You almost, very, very nearly feel sorry for George Entwistle when you hear him being given the 5th degree on the Today programme this morning.
Very nearly but not quite….he is the Director General and yet he was like a rabbit in the headlights, almost clueless. A pretty poor performance for a man who has reached such heights in management.
He seems to lack entirely the necessary political antenna that detect a storm brewing.
The BBC are pouring all the blame onto Newsnight. It was a programme that failed entirely to carry out what you might call ‘due diligence’. But….was it just Newsnight?
Wasn’t it the whole of the BBC’s News organisation that went after the ‘leading Conservative Thatcher era politican’?
That is a highly political phrase and one they must have known would set the dogs running…..they must have known that Tom Watson’s own revelation would have made people try to identify the politician…but instead of standing back and fact checking the BBC dove right in along with the rest of the media in a tabloid like frenzy.
That is not what the BBC is for surely….if anything it is there to stand above the fray and not chase headlines. If it is to maintain the Public’s trust then it must do that with incredible rigour.
A rigour that it is apparent is lacking in both their journalism and in senior management. The BBC haven’t questioned how Steve Messham was able to identify said politician, nor have they questioned Tom Watson about the sources of his information, nor did they question the politician.
As soon as Entwistle heard the phrase ‘a leading Conservative Thatcher era politician’ he should have been tracking this story immediately. It is obviously a political bombshell…and if the BBC get it wrong, as they have, it will blow up in their face.
Entwistle failed, the systems to ensure such obvious ‘bombshells’ were brought to his awareness failed and his journalists failed.
What is interesting is that Tom Watson remains silent….he hasn’t either confirmed or denied that Lord MacAlpine was his target, the man possibly revealed by his ‘intelligence’.
He did tweet this early yesterday:
I see the pushback has begun in some sections of the media. The same people who dismissed the hacking allegations.Suspect they’ll regret it.—
(@tom_watson) November 09, 2012
Which is somewhat irresponsible…a politician playing games with people’s reputations.
He was sent a letter by Rob Wilson MP demanding he act more responsibly and not to spread unsubstantiated rumours, but he claims not to have received it:
Hello @robwilsonmp – I’ve had a number of media calls about a letter you’ve sent me. I’ve not received it. Please could you email it me?
Though Guido and the rest of the web have
“The evidence file – used to convict paedophile Peter Righton – if it still exists, contains clear intelligence of a widespread paedophile ring. One of it’s members boasts of his links to a senior aide of a former Prime minister, who says he could smuggle indecent images of children from abroad. The leads were not followed up, but if the files still exist, I want to ensure that the Metropolitan Police secure the evidence, re-examine it, and investigate clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and Number 10″.
That is different to Steve Messham’s claim.
The BBC should be banging on Watson’s door asking questions….questions they should have asked long ago…..who are his sources, is Macalpine the man he believes to be that ‘senior aide’…and why have you not said anything since.
Until Watson reveals if Macalpine is or is not that man you have to assume that Watson is playing a purely political game…one which the BBC has played along with unfortunately.
Time to put up Tom or shut up.
” Newsnight had commissioned the Bureau of Investigative Journalism for the story”.
Right, so they have approx 3,000 in-house, ‘highly professional journalists’, but they have to hire rabid left wing outsiders to produce this shit at tax payers expense !
A rigour that it is apparent is lacking in both their journalism and in senior management.
Making the facts (so blessed to some) derived with only £4Bpa relative to other media… interesting.
Maybe it’s not just about funding but rather institutional cultural deficiencies.
Their colleagues in the public sector won’t like that connection one little bit.
As to what Mr. Watson appears to see or miss, depending on how it suits, does make him a good candidate for BBC top management, if not in talks [ahem] already.
They were behind the much derided ‘expose’ into the Help for Heroes charity which Newsnight also ran.
Once again they uses the same MO of running it on the back of a war victim, setting him up as a vehicle to bring the whole thing down. It didn’t work then either, the report being criticised as materially wrong and unbalanced – not interviewing vererans who had been supported.
