It's almost been a month since I sent my letter to the Director of BBC News seeking clarification on its position on reporting stories from the Tory donor funded TaxPayers' Alliance.
I understand a reply is on its way and I'll share it with you when I get it.
But in the meantime I'm grateful to the 'Other TaxPayers' Alliance' who've done excellent work in exposing this so-called impartial pressure group.
Today they publish a reply from a senior BBC editor who admits that they will now be clearer in informing the public what the TPA actually is.
The editor says: "I have asked staff to avoid reporting stories which are generated solely by the Taxpayers' Alliance and, where we do quote them, that we supply some context as to who they are.”
It'll be interesting to receieve the Director of BBC News' official reply to my letter but I'm hopeful that journalists are starting to realise that the TPA is not the independent pressure group it pretends to be.
I know of at least two senior BBC political journalists at Millbank who have now stopped using the TPA because of its very close Tory links.
I expect many more will follow.
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“The BBC is still using information provided by The TaxPayers' Alliance. It has now been proved that this "Alliance" is made up of non-taxpayers, thus calling into account the veracity of any facts, figures, or info supplied by this politically motivated organization.
The fact that the BBC is spoon fed this information and regurgitates it verbatim without checking it's accuracy or the motivation behind it is deeply troubling.”
I got the following reply:
“Thank you for your e-mail regarding the Taxpayers Alliance.
I understand you feel that we use the Taxpayers Alliance as a source of information quoting information provided by them as fact.
We don't use this group to quote fact because any information given to us by a source is investigated or stated to be alleged before publication or broadcast. We've used the Taxpayers Alliance recently to obtain an opinion on the topic of a private firm being used for PR by a local council.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/8304784.stm
I can assure you that I've registered your comments on our audience log. This is the internal report of audience feedback which we compile daily for all programme makers and commissioning executives within the BBC, and also their senior management. It ensures that your points, and all other comments we receive, are circulated and considered across the BBC.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact us.”
From the reply I’m not sure they’re aware of how often they use TPA generated figures, reports etc as source material.