BBC phone-in scandals damage public attitudes

By Paul Jump, Third Sector Online, 6 August 2007

Almost half of respondents to a new survey said they were less likely to donate to BBC charity appeals because of the recent phone-in scandals involving Children in Need, Comic Relief and Sport Relief.

Forty-four per cent of the 1,660 people polled by market research agency Opinion Matters said they were now less likely to contribute to BBC charity programmes after the corporation’s admission last month that production staff posed as winners of phone-in competitions during telethons for all three causes after technical problems...