishop's own edited recording of the interview and accompanying transcript. Also missing from Archbishop Sentamu's edit is his comment about some people wanting to taste the milk before buying the cow.

The Archbishop of York's objections to gay equality are well known and on record. However Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who Newsround confused with John Sentamu, has very different views.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu wrote

A student once asked me if I could have one wish granted to reverse an injustice, what would it be? I had to ask for two. One is for world leaders to forgive the debts of developing nations which hold them in such thrall. The other is for the world to end the persecution of people because of their sexual orientation, which is every bit as unjust as that crime against humanity, apartheid.

Archbishop Tutu says that a parent who teaches a child that there is only one sexual orientation and that anything else is evil denies our humanity and their own too.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu would, no doubt, be disdainful of any school or public institution that tolerated homophobia. CBBC has, in recent years, gone out of its way to invisibilise lesbian and gay people and issues. Which is a total disgrace.

Over the years Newsround Blog has pointed out numerous errors, editorial misjudgements and bloopers. So here's another from yesterday's programme at 3.30pm. Notice the caption when the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, speaks.

Sonali: Hey guys, Sonali here with all your top stories from Newsround. First to a big dress rehearsal for the Royal Wedding - and it happened overnight. Members of the armed forces marched through the streets of London very early this morning to make sure they get it right on Friday. Leah's got the pictures.

(video) Leah: Lit up. Westminster Abbey. In the middle of the night the military were rehearsing. It's their last chance before the big day, and they needed the streets to be quiet to make sure no-one got in their way. The army, the navy and the RAF will all take part in the ceremony. And they need to make sure no-one puts a foot wrong. As well as lining the way from Buckingham Palace to the Church, some of them will be escorting the royal carriage as it makes its way along the route. Outside the Abbey people have already begun camping out so they can get a front row seat on all the action. Yesterday work began on preparing the inside of the Church - trees and flowers were moved in.


John Sentamu: The moment, you know, when William answers the question, Do you take Kate to be your wife? and he says I do, almost all the lights will go out of London, because he's no longer a bachelor.

Leah: Later this afternoon there'll be a full music rehearsal. With just two days to go it's no wonder people are working through the night to get everything right.

As Andrew Marr has been in the news recently accused of hypocrisy, and as he's been mentioned many times on this blog in relation to the BBC's so-called Impartiality Summit and the resultant From Seesaw to Wagon Wheel, and as Andrew Marr has a high opinion of BBC journalists, I've decided to publish my email to him dated 6th July 2008.

Dear Andrew,

I believe you told people at the BBC's Impartiality Summit, amongst other things, that there is almost certainly an abnormally large proportion of gay people working for the BBC compared with the general population.

Please could you advise me why you believe that statement to be true?

Also why do you believe that there is an innate liberal bias at the BBC, and why do you think that gay people necessarily add to any liberal bias?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Andrew Marr has never replied to my enquiries.

Openness and transparency

The BBC Trust has taken a lot of stick, not least from Newsround Blog, which realised that the Trust is far too close to BBC management well before most of the press and politicians created a brouhaha.

Sir Michael Lyons, who is leaving his post as Chairman of the Trust, believed a low point at the BBC was being part of their 'ship of fools' election night coverage.

Chris Patten takes over as Chairman on 1st May.

In spite of the BBC Trust's many faults, its Strategy Review did include some very important and progressive key objective statements, particularly in regard to the need for openness and transparency and the need to do more to serve all audiences.

My blog dated 20 April 2011 demonstrates Corporation malfeasance, even at the higher levels. If the BBC's Head of Information Policy & Compliance can't be trusted, who can?

At the time of writing, several links on Richard Deverell's page and the last link on Joe Godwin's page - supposedly his declaration of personal interests - still aren't working.

Of course it shouldn't always be necessary to go through the formality of a 'Freedom of Information' enquiry. You'd think that when a programme invites viewers to contact them with "Email us now!" they'd be more than happy to receive and answer emails.


But I contacted MOTD Kickabout in January asking about the Fantasy Football Leaderboard, and I still haven't been given the details I asked for.


More recently I asked BBC Children's about another programme, Project Parent, and I'm still waiting for a reply to that question as well. I hope to write a review of Project Parent, or 'Attack of the Matchmakers' as it was originally to be titled, when I hear back.

An Easter Egg

With reference to yesterday's blog, Richard Deverell is now Chief Operating Officer, BBC North, but was Director of Children's before Joe Godwin took over in 2009.

