Can the Blue Peter be trusted anymore?
For the second time in just a few months, Blue Peter, a British children’s TV programme, has again publicly embarrassed itself and the BBC as a whole.
The TV programme has been around for nearly 50 years and has long been viewed as a very reliable and respectable show, but it recently came under scrutiny when it fixed a phone-in competition an awarded the prize live to a passing child in the studio. When this came to light, the BBC was criticised and was forced to pay £50,000 by the regulator of telecommunications, OFCOM.
Now the TV programme has hit the news again! This time, it was because the bosses/editors decided that the name that children had voted to name a cat, “Cookie”, was unsuitable. Instead, staff pretended that the online vote had come out with “Socks” as the most popular name for the cat. The staff said that “Cookie” may have been seen as a name which had sexual interpretations!
What is this BBC? We’re talking about 8 and 9 year olds here! Faking the phone in competition is bad enough since a huge number of expectant hopeful children actually had zero chance of winning. Now you’re cheating on a vote because you think naming a cat “Cookie” might be bad for young children’s brains and development?!
The BBC is supposed to be the cream of British television. Taxpayers money is supposed to go towards creating quality TV programmes that stand out from the commercial TV companies’ ones.
Blue Peter has been around for nearly 50 years, with its reputation intact until the last few months - get your act together BBC!
