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A series of debacles across British television has left the industry with a lack of trust on the part of viewers, as a number of outright dishonest actions and shoddy operations has shook it to its core.

What finally brought it to a head was the handling of the photo shoot with Queen Elizabeth, who was portrayed as storming out of a photo-shoot with Annie Leibovitz, a celebrity photographer, making her look like she threw a tantrum like a little child.
 
The BBC had to suck it up and apologize publicly to the Queen for the mistake. They blamed a production company for sending video clips that had been edited out of sequence. The result made the Queen look like she left the photo-shoot in anger.
 
That was the tip of the iceberg. There have been a number of situations that have been outright fabricated. For example, the popular children's program "Blue Peter" had a competition where the results had been faked. That show was also on the BBC.

Another network also did some dishonest things as it also faked winners in a couple of competitions, and ended up being fined a huge sum as a result.

Still another network was fined for another fake call-in to a well known talk show.

BBC director-general Mark Thompson sent a company-wide e-mail saying, "We cannot allow even a small number of lapses, whether intentional or as a result of sloppiness, to undermine our reputation and the confidence of the public."

That was after the situation with the Queen happened. But the fact that results in a television show under the BBC's watch also faked the results of a competition shows there are some embedded problems in the BBC which will take more than an e-mail to take care of.

With the attack by such traditional media companies on their new rivals concerning honesty, integrity and accuracy, this is a big blow to the industry as a whole.

In the case of the Queen, it may have been sloppiness, although you'd think nothing like that would be shown until it had been checked out, which is of course another mistake in the process. But the other issues with the BBC and other British television companies were outright dishonest and lies. This many circumstances reveals there's not only an integrity issue, but something that may be more systemic to the problem.

It's left the British traditional broadcasting companies looking unable to be trusted, and more interested in putting out any story rather than the truth. There has been a huge fracture in the public trust which the industry will have to earn back. Some of it is so blatant, that it will be difficult to believe anything is as it is reported and broadcast by the industry.