When the TV fakery was at its peak, BBC news outlets laid into the rest of the corporation with gusto. BBC executives were hauled over the coals on News 24, Newsnight and the Today programme. BBC journalists expressed anger in private about the "sloppy standards" in the rest of the organisation. Now, it seems, BBC News is not immune from sloppy standards of its own.
In a story that hasn't had nearly enough coverage - and certainly not on the BBC (apart, apparently, from 6Music!) - it emerges that someone in BBC News laid over a track of babies crying to the otherwise mute audio from the hospital that delivered the Russian quintuplets earlier this week.
The first question, clearly, is what on earth were they thinking? After months of handwringing over fakery, what made someone think that faking the sound on a news report would be a good idea? And secondly, I thought how stupid is this person? All the babies had respirators in their mouths. How could they possibly be gurgling anyway? I haven't been in a neo-natal intensive care ward, but I imagine it sounds pretty quiet.
But the third, and most disturbing question is how widespread is this kind of practice, given the mundane level at which this was carried out? In my new job as head of the Guardian's audio output, I have become much more acutely aware of issues like this. When we're mixing reports for our daily news show, we often overlay commentary on background sound, for example - but the commentary is real, and the background sound is real. I'd never think about faking the sound in this way.
Do you work in broadcast news? Is this kind of thing routine? And is it acceptable?
UPDATE: the BBC website is now carrying the story. But oddly, it's buried in the 'entertainment' section. And BBC media correspondent Torin Douglas reported about it for BBC radio last night.
