PR and the media conference 2008: BBC journalists dubbed 'copiers'

The BBC's journalists have become 'copiers', admitted BBC economics and business editor Jeremy Hillman at this week's conference.

Hillman said 'an increasing number' of the BBC's news stories are taken from blogs, emails and websites. 'Ten to 15 per cent of BBC news is PR-initiated, while a shrinking proportion is generated from one-to-one relationships between PROs and journalists,' he said.

The comments were made in the wake of the publication of The Guardian journalist Nick Davies' book Flat Earth News (PRWeek, 8 February).

Davies' expose of 'falsehood, distortion and propaganda in the media' has received widespread coverage. He claims 'churnalism' has replaced journalism and complains of 'pseudo events manufactured by the PR industry'.

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