£35m - that's a premium-rate call:

The latest phone-in scandal has hit ITV with resignations and confessions that up to £35m was spent by the public; calling competitions they could never win.
This story seems to keep on growing and we wonder who will be in the spotlight next. But have we really seen any decent handling of this crisis?
When you hear that the swindles had been going on for ages and that the companies in question were making millions of the back of it, it's very hard to be forgiving; however the crisis was handled.
The initial response from the service provider behind GMTV was that the allegations were nonsense (they probably should have got some PR advice before making this comment). But we have now had some apologies and one heavy-weight resignation. Telling the truth during a crisis is always recommended but sometimes it's just too late.
Can't say I'll be calling GMTV any time soon...

Is all publicity good?

As always there have been a few stories this week that have promoted products/companies/stars for less than positive reasons (e.g. Sting being sued for sexual discrimination, Asda stopped from selling the new Harry Potter book or Kenmare Resources and their 'naked Director' scandal) so I'm curious...is all publicity is really good for you?

It might look like Asda wouldn't come out of this too well, except for the spin which says the real reason they aren't allowed to sell the book is because they were going to put too low a price on it (i.e. the positive message for us=Asda is cheaper than the competition).

And Sting; it can't do you any good to be found guilty of discrimination but the last thing the star would want is for record sales to drop because he been forgotten.

As for Kenmare; who knows maybe some investor who hadn’t heard of them will have a look at their website and think their shares are worth a punt.

Can't say I am convinced about all publicity being good for you but if even the bad stories remind us that a star/company/product are out there then that can't be all bad.

We don't need your stinking badges:

There was a time when the BBC was held up as an example of honest and quality broadcasting but now their good name seems to be tainted on an almost weekly basis by mistakes and misfits. The latest comes in the form of a ‘deception’ by Blue Peter, yes, I know it’s hard to believe. But it looks as though no broadcaster is above dirty dealings and the media watchdog – Ofcom – has fine the Beeb £50,000 for what it called “serious breaches” of the broadcasting code.

More on this can be read here on the Sky News site (perhaps not the most neutral site to read it on) http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1274307,00.html

Will the Beeb recover from this knock? Yes, without a doubt BUT is this a sign of more problems to come at White City?

Has anyone else read about the government plans to introduce lessons on personal finance as part of the curriculum?

It made me smile.

Nice idea, teaching the youngens how to open their own bank accounts. Even better, teaching them how to pay back the increased debt they'll be owing as a result of the bumped-up price of almost everything:

'Shadow schools secretary Michael Gove told The Times: "There is a certain irony that, after presiding over changes to student finance, tax rises and a massive increase in housing costs, the Government is now lecturing the next generation on how to handle debts which ministers have saddled them with." '

Excellent.