Football Blackout May go, Gregg Wallace Saga is BBC News at its Worst


Welcome to The Addition, where I cover the crossover between culture, media and sport.

In the The Times, Martyn Ziegler ​reported​ that the rules that prevent football being shown live in the UK between 2:45pm and 5:15pm on a Saturday might finally dropped. Thanks goodness for that - it has been a bug bear of mine for a while. We're probably going to have to wait until 2028 to get there though.

As Ziegler noted, the basis of the rules was to encourage people to both go to games and play the sport. However, in a world of streaming and VPNs they are totally arcane.

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BBC's Gregg Wallace Coverage is Overcompensating

The BBC is, once again, talking about itself. This time, Masterchef host Gregg Wallace (pictured on right) is in the spotlight. It follows a string of allegations about inappropriate conduct against him. Furthemore, the TV chef posted an unpleasant video, dismissively describing his accusers as "middle-class women of a certain age". Now, the Beeb has pulled the show’s Christmas specials. MasterChef: The Professionals remains on air at the time of writing.

In a statement, A BBC spokesperson said:

As we have said, MasterChef is an amazing competition which is life-changing for the chefs taking part and the current series of MasterChef: The Professionals is continuing as planned.
The celebrity Christmas specials are obviously a different type of show and in the current circumstances we have decided not to broadcast them.

I confess Masterchef is not a show I regularly settle down to. The only time I generally see any version of it is when it’s playing in the nail bar I go to. I enjoy it and, quite understandably, the show is pretty popular. However, it is no more than a well-formatted cooking series, not a centre of political power.

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Charlotte Henry is a journalist and broadcaster who creates and runs The Addition newsletter and podcast; an award-winning publication looking at the crossover between media and technology.

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