Interesting to read that the BBC takes our license tax and then uses it to pay teenagers to brandish guns. “A teenager’s claim that he was paid £50 by a “fixer” to brandish guns on the BBC’s Panorama programme is to be investigated by Merseyside Police. The 17-year-old was filmed assembling a shotgun for the programme about guns and gang culture on Merseyside. On Friday, Liverpool Crown Court heard he was paid by a leading figure in the Marsh Gang to show off the weapon. A Merseyside Police spokeswoman said they were investigating whether they could identify those involved. Jason Smith, defending the youth, said: “The defence contention is not that he was paid directly by the Panorama film producers, but he was paid money by an intermediary who had been paid money to fix it on their behalf.” The stated mission of the BBC is “to inform, educate and entertain” but I didn’t realise that funding gangsters was all part of this rich tapestry!
Would that be a Russell “Brandish”?
Who supplied the weapons and what became of them?
is it possible to taste hatred? if so i certainly hate the bbc that much. What utter scum
Don’t knock it. Paying off ordinary, decent criminals is actually an improvement for the BBC:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1014013.html
I read somewhere that they got another gang member to provide the gun. Maybe the same gang member kept the gun afterwards.
Well we know that the BBC will be bigging up anything Fatty McOne eye does.
This is a classic.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1112024/Scotland-course-state-dependent-country-world.html
The BBC have history in this area though don’t they.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-499795/BBC-funded-paintballing-trip-Islamic-terrorists-didnt-pass-information-21-7-bombers.html
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/BBC-charity-funded-Islamic-militants-Report/351634/
I’m just glad they don’t do paid set ups in Gaza.
I’m just glad they don’t do paid set ups in Gaza.
mickfly | Homepage | 12.01.09 – 3:35 am
Jeremy Bowen hasn’t been let in!
In a similar vane, beeboids just put on a programme called ‘Kill it cook it eat it’ . Beeing beeboids, they had to sensationalise it as far as possible.
So, rather than simply say, here’s a townie who wants to learn what country people consider perfectly natural – how to hunt for the pot, the beeboids had to turn it into a moral dilema and half fill it with mung bean types who would starve without tescos.
Pathetic rubbish really , every programme the beeboids make about the countryside has this half baked urban cuddly bunny theme running through it. presumably gang members find the same failings in their urban reality stuff !
Doesn’t that article clearly state that the BBC didn’t pay this chav for to brandish guns? (And yes, it chav. these guys have been hyped by the media as gangsters, but they wouldnt know the first thing about organised crime, they are kids with baggy clothes and big attitudes)
I mean, I agree that panorama’s complete objectivity has been brought into question here, but theres no proof that the BBC paid for these guns.
James Morrison | 12.01.09 – 12:15 pm |
The BBC paid someone to “sort it out”. You may as well say that if I hire someone to commit a crime, but he hires someone else to actually do the job, then I’m innocent.
The BBC used your license fee money to have this scenario created. They are responsible for it.
No David, you’re speculating, or at worst, assuming. The article, like all the others in the papers, does not say that the Beeb paid anyone. There is no proof they have done. Maybe they did, I won’t count out that possibility. But proof is everything. You cannot just assume what you want so that it fits your argument. Proof is everything.
Tom ROLLison,
Your wrong to say that no proof exist, the fixer in question was employed by the BBC, and if the BBC employees who filmed and interviewed the teenager were innocent of any breaches of EDITORIAL COMPLIANCE then why have they been interviewed by the police?.
As you say proof is everything, and I suggest that you get yourself up to Liverpool Crown Court and listen to the evidence, or failing that read the local newspapers, you might find that you really should pick your battles better.
Tom ROLLison | 12.01.09 – 4:20 pm |
The BBC article quotes the youth’s lawyer:
“The defence contention is not that he was paid directly by the Panorama film producers, but he was paid money by an intermediary who had been paid money to fix it on their behalf.”
In other words, the “intermediary” was paid by Panorama. However, if, like me, you don’t trust the BBC on things like covering their own asses, you can read the local paper:
Teen paid £50 to brandish guns on BBC Panorama
The headline is accurate. It doesn’t say that the BBC directly paid the kid, but that he was paid to mug for the camera. The article itself says this:
Mr Smith added: “The defendant was told by Male C that a TV crew were in the area making a film about gangs and offering money as they wanted to tell tales of guns and violence.
What’s really amusing is that it looks like the whole show was a total fraud from start to finish. Panorama seems to have used your license fee to manufacture a little hoodie panto.
They wanted to tell tales of guns and violence, you betcha.