[jambutty]

Originally Posted by Gayle

There's been all the stuff recently about the BBC (and other TV channels) who have not been entirely honest with us. Blue Peter was guilty of fraud by using a studio guest as a competition winner, now Children in Need telephone lines are being investigated.

Documentaries are also under fire. I'm currently watching India with Sanjeev Bhaskar and it's obvious that some elements of it are staged, even if they are supposed to be 'just going with the flow'. A researcher will have gone ahead and set up the interviews and chance meetings. I watched Top Gear last night and although it was showing Clarkson and May travelling to the North Pole supposedly alone, again it was obvious that it was faked in some respects and at one point it showed that there was a support crew of another three cars.

So, how much can we trust.

It must be obvious to even the most stupidest viewer that if a programme shows an intrepid explorer canoeing up the Amazon someone has to be doing the filming and that means a support team.

Even before they showed the support cars on the North Pole trip Jeremy often referred to them. Then there is the case of not endangering the presenters. When JC and JM came across that polar bear and cub, surely you don’t imagine that there wasn’t a crack marksman behind the camera.

To present an interesting documentary the producer has to set things up before hand unless we are prepared to watch for several boring hours.

Faking scenes is nothing new though. It was done during the First World War for the cinema newsreels.

As for the fake competitions that is down to the government allowing the use of premium phone numbers were the recipient of the call takes a portion of the fee charged to the caller. If such phone rates were not in place there would be no incentive to ‘fake’ the results.

As for the competition questions. Surely to goodness even the thickest of viewer would realise that the questions are so easy as to encourage people to phone in and it all becomes a gamble.

I would rather trust the BBC than any of the commercial channels.