In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
my view of the BBC's coverage changed a bit when i saw a follow up a month later on Look North. They had heard something was happening ( probably from Mark Weir :0~) ) and contacted the Police who told them a major rescue operation was going on to secure the safety of nearly 2000 missing runners. Follow up calls to Keswick Mountain Rescue agreed with this that conditions were life threatening and it should never have gone ahead etc etc. and the runners were ' un-accounted for '.
Combine that with a lack of understanding about what the event was all about and it was bound to blow up in todays media.
Look North, to their credit, did a very balanced follow up. They interviewed 2 experienced competitors who said it shoud have gone ahead, Keswick MR who said it shouldn't and a quote from Cokermouth MR who said it should have gone ahead. Having been with those same 2 competitors a couple of days after this broadcast, and also with the guy who took the first phone calls from the BBC on behalf of OMM, there are lessons to learnt by everyone i think - not just the BBC.