The Guardian reports:

A row has broken out between the BBC and the Labour party over the corporation’s use of the word “savings” to describe what senior Labour officials insists are government cuts.

The disagreement reflects growing unease amongst opposition figures over the way the BBC is reporting the coalition’s spending cuts. Labour sources claim the corporation is caving in to government pressure to tone down its coverage.

Labour lodged a complaint after BBC London News ran a report last night about NHS cuts in a bulletin broadcast after the 10 O’Clock News on BBC1.

Officials are angry the item mentioned NHS budget “savings” around half a dozen times, while a graphic illustrating the piece also referred to “savings”.

The article mentions says “it is understood” there have been discussions within BBC London News about the right way to describe the government’s cuts, but does not reference Liberal Conspiracy, which first broke this story.

This is what I reported last week:

In particular, BBC London journalists have been told by senior management that they should use ‘savings’ as much as possible for on-screen graphics and the big plasma (the screen which sits behind the presenter).

Staff were told by senior management that ‘cuts’ made the news coverage appear too negative.

I specifically mentioned BBC London news and the focus on on-screen graphics.

It’s amusing that BBC editors keep refusing point-blank to admit that this is going on. I’ll have more on this soon.

Reader comments

1. Liberal Conspiracy

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2. Owen Jones

   RT @libcon: BBC London accused of toning down cuts coverage http://bit.ly/e66BX1

3. Chunkylimey

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4. Paul Martin

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5. Brian Barefield

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6. Armchair Army

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7. Jules Clarke

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9. Diane

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10. Oasis Caretaker

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11. Nigel Gardner

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12. richard laing

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13. Sean Hanley

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14. Oxford Kevin

    RT @libcon BBC London accused of toning down cuts coverage http://bit.ly/e66BX1 << BBC leads the way in newspeak

15. SNC

    RT @Armchairarmy: BBC call cuts savings http://tinyurl.com/63mqd2c fight cuts join #armchairarmy http://tinyurl.com/6dq872m online suppo …

16. Tim Holmes

    Craven & cowed BBC begins adopting Govt framing on cuts: http://bit.ly/h5lfA4 http://bit.ly/gY7tco http://bit.ly/e5Z3cF http://bit.ly/fEz2Gm

17. JamieSW

    RT @timbird84: Craven & cowed BBC begins adopting Govt framing on cuts: http://bit.ly/h5lfA4 http://bit.ly/gY7tco http://bit.ly/e5Z3cF h …

18. Ma

    RT @timbird84: Craven & cowed BBC begins adopting Govt framing on cuts: http://bit.ly/h5lfA4 http://bit.ly/gY7tco http://bit.ly/e5Z3cF h …

19. sunny hundal

    How long will BBC London editor carry on pretending there aren't internal discussions to tone down mentions of 'cuts'? http://bit.ly/e66BX1

20. Kate Hillier

    BBC London accused of toning down ‘cuts’ news | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/HsdOuT0 via @libcon

21. EXCL: disagreements rage at BBC London over ‘cuts’ v ‘savings’ | Liberal Conspiracy

    […] unearthed several examples of BBC online using ‘savings’ in absurd contexts. A complaint was also lodged by Labour over BBC London coverage. Now, another source has contacted me after our first article […]

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