They were also behind the Tory funding smear, claiming wrongly that 50% or more of their funds came from big finance. GF rubbished that with ease some time back.
There seems to be a bit of a pattern here. Political agandas and incompetence being part of what makes them and the BBC unique.
I think that the shadowy Bureau of Investigative Journalism needs…erm…investigating.
look on the bright side, John Snow
came out of the goldsmith interview looking a complete dork and now
they’ve left newsnight with more than
just egg on their face Perhaps their double agents
Probably a Common Purpose graduate. Their heads are full of fuzzy theories about leadership but so many of them haven’t actually had to manage anything really difficult……yet.
feel sorry for entwhistle
let me think now……..
NAH
Alan, it wasn’t McAlpine Watson was talking about, this is a separate story. Suggest you do some reading, there’s plenty of (non-hearsay) stuff written about this.
Suggest you actually read the post:
‘ “The evidence file – used to convict paedophile Peter Righton – if it still exists, contains clear intelligence of a widespread paedophile ring. One of it’s members boasts of his links to a senior aide of a former Prime minister, who says he could smuggle indecent images of children from abroad. The leads were not followed up, but if the files still exist, I want to ensure that the Metropolitan Police secure the evidence, re-examine it, and investigate clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and Number 10″.
That is different to Steve Messham’s claim.’
But maybe connected to this?
Tom Watson asked a question in the House of Commons five days after his PMQs question:
‘Hansard 29 October: ‘Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many files relating to the premiership of Sir Edward Heath (a) are retained by Government Departments and (b) have been transferred to the National Archives but have not yet been released under the 30 Year Rule. [124917]’
Anything you’d like to add Mr Watson?
“One of it’s members boasts of his links to a senior aide of a former Prime minister, who says he could smuggle indecent images of children from abroad.”
Yes, this was Watson’s claim. ‘Someone said they knew someone who said he knew a political aide. And this someone said he could get hold of dirty pictures’.
It’s such a tenuous claim, hearsay upon hearsay, that its hardly surprising it wasn’t followed up. Yet Watson thinks its a sign of a huge conspiracy.
Not surprising his website has all its posts mysteriously removed.
would google have a cached version,just for reference you understand?
Err…….yes of course! But not available to us mere plebs.
Enthwistle and Newsnight will be sacrificed to build a credible narrative of “incompetence” rather than intentional lies, partisan propaganda, and cover-up.
Don’t be fooled – the BBC is the most skilled and persistent propaganda organisation int he world, the entire edifice is dedicated to pushing Fabian socialism in the UK.
Like all bureaucratic structures, once seriously damaged it start to shake itself apart – and that’s partly what we saw on Newsnight last night – but there remains enough strength to remodel on some lines, like the Death Star, and that’s what we’re seeing this morning. “Mistakes were made” “Lessons will be learned” “Let’s move on”.
I see Alistair Campbell memes all over this, all over Entwhistle’s interview – the BBC learned a great deal about excuses from NuLab. It may yet survive.
But, trust is gone – the polls show trust in the BBC collapsing. Once trust goes, everything else follows.
” the BBC is the most skilled and persistent propaganda organisation int he world, the entire edifice is dedicated to pushing Fabian socialism in the UK.”
This is just silly. Yes it’s riddled with metropolitan liberals, and yes this affects the slant of its output. But it’s not a grand Fabian conspiracy. That’s the sort of paranoid theory that undermines attempts to chart and correct actual bias.
Couldn’t disagree with you more.
The bbc has largely driven the narrative that it was perfectly reasonable for labour to convert large cities in the UK into third world ghettos, peopled by some 3 million followers of a despicable and backward religion.
And they created the climate of fear amoung the political class that to question this folly was political suicide.
Utter, utter c*nts, every single one of them. ( Apart from the people who produce R3’s Early Music Show, naturally.)
That’s the worst of this blog, right there.
“…despicable and backward religion” – after all, the academics of heft, at Exeter University, will tell