Jamming

Let it no be said that I won't give credit where it's due. Following complaints to the EU commission by commercial e-learning providers, the BBC has been forced to suspend its e-learning site called BBC Jam. This looks to have been a classic case of a bureaucracy crowding out the competition. Having started with basic e-learning, the BBC was starting to move into virtual reality leaving no space for commercial providers. When these companies complained to Ofcom, they were ignored. Whether this was because Jam was set up at the instigation of the government remains to be seen.

Perhaps now it's time for ITV and Sky to make the same complaints. 

More here and here. 

Can we trust anything the BBC says?

Certainly not on environmental matters, anyway. I've just heard some idiot reporter on the 10 o'clock news declaring that rising sea levels around Norfolk are causing the land to fall into the sea. This completely flies in the face of the well-understood fact that the east of England is sinking.

Incidentally, I posted the following onto the editor's blog on the BBC website:

It is worth remembering Jeremy Paxman's now legendary quote on the BBC's attitude to the climate change debate.

"People who know a lot more than I do may be right when they claim that [global warming] is the consequence of our own behaviour. I assume that this is why the BBC's coverage of the issue abandoned the pretence of impartiality long ago"

The BBC is an environmental campaigning organisation. Full stop.

It didn't make it past the moderators, despite the fact that there were only 12 comments (now 18).  This is what a public service broadcaster does, apparently.