Tuesday, September 24, 2013

BBC - apologists for capitalism

The founder of a website that provides careers advice to graduates claims she was dropped from a BBC TV programme because she refused to abide by a legal request about what she should and should not say. An email from a producer wrote:
"We cannot infer that… any employer is breaking the law by not paying interns – this has been absolutely specified by the BBC duty lawyer.

Tanya de Grunwald, who runs the Graduate Fog site, responded by arguing that many employers are breaking the law by not paying interns, and that it was important viewers knew that. The BBC's duty lawyer asserted that this "claim" was only an "opinion". So de Grunwald attempted to explain the minimum wage law in some detail.

The BBC producer then asked her if she would say something positive during her interview on the show, such as how unpaid internships can be a good thing because they add experience to a young person's CV. De Grunwald refused.

She said: "The BBC's coverage of the issue of unpaid internships is routinely appalling - they minimise and trivialise every development that happens, it's infuriating."

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