Tabloid criticism of BBC1's Frozen Planet may have been prompted by the corporation's coverage of Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry into media ethics, according to the BBC's director general Mark Thompson.

Sir David Attenborough's acclaimed natural history series became embroiled in a fakery row after it used footage of newborn polar bear cubs shot at a wildlife centre in the Netherlands rather than in the Arctic.

Giving evidence to the culture, media and sport select committee hearing on Tuesday, Thompson read out an editorial from Tuesday's Daily Mirror that condemned the corporation for using footage of the captive bears.

The leader said: "The national broadcaster's quick on the draw when it comes to pointing fingers at others. Perhaps when it comes to their own editorial standards and ethics a little more action and a little less pontification would be handy."

Thompson told MPs: "I do rather wonder whether this is about polar bears or about Leveson and other matters."

BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten, who appeared alongside Thompson at the committee hearing today, said the BBC had received just 32 complaints about the matter to date.

He said the alternative to using the wildlife centre footage would have been "dead bears or dead people with cameras".

Thompson said the BBC had consulted the public in the past to find out if they would like on-air captions to highlight scenes that were artificially created for natural history programmes.

In 2001, it emerged a rare hatchet fish in BBC series The Blue Planet was "reanimated" using computer wizardry after the genuine fish that was captured by programme-makers died.

Thompson said the BBC had been open about the techniques used for Frozen Planet on the programme's website.

"The reason this story appeared is because we exposed it all on the website," he told MPs. "Some years ago we asked the public the specific question – this is audience research done a few years ago – whether they would prefer it if there were on air captions or labels and the overwhelming response from the public was they did not want us to do that.

"And they were quite happy simply explaining after the programme, on the website, how we do it so those who want to know how it was made can find out. We've thought very hard about this and talked to the public."

Patten added: "It seems to me, overwhelmingly likely that some of the journalists who got this story got it from the 7 November programme, it's been on the website of that programme about how that scene was shot."

The BBC denied misleading viewers in the fifth episode of the highly praised programme. John Whittingdale, chair of the Commons media select committee, said it would have been better if the programme had been "entirely open".

Separately, Patten gave the clearest indication yet that the BBC Trust is set to ask management to change some of its proposed cuts to BBC local radio.

The local radio cuts, which will see 280 jobs axed as part of cost savings of £15m outlined in Thompson's Delivering Quality First (DQF) proposals, prompted an outcry from MPs and listeners.

Patten made several mentions of local radio, including the fact he had received a large number of messages about the topic. He told the select committee: "If at the end of this consultation we put everything back on the table I guess the public and this committee would give us a pretty frosty reaction."

To further make the point he added: "I would have thought my response to your questions didn't suggest I was entirely cloth-eared on this subject."

However, he said that if the cuts are not made to local radio, they would have to come from elsewhere, saying: "We can't simply conjure money out of the air."

The BBC Trust consultation about DQF is due to end on 21 December.

• This article was amended on 14 December 2011 because the original referred to the judge leading an inquiry into media ethics as Lord Leveson. This has been corrected.

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