Fearne Cotton brands BBC complainers ‘Bullies’

Cotton, who has come under fire for ‘appalling presenting skills’, has hit back at the complaints about the beebs Jubilee coverage.
The corporation received nearly 2500 complaints about the BBC One’s celebrity-slanted coverage of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations across the weekend. Cotton, famous for fronting Top of the Pops, was attacked for having the wrong tone while hosting a segment of the celebrations and for discussing ‘tacky’ dumbed down topics and also getting the name wrong of a war veteran.
The 30-year-old presenter took to a social networking site to hit back at the ‘bullies’.

“Grown men who slag me off in articles/online are huge bullies. I love my job and wouldn’t be doing it if I wasn’t any good at it….” adding “’I’m a positive person who believes in treating people kindly. I don’t understand the mentality of others who think differently.’

Of course to be a presenter on television isn’t always about being ‘any good at it’. Its about ticking boxes, cute, sexy, young… Which are the priority for most broadcasters these days, substance is an advantage but not essential.

Showbiz critic for ATV Queenie said, “Just because you can just about read words off a bit of card or autocue does not make you a great presenter. A personality helps dear. There are popular presenters, and then there are the presenters the TV companies think are popular. She’s better than Christine Bleakley, but that’s not saying much is it?”

Cotton, who is promoted as one of the stars of the BBC in a new summer trailer, was described as ‘rubbish’ by one Twitter user who suggested she find a career she was actually competent at. She responded to the critical abuse by commenting, “I have been working nonstop for 15 years thank you.”
Elsewhere fellow presenter, from BBC Sport, Clare Balding, described the Diamond Jubilee’s river pageant coverage by the beeb as ‘falling short’ of the expected quality.