Bill Campbell Television

The former editor of Central TV News in Birmingham has launched a scathing attack on his former em-ployer and the "the huge amount of hypocrisy" involved in on-air plugging. Mr Bill Campbell, whose departure from Central is widely believed to have occurred following his reluctance to "plug" a programme on Central News, has turned "poacher" with plans to help clients get shots on television news.

This week the former editor announced that he had launched a new company - Bill Campbell Television - to make video news releases. The move follows his departure from the Birmingham news agency, News Team, where he helped set up its television operations... He said: "I will be helping people who pay me to get their messages on television, without having to shell out a fortune on commercials. "It has always amazed me how otherwise intelligent people pour enormous amounts of money into the coffers of my old mates at Central. "If they came to someone like me they could save themselves a fortune." Mr Campbell, who spent nearly 25 years as a broadcast journalist in television around Britain said he had to laugh when he hears the accepted view that news was kept pure and untainted of commercialism. He said: "Officially, plugging anything on television is taboo. But all broadcasters have known for years that programmes happily put out plugs every day for anything they get free, and - of course - their own sta-tion's programmes.

"There is a huge amount of hypocrisy and everyone knows it." Mr Campbell told of two cases he encountered just before leaving Central last year. He said a sales rep tried to tell him which cars to put in a motoring programme so she could sell adverts to their makers. She said it would be 'helpful'. Mr Campbell also alleged that one of his own bosses instructed him to run a major plug for a Carlton programme which could only be seen on cable television. The only news angle was the programme's host pictured with two firemen, and on editorial grounds he felt the piece should not have been run. "Officially, of course, none of this happens but we all know it does, and from now on I intend to go with the flow. "I will be making new video releases, by providing what a client wants in terms of shots and coverage in a way which a editor would want to use it."

Mr Campbell claimed he and Mr Derek Braithwaite, his counterpart at Central East, were "got rid of" by Carlton. Although all sides have never expanded on the reasons for Mr Campbell's departure, after being editor for eight and a half years, speculation has been rife that it followed his reluctance to plug Carlton's big mon-archy debate programme, held in Birmingham, as a news item. Mr Campbell said: "Plugging has always been rife that one programme will help another programme. I am not always opposed to it, but I felt that any plug had to be judged by realistic journalistic standards. "When The Cook Report had something worthwhile I was glad to do so, it gave me an extra piece of news. But when it comes to pushing unrelated products I frown on it. "

Bill Campbell Television has already won a contract from Birmingham Marketing Partnership to make an hour long video for people coming to this year's big events in Birmingham, like the G8 summit.