In your unified Friday media column: a strike at the BBC, Daily Candy's editor is out, Forbes debuts its "sponsored blog," and Jon Friedman has but one wish.

The BBC's Editorial Complaints Unit has found that a report from the news service wrongly implied that Bob Geldof's 1985 Band Aid tune "Do They Know It's Christmas" funded armed rebel groups in Etiopia. The BBC has issued an apology.

Christians in Britain are upset that the BBC has devoted air time to pagans and Hallowe'en, because Christmas and Easter and whatnot don't get nearly enough coverage: "It's not always healthy to represent such beliefs as paganism as mainstream." Nice.

A group of protesters stood behind BBC political editor Nick Robinson last night, waving an anti-war sign behind his head. Mad that they ruined his shot, he grabbed their sign, tore it apart, and stomped on it. On camera.

Violinist Oliver Lewis just broke a world record! He did it by playing his instrument of choice at a seemingly impossible rate of speed, finishing the entirety of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" in 1 minutes, 3.356 seconds. Watch inside.

The BBC science show Bang rigged up a camera to film food rotting for two weeks. The resulting time-lapse footage is truly gnarly. If the mold and bacteria don't gross you out, the maggots will. Bon appétit!

BBC weatherman Tomasz Schafernaker got peeved yesterday when co-anchor Simon McCoy implied that his forecast wouldn't be accurate. So, he flipped McCoy the bird, without realizing he was on camera. The worst middle finger coverup ever then ensued. Video inside.

Can anyone out there honestly say they don't love The Office? Of course not.

This is Paul Yarrow, a community worker from South London. Do you recognize him? That may be because he's appeared on at least 20 different British news broadcasts over the last few months. In the background.

If you haven't been watching this season of Doctor Who, "missing out" doesn't even begin to describe what you're, well, missing. But this video of every opening sequence from the show's over 40-year run might give you a hint.

Starting tomorrow, if you visit BBC.com instead of BBC.co.uk, you will find a new website with "U.S.-focused articles on politics and general news," helmed by 10 journalists in DC. First they ruin our ocean, now they compete with our newspapers.

The BBC put up a web page with the headline "What is Gordon Brown's Legacy?" But due to what we presume was an error, the page was blank. They've since apologized for accidentally satirizing the former British PM. [Atlantic]

Characters in a BBC children's show apparently say "fuck your mother" in Chinese

In this clip from The Mighty Boosh's third season, Vince meets The Crack Fox and learns of his idyllic forest origins and sad descent into drug and dance fueled depravity. Ah, the meth-skewed mirror of the uncanny valley.

It would be nice to know your chances of getting cancer, diabetes, or heart disease later in life, right? Soon, for around $1,000, you can, with your very own genome test. Sounds like fun!

After being caught on mic complaining about a Rochdale voter he'd previously spoken to (he called her a "bigoted woman"), Prime Minister Gordon Brown was forced to listen to his own words while ironically, being filmed in Radio 2's studio.

Blue Tulip Rose Read is definitely not stalking BBC Radio DJ Mike Read. Sure, she had her name changed to his and prints his picture on t-shirts and shows up at his work—that's love, not stalking!

That damn volcano has already cost airlines an estimated $1.7 billion. Prepare to pay a surcharge for breathing on your next flight. [BBC]

Not only might it get her banned from the country but her documentary about child trafficking drew only 224,000 viewers when it aired on BBC April 1. More people watched an old Gene Kelly film at the same time.

A grand, sweeping overview of the inhabitants of our world, Life picks up right where Planet Earth left off. It's a show that makes one happy to own a TV. And it's also narrated by Oprah!