The following links on Mr Deverell's disclosure page are broken (at the time of writing)


Richard Deverell's expenses Q3 2009-10 (131KB)

Richard Deverell's central bookings Q3 2009-10 (236KB)

Richard Deverell's e-expenses Q2 2009-10 (149KB)

Richard Deverell's central bookings Q2 2009-10 (180KB)

Richard Deverell's e-expenses Q1 2009-10 (108KB)

Richard Deverell's central bookings Q1 2009-10 (130KB)

Richard Deverell's Gifts and Hospitality Register Q1 2009-10 (35KB)

New standards of openness and transparency

The BBC has today published its latest set of disclosures, which for the first time, includes some salary and expenses data relating to the current BBC Director of Children's. A mystery surrounds why Mr Godwin's data were not published previously, and it's is an issue which I originally took up with the BBC in February 2010.

There is still an outstanding disclosure enquiry relating to Mr Godwin which has been dealt with by the BBC in a less than honest manner. This is how I put it to James Leaton Gray, BBC Head of Information Policy & Compliance, on Monday:

The BBC Trust recently indicated that it wished the BBC to set new standards of openness and transparency. Members of the public are entitled to expect you to fulfil your role in a professional and impartial manner. However I suspect your department's misleading responses (see attached screencapture) have set a new low standard for the Corporation.

Anyone who carefully checks out the BBC's "disclosures" will notice that a substantial number of links are broken or never worked in the first place. One example of the latter is Joe Godwin's Declaration of Personal Interests link which, at the time of writing, returns "Error 404 - Page not found"

screencapture from 'About the BBC' website

This following email was sent to the BBC at 10.46am today -

FAO: James Leaton Gray, Head of Information Policy & Compliance

Dear Mr Gray,

In reply to your email yesterday, I still believe that my FOI enquiry has been dealt with improperly.

The sequence of events was as follows:

My original request (see below) was emailed on 9th March 2011, and acknowledged by your department on 10th March. The enquiry was given a reference number RFI20110305.

The subject of my email was: Freedom of Information Enquiry re BBC Director of Children's

The BBC's FOI acknowledgement was titled: RFI20110305 - BBC Director of Children's salary

It did, however, quote my enquiry in full.

The BBC response was sent on Thursday 7th April 2011, just outside the time limit, for which an apology was given. Two documents were attached. The first (RFI20110305 - final response.pdf) included a detailed explanation as to why Mr Godwin's salary details had been withheld, as well as the following two sentences under the heading of 'Expenses' -

"Please find enclosed a schedule of Joe Godwin’s expenses from 1st October 2009 – 30th September 2010. For a small number of entries, we have added some additional notes for context."

The document ended with a paragraph explaining my rights of appeal.

The other attached document (RFI20110305 - Disclosure document - Joe Godwin expenses data.pdf) was the said list of expenses.

Being surprised to note that there were apparently no expenses in relation to Mr Godwin's attendance at last year's Children's Media Conference, I followed up the next day, 8th April 2011, asking if you would recheck to see if more details were available.

No reply was received.

Six days later, on 14th April 2011, I emailed again repeating the request. Your department replied the same day mentioning that they had contacted the BBC's Finance department. I was informed that the data provided constitutes details of all claims paid to Joe Godwin in the period specified. I then enquired once again (at 2.23pm) whether there might indeed have been other expenses.

The next morning, Friday 15th April 2011 at 11.10am I emailed again asking for an adequate response by 6pm. Your department's reply then stated for the first time that requests for expenses are treated as requests for expenses paid to the claimant. No reason was given for not having informed me of this in reply to my emails of 8th and 14th April 2011, neither was there any apology for what might well be reasonably characterised as a misleading and possibly dishonest response. Instead I was issued with a different reference number for what was termed my "new request."

I wrote back at 5.30pm: "This is not a new request. I did not limit my original request in any way. This gives the clear impression that the BBC is deliberately withholding information."

I wrote again on Monday 18th April 2011 pointing out what the BBC Trust had to say about new standards of openness and transparency which I felt had not been met in your handling of this case. I attached a JPEG of the 'About the BBC' website which seems to back up my view that your department should have been forthcoming on all expenses from the start.

I advised that you conduct a review of your department's procedures, and requested that my enquiry, with reference number of your choice, be expedited. I said I would be grateful for an answer by 6pm that day.

A reply yesterday (19th April 2011) attempted to defend your position, linking to what seems to be a BBC staff information document.

You said in part:

'the BBC discloses details of expenses once they have been paid as this is the point at which a cost is incurred by the corporation.'

Now I originally wrote:

In respect of the Director of Children's, Joe Godwin, please could the BBC provide details of salary and expenses for

A) The first two quarters (Q1, Q2) of 2010-2011;

and

B) The last two quarters (Q3, Q4) of 2009-2010.

My request applied to 'expenses' without any distinction, i.e. whether reclaimed by Joe Godwin or otherwise incurred to the BBC, and your most recent message is no excuse for the lack of transparent disclosure - during the quarter they were incurred by the BBC - of all Joe Godwin's expenses.

Nevertheless I was told yesterday to expect a response within an additional 20 working days.

As I may decide to pursue this matter with relevant authorities, it would be most helpful if you could let me know as soon as possible if there is anything in the above with which you take issue. Thank you.

Apparently Rebecca Black took over from Justin Bieber as the most watched star on YouTube last month. The story was trailed at the start of Newsround at 8.25 this morning:

Ricky: ... It is a black day for Bieber as he loses the top spot.

and then a bit later -

Ricky: Right, Bieber breaking news just in - the singer's lost his crown as the king of YouTube ...

Plenty of puns then, but shouldn't Newsround have been wary of beginning its bulletin with an archaic idiom?

LGBT heroes

What is it about two men or two women kissing in public which causes some people distress? Whether it's in a London pub or whether it's on children's TV there's always the odd bigot trying to keep same-sex relationships out of sight.

Although the My Hero project, mentioned in an earlier blog, was supposedly set up to counter the lack of "positive role models" in the media, it seems the site has never included a feature about LGBT History Month.

But there were plenty of equality champions gathered together in London last night. They'd congregated outside the John Snow pub in Soho to protest at the treatment of a gay couple two days before. The couple, James Bull and Jonathan Williams, had been on a first date when they were asked to leave the pub. Rather than face the music, the cowardly landlord closed the pub early and had nothing to say on camera. (Sky News report)

News about LGBT discrimination and news items about attempts to fight homophobia never make it to CBBC Newsround, though stories about combatting racism are relatively frequent. Only last night, for example, the lead story was about racist chanting in football, and celebrities campaigning to help stamp it out.

Not only is CBBC failing to combat homophobia, it is at the same time responsible for a drama which rewrites history, depicting a prominent LGBT hero as heterosexual. (see previous blog) I've asked Joe Godwin, Director of BBC Children's, about Leonardo in that regard.

When another a couple gets thrown out of a pub simply for kissing, the BBC will bear a share of responsibility. Unfortunately the end result of homophobia isn't limited to being ejected from a pub. Michael Causer and Ian Baynham are just two of the many victims who aren't able to testify to that.

Heroes and Superheroes - continued

CBBC's new 13 part historical drama, Leonardo, paints the young Leonardo da Vinci in glowing terms. The series, which was shot in South Africa, is set in 15th century Florence, and stars Jonathan Bailey as the eponymous superhero. It follows the adventures of a teenage Leonardo and his friends.

Historical accuracy is not one of the strengths of the new drama series. In the first episode, for example, we see Leonardo riding a remarkably modern-looking bicycle, which he had supposedly invented and initially termed a velocerotor.

According to a BBC press release the drama series is full of mystery, adventure and an unfolding love story.

Will that love affair be between Leonardo and Lisa? Probably yes. But if there were to be any attempt at a story true to history, we'd be more likely to see a romance develop between Leonardo and one of his mates.

It's about time the people in charge of CBBC grew up and faced the reality of the world as it is and always has been.

Heroes and Superheroes

Who are kids' heroes? Are they reflected in children's media? Can we use attributes that kids respect in building the next generation of media heroes and superheroes? Hear findings from the "My Hero" project, followed by discussion with leading producers.

That was the description of a panel discussion in New York's Hilton (see blog on 31 March 2011)

Without having attended the Kidscreen Summit, and without transcripts, I can only speculate on the event. So let's analyse what we have available.

Who are kids' heroes? - That seems a fair enough question.

Are they reflected in children's media? - Another fair question.

Can we use attributes that kids respect in building the next generation of media heroes and superheroes? - Right, this is where things get a bit more complex. Because it looks to me like kids' heroes are actually influenced by people in the media and their perceived financial interests.

Hear findings from the "My Hero" project, followed by discussion with leading producers. - "My Hero" is a US-based organisation set up by parents to offset the lack of "positive role models" in the media. Only a few days ago in Britain BBC newsreader, Jane Hill who is LGB, commented: It’s 2011 – do we not have a right to see ourselves reflected? Stonewall’s Unseen on Screen research showed how little positive representation there is of lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

American attitudes are a world apart from British attitudes, and the "My Hero" project, which claims to "celebrate the best of humanity," is primarily for Americans. Try searching for an American politician - Barack Obama is an obvious choice. Now try searching for David Cameron or Ed Miliband.

So why have UK licence-payers been funding Joe Godwin, Director of BBC Children's, to attend the New York Hilton and participate in an event which has little relevance to a British audience? Joe Godwin does check out this blog, so maybe he would like to explain his reasons for attending. I'd be happy to publish Joe's viewpoint should a response be forthcoming.