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BBC press office bites back… but Telegraph censors catty comment

By Axegrinder

Axegrinder was taken aback – and, frankly, quite impressed – by the BBC’s official response to Press Gazette’s story on employee reviews of the corporation this week.

Instead of responding with a “no comment” or generic “the BBC seeks to be a fair and equal place for all employees”, the press office set about doing some counter research.

"We're pleased that so many people enjoy working at the BBC and note that we have received higher scores in every category than the publishers of the Press Gazette,” it said.

Meow, Axegrinder thought, before realising the research was a little flawed – in fact, Press Gazette’s publisher, Progressive Media International, is not reviewed, though seven reviews, averaging three stars, are posted for parent group Progressive Media Group.

There are no reviews posted for people who work, or have worked, for Press Gazette itself.

When the story was followed up by the Telegraph, Axegrinder wasn’t too surprised to see a more straight forward BBC comment: "We're pleased that so many people enjoy working at the BBC."

However, a riled up BBC press office wasn’t having any of it. Its Twitter account posted a link to this statement yesterday:

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BBC’s response to Telegraph article of 21 May 2014, which The Telegraph didn't print in full.

telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/10847923/BBC-bureaucratic-and-a-white-middle-class-organisation-say-employees.html

We're pleased that so many people enjoy working at the BBC and note that we scored 3.5 out of 5, compared to the Telegraph Media Group's 2.7 out of 5."

Picture: Shutterstock

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