The BBC's official policy on "entertainers" who commit child rape is to post articles in the "Arts & Entertainment" section

[StewiesBack]

I've been complaining to the BBC for months about their coverage of the trials of Stuart Hall, Max Clifford, Gary Glitter and all the other male celebrities investigated, charger and/ or convicted as part of the Yewtree operation into Jimmy Savile's systemic sexual assault of children whilst working at the BBC. I've had a number of utterly ridiculous emails from them claiming that it is totally appropriate for coverage of the trials of "entertainers" to be placed as both "news" and "arts and entertainment" on the online sites.

I've started a petition to have the BBC change their official policy so that articles referencing child rape, sexual abuse or exploitation not be placed under the heading of "arts and entertainment" online. I'm not sure what the MN policy is on petitions anymore but I've written it up for my blog.

whats with you onesleep? you're not normally like this

i agree it's miscategorized under entertainment , as captchaos says, it should be about focussing on the terrible crime committed rather than the personalities involved. It's more respctful to the victims directly involved in this case and all victims of similar crimes

But it's Entertainment & Arts section of the BBC NEWS website.

It is not the Entertainment & Arts section of the BBC website.

but i would expect to find ... i dunno...kimye getting married news on the entertainment section and other light hearted stuff. child abuse and similar crimes doesn't fit there really, it might upset people to come across it unexpectedly

it's not a big deal really yo move it i would've thought

I think my point was that, yes it's in the NEWS part of the NEWS website, so why does it need to be in the entertainment section or the NEWS website as well?

It's just news, it's not also entertainment. Unless the BBC is suggesting that child abuse is entertaining.

Am I not explaining myself well here or something?

But that's the point, thenumber. It appears in other sections. There is no need for it to be in this one - it's not as if the story is being censored out of existence. Just moved.

There is definitely a question of expectation. What do you expect to find in the serious news bit of BBC news? And what do you expect to find in the Arts and Entertainment bit of BBC news?

I expect serious, criminal and nationally important stuff in the former and trite, frothy celebrity stuff or worthy arts news in the latter. Do I expect to find sex offenders in with news of new exhibitions, theatre openings, line ups for the latest Strictly Come Dancing and celebrity prattlings? No.

They are only going in Arts and Entertainment because of the perpatrators' jobs. On no other occasion that I can recall is serious, criminal news categorised by the occupation of the alleged or convicted criminal. There was a big news story about a teacher that abducted a 15 year old pupil and took her to France. That did not appear in Education because the primary focus of the story was not his occupation, it was the abduction of a child. Certainly there were wider stories about how such instances could be prevented and these appeared in education news but that was because it was news about education, not about a criminal abduction.

Does that make any kind of sense?

I would expect to see news about Arts funding, Oscars, paintings being sold for millions, filmstar has died, popstar arrested for drug abuse, tv star arrested for causing death by dangerous driving and entertainer arrested for this that and the other (to include abuse and rape).
I wouldn't expect Kimye/Jordan/celebs who are only famous for being famous to be on the BBC NEWS.

I would suggest petitioning the BBC to add another section fluffy fun stuff that only has fluffy non triggering articles. Sorry I can't think of a better name!

I'm surprised anyone disagrees with this - it seems so obviously wrong for it to be in the entertainment section.

I'm surprised anyone disagrees with this - it seems so obviously wrong for it to be in the entertainment section.

Quite.

In the Arts and Entertainment section of the BBC news site I expect to see news relating to Arts and Entertainment, which this is.

Rolf Harris is well known BECAUSE he is involved in art/entertainment, which is why this article goes in there, but and article about an unknown teacher abducting a child doesn't go in education.

But why isn't Entertainment & Arts serious news?

I'm going to quote myself now HaroldsBishop in response to your post:

By filing it in entertainment it is trivialising the seriousness of these cases and making the focus on the perpetrator's celebrity instead of the crimes committed.

Because serious news is serious news?

"By filing it in entertainment it is trivialising the seriousness of these cases and making the focus on the perpetrator's celebrity instead of the crimes committed."

I don't think it does. Who's reading that and thinking, "haha that Rolf Harris, eh - what a card!"?

The problem is not the content of the E&A section. It's the expectation that some people have that it should just be trivial fluffy celeb gossip.

I would agree that as they are prominent figures in the art and entertainment world then it isn't wrong that they are also put under this heading. I always read it as news from the world of arts and entertainment. For example if sadly somebody in the Arts and entertainment world dies or is seriously ill then it's usually news under this heading. And that's not exactly for people's entertainment it's news.

I don't think it does. Who's reading that and thinking, "haha that Rolf Harris, eh - what a card!"?

Not sure who's thinking it, but a fair number of people have been writing about, trivialising it, making it look like the women are only 'doing it' to the 'stars' for money, because they are famous. And they have been doing ever since the allegations against Saville first came out.

I repeat. Child abuse is not entertainment.

I think more people would be screaming 'Cover up' if the BBC did not' include an article about a famous ex BBC entertainer in the E&A section than would scream 'the BBC is trivialising rape and abuse'.

Really? Even if it appeared in the main news section and top stories? You think people would scream "Cover up"?

What people?

Don't think you can tell anyone is 'screaming' anything on the internet.

"I repeat. Child abuse is not entertainment."

Of course not, but the Entertainment and Arts section isn't supposed to be entertaining - its for news relating to such, surely?

Right now on that section of the BBC site there is also articles about an actor being in a car crash, and another actor dying. Car crashes and death are not entertainment either!