I must eat humble pie. Well, let’s call it a portion of humble pie. It concerns a piece I wrote on 14 October, What happened to the Daily Mirror’s exclusive splash?
In that posting I took the Mirror’s TV editor, Nicola Methven, to task for having written a story headlined “BBC axes The Voice in £55m row.” It was her paper’s splash in the first edition but vanished after that.
I said the Mirror’s removal of the story suggested Methven had “got it hopelessly wrong” over the programme’s fate. I pointed instead to a Guardian report which stated that the BBC was expected to hang on to The Voice.
But it transpired on Saturday (7 November) that the BBC was, after all, giving up on The Voice. Its fifth season, said BBC Television’s acting director, would be its last.
He confirmed, just as Methven had previously written, that the BBC was letting it go because the cash-strapped corporation didn’t want to get into a bidding war
She wrote at the time: “They have given up on screening a sixth run in 2017, leaving the door open for rivals ITV to snap up the show, which pulls in 8m viewers.”
And lo and behold, as the Guardian’s Tara Conlan reported on 2 November, it was ITV that looked set to be the beneficiary.
So Methven was obviously delighted to report on Sunday that ITV was indeed picking up the show... just as she had revealed. She had been vindicated.
So why did her paper not stick by her in October, replacing her splash between editions?
Evidently, after the The Voice’s producers, Wall to Wall, read her piece it was denied by a PR acting on its behalf. She was told that a press release announcing a multi-year deal for the series to continue on BBC1 would be released the following morning.
In addition, Methven felt the BBC’s press office responded to her original queries with “woefully inadequate briefings”. Only after the splash appeared did the BBC say that negotiations over The Voice were ongoing.
As Methven says, in the face of such statements, it was understandable that the editor felt he must pull her story. But, of course, no such announcement was ever made. The statement was false.
Although the BBC had not “axed” the show because its bid was live at the time Methven’s story appeared, she did reflect, quite correctly, that ITV’s bid was likely to be successful.
I understand that Methven has received private apologies from the people who briefed her incorrectly and/or inadequately. And I must add my apology to her for my “hopelessly wrong” remark.
However, the real culprits are clear enough, are they not? In my view, when PRs tell lies, whether knowingly or because they have been misinformed by their employers, they should be exposed.
In fairness, it is rare for such a very clear untruth to be told in such circumstances. Methven got it right. Her scoop was valid. And I’m pleased to put the record straight.
*The BBC contests that its briefing to Nicola Methven was “inadequate” and says it has not apologised to the Mirror. The corporation claims that it answered her queries in a reasonable and professional manner, was not in a position to confirm or deny the fate of The Voice and received no complaint from the Mirror at the time. It is also contesting a leader in Monday’s Mirror that claimed that BBC sources had denied the story.
