BBC Lies And Smears

 

From Staite Communications:

 Having worked in political communications in the UK for nearly 9 years I know the process and it is very clear. The Labour Party are using two newspapers, supported by the BBC, to try and get a scalp which will weaken the Prime Minister.

A piece of information is dressed up as a ‘leak’ by the attack unit at Labour HQ. Interesting to note that editors love leaks. Leaks make the information more ‘sexy’ than if it had just come across the desk of the journalist via a press release.  As I’ve already said, this information is not a ‘leak’ but a presentation given openly to a group of cross-party MPs over three years ago.

This information is then farmed out to journalists at Labour’s two favourite newspapers, The Guardian and/or The Mirror. Once it becomes a front page story – a splash – then that is enough for a call to go in to the BBC newsroom to suggest that maybe they too should be covering this story. If it is a splash in The Guardian the BBC is far more likely to run it as the Corporation buys far more of this newspaper than any other. Voila – a ‘leak’ created in Labour HQ has become a political ‘row’ in three easy steps.

 

This is an update to the previous post on the BBC’s smear campaign against the Tories’ political advisor, Lynton Crosby.

The Guardian published an article claiming Crosby’s firm was somehow involved in trying to ‘exploit’ the NHS reforms and was giving advice to potential ‘profiteers’ on how to do that.  The BBC have happily leapt aboard that bandwagon without any fact checking…it seems they may regret that.

Perhaps one day they will do their own investigative journalism and not rely on ‘leaks’ from those with vested interests.

 

Guido has pointed out a very inconvenient fact about the story:

“Crosby Presentation” Organised By Labour Lobbyist
Labour MPs Attended Event Held in Commons

 The Guardian claims that the “leaked” presentation was made by CTF to private healthcare profiteers, it was actually organised by the lobbying firm Westminster Advisers for MPs – who were all given copies. Making it more of a handout than a leak. Westminster Advisers is headed by Dominic Church, a wealthy Labour supporter and a former Hammersmith and Fulham councillor for the party.

 

 

Guido notes that the Guardian has cut out slides from a slide show by Crosby’s firm …but renumbered the pages so that nobody would notice….why?

 

Perhaps this slide might show why:

 

 

Guido tells us that The Guardian have corrected their story after he pointed out these facts:

The Guardian has done a follow up which largely corrects the record after Guido pointed out the factual errors in their healthcare lobbying story from this morning. Namely that they had got the target audience completely wrong and that the firm organising the event wasn’t Tory leaning CTF, it was in fact Labour leaning lobbyists Westminster Advisers. A statement issued by Mark Detre from Westminster Advisers confirms the accuracy of Guido’s version of events:

“Crosby Textor Fullbrook provided research and advice into public attitudes on healthcare to H5. H5 is a predecessor to the Association of Independent Healthcare Organisations and they did that in 2010 and 2011. The arrangement between CTF and H5 ended in mid 2011. AIHO is a new organisation formed in March 2013 and has no relationship with CTF.”

 

 

But it seems that the BBC are still behind the times and running the old anti-Tory smear version on their front page with this qualification:

Crosby Textor said: “This so-called leaked document is a presentation of research given to scores of Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative MPs at the House of Commons by H5 almost three years ago, full copies of which were widely circulated at the time.

 

No mention that it was actually presented by a Labour friendly lobby group and not Crosby’s firm who merely did the research.

 

The BBC may have done a bit of a stealth edit:

This was from the original article this evening when I posted this latest piece at 18:47:

David Cameron faces fresh questions about his election strategist Lynton Crosby after it emerged his lobbying firm advised private health companies at the time of NHS reforms.

 [This is the original but taken from another site…..this was the report that was on the BBC website until late this evening when it was changed to the below]

And this is the new one…time stamped 14:59 (No link to old version…Wayback When Machine itself gets redirected to latest version):

David Cameron’s election strategist has denied Labour claims of a “shocking conflict of interest” over his lobbying firm’s work on behalf of private health companies at the time of NHS reforms.

 

The new version is quite different to the original but still makes no mention that it was a Labour leaning group that actually made the presentation….and is still stating this:

Lynton Crosby’s company told its client how to exploit perceived “failings” in the NHS in 2010, based on an opinion poll, the Guardian reported.