Got a response to my "complaint" about OP not being mentioned at all on SPOTY or the 50 greatest Olympic moments.
^Thanks for contacting us regarding ?BBC Sports Personality of the Year? broadcast on BBC One.
We?re sorry for the delay in responding to you on this occasion. We do appreciate our audience members expect a swift response at all times, and regret this wasn?t the case here.
We understand you were unhappy Oscar Pistorius wasn?t included in the Overseas Category, as you felt his contribution to the Olympic games was more than noteworthy. I also note you felt he should have been included in the ?50 Greatest Olympic Moments? programme as well, again due to his contribution to the games.
Whilst we appreciate your concerns, the reality of the situation with any programme of this nature is that there simply isn't the time or space to cover absolutely everything or to include every person, event or result.
Of course, because the 2012 Olympics were on home soil and as Team GB had such incredible success, SPOTY did reflect the Olympics to a large degree, but the programme isn't in itself simply a review of the Olympics alone. As we make clear each year, countless factors are borne in mind in terms of the nominations and review segments and so on
Things like this are, by their very nature, purely subjective thus there simply isn't a definable right or wrong approach or decision in such circumstances, thus in reality we can only offer our apologies if you felt that the wrong choices were made.
That said, the vast majority of the judging panel was made up of non-BBC people therefore the notion that the BBC chose to deliberately "airbrush [Oscar] out of 2012" just isn't fair or correct. SPOTY wasn't a review of every facet of the sporting year nor could it possibly be, but to suggest that the BBC hasn't covered Oscar Pistorius comprehensively throughout last year is without any foundation whatsoever. All his exploits have been very fully covered and reflected across our output, notably in and following the London Games, and he remains a newsworthy, interesting and relevant personality across our output as and when relevant. His profile and many stories and results and features remain on our website, for example.
Deciding on 'greatest moments' is similarly a purely subjective affair in that what one person judges to be "great" and thus worthy of inclusion, another won't. This is simply human nature and further evidence of the fact that as a broadcaster our approach by definition has to be somewhat "broad" thus requiring a degree of compromise by all parties. Whatever the circumstances, the BBC endeavours to serve the whole of the diverse United Kingdom but clearly there is no way that we can possibly hope to match every single individual viewer's own personal and subjective expectations, demands, preferences or tastes.
Here, wider feedback doesn't suggest to us that your views are shared thus we have to deduce that viewers generally were comfortable and happy with our general approach in these programmes and that they appreciate that not everything and everyone can be included.
Nevertheless, we're sorry to learn of your evident disappointment, and thanks for taking the time to contact us.^