BBC news execs clash over celebrity coverage

Amy Winehouse

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Radio Festival: Two senior BBC news executives have locked horns over the prominence given to its entertainment news coverage.

Speaking at the Radio Festival in Glasgow, Jeff Zycinski, head of BBC Radio Scotland, said the BBC and media in general were "complicit in the destruction" of celebrities such as Amy Winehouse.

He argued that simply because her lifestyle may hold interest with some, it does not make it newsworthy and relevant. Zycinski claimed the corporation was clever in the way it went about handling these celebrity stories.

"The BBC will look at how tabloids cover a story and criticise it and yet they will still cover it," he told delegates. "In the three days I've been at this event, there have only been three mentions of the fact this country is at war."

But Rod McKenzie, editor of BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat, disagreed and said: "The BBC has a responsibility to its listeners.

"If you play [Amy Winehouse's] music to a certain demographic, those same people want to know what's happening in her private life. If you don't cover it, you're insulting young licence fee payers."

However, in a session chaired by Vanessa Feltz - titled Winehouse or White House?: Do we go too big on showbiz news? – panellists unanimously agreed that a story about Michael Jackson being found dead with a revelatory suicide note would be bigger news than David Miliband resigning as foreign secretary.