You Call This News?
UK Firms ‘Exploiting’ Bangladesh
It (War on Want) said that while Primark, Tesco and Asda had all signed up to a set of principles to provide decent working conditions and wages for workers in their supply chain, some of their suppliers were "regularly violating" such rules.
If Primark, Tesco and Asda have been doing this, then that’s a story, worthy of public interest. But there’s no evidence. Tesco have asked for it from War on Want and been refused. They haven’t passed on which factories are doing this, and nor was there any indication that the BBC have seen it either.
I’ll put the bias issue to one side. This is, regardless of that, sloppy journalism. BBC News should not simply be taking press releases and turning them into stories. They should be doing their background work, behind the scenes, before making a public story.
The BBC loves to repeatedly tell us how amazing its news coverage is. This story shows how poor it can be.
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If Tesco gave the BBC a press release claiming that they paid 50% more than local firms, would the BBC report it uncritically? No they wouldn’t, so what is the difference?