Mark Thompson writes about trust in the BBC. After condemning the children’s programme editor who apparently believed a poll had been rigged and changed the name of a cat (yes, really), Thompson lets off senior BBC manager Alan Yentob for filming reaction shots to interviews he didn’t actually show up for. Yes, according to the D-G, filming yourself nodding to non-existent interviewees doesn’t represent “any kind of bad faith or conscious effort to deceive.”

How bad does bad faith have to be? Was it unconsciously deceptive? We know Thompson thinks what Yentob did is wrong, because a couple of paragraphs after absolving him of any blame, he says:

it’s my view that noddies and actuality questions should only be included if they formed part of the original interview.

If I worked for the BBC, my moral compass would need re-magnetizing.