Forum for former BBC staff

Forum for former BBC staff
http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> News and Comment >> Sometimes you keep your head down..... http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1407857325 Message started by Dickie Mint on Aug 12^th, 2014, 3:29pm

Title: Sometimes you keep your head down.....
Post by Dickie Mint on Aug 12^th, 2014, 3:29pm

And don't admit to having worked for the BBC!

Why? On the news pages of the beeb's website the story of jimmy savile's dying has re-appeared. And, according to the mail (yes, I know, sorry!) a BBC spokeswoman is unrepentant.
"A spokeswoman said: 'Sometimes old stories reappear on the "most read" part of the website when stories are re-shared by third parties, sometimes long after the event, which means the old story moves up the "most popular" list.
'This in turn then means they are more likely to be re-read and re-shared and the story remains in the list for longer.
'We don't delete archive stories, so people can still access news stories on our site whenever they were published.'

She did not say why the story had been re-read or re-shared. "

Another old story also appears in the "Most Read" box on news stories, that of Cats Killing other animals dated 29 January 2013.

So just how do these old stories re-appear? Is it some sort of hacking attack or, as I suspect, some lazy editing - someone copying an old page without checking any links on it?

And the savile story surely now qualifies as being inaccurate? Because I doubt all those famous names would now praise the monster!

I've made a complaint and I think a FoI is in order!

Title: Re: Sometimes you keep your head down.....
Post by zetothebubbleman on Aug 12^th, 2014, 5:13pm

That's the internet for you. There are a whole load of items which with the benefit of hindsight you could say were no longer appropriate. But who's going to say what should or shouldn't be edited.

If lots of hits are made on a page, for whatever reason, then it will move up the ranking. I don't agree that the BBC should edit "history". We might not like it but that page was published at the time of Savile's death, and the people quoted made those remarks.

Title: Re: Sometimes you keep your head down.....
Post by Dickie Mint on Aug 12^th, 2014, 8:19pm

Both old pages have now been removed.

And my question was why did they appear? You'd have to search to find them. savile is obvious enough, but why a story on cats? There were no current comments to bump them up!