There's lots of talk in the air right now about recession, what it is and how will we know we're in one? Part of my job is to try and steer coverage of the subject across the BBC in the right direction and to make sure we're being as precise as possible. To that end I sent out an advisory note to all non-business specialists working on TV, radio and online today about how a recession can be defined...

President Bush's chief counter-terrorism adviser on 9/11, Richard Clarke, told The Conspiracy Files that there are two key reasons he thought the conspiracy theories about 9/11 are not possible - first competency, the alternative theories suggested are hugely complex and would have required a huge number of people; secondly, the difficulty of keeping secrets. The more high profile and outrageous th...

In my last blog Is Amy Porn? - I posed a question which I will now answer. There's no way we would cancel an interview with the prime minister at Downing Street for a vague hint by a music artist that she had something to tell us. Even Amy Winehouse. But thank goodness I have more than one reporter anyway. So I hope that puts your mind at rest. The assembled mass at the Radio Festival didn't entire...

Yesterday a man drove a bulldozer through a street in Jerusalem with the aim of killing a number of Israeli Jews. The incident happened near the BBC's bureau and our correspondent immediately ran to the scene. He caught on camera the man being shot dead. There have been a number of complaints from viewers about us showing on television the moment of death. I fully understand the concerns, but this...

This was the question posed by a senior colleague of mine at the Radio Festival in Glasgow this week. Jeff Zycinski, head of radio at BBC Scotland said he had been reduced to tears by newspaper coverage of the troubled singer - who has just made a much-talked about appearance at Glastonbury. Jeff explains: "the pictures of Amy Winehouse are a form of pornography...if we put these stories on air, if...