Lies Of Omission With Lists

Channel 4 had one of those interminable list programmes on the other night. In this instance, it was the 50 films you should see before you die. The final list is here with Apocalypse Now coming out on top.
In this case, the list was put together by a panel, and it was all to promote the fact that Film4 (as it’s now called) is going free to view on Freeview.
But can I just check something. This list wouldn’t be only drawn from films to which Film4 has the rights is it? I’m pretty sure it is, although you’d be hard pressed to find that mentioned in the BBC report, or any others. Indeed some of the reports mention the “controversy” of films like Citizen Kane or Star Wars being missing, yet seemingly “each film has been chosen for its unique and creative approach to filmmaking”. So Citizen Kane didn’t show a “unique and creative approach to filmmaking”? That film should be on the list by any criteria. However it’s an RKO picture, and that means it’s BBC. Even Film4’s own story fails to mention the seeming fact that titles were selected from a longlist.
Look – everyone knows that a list programme like this will get you some valuable PR column inches, but you’ve got to be honest in your methodology. And news outlets should ask the questions, not just reword a press release.
(I note that Jason Solomons in The Observer claims the list is not actually sorted in any specific order, and notes that Film4 is showing them all in the coming weeks – two salient facts not mentioned in the BBC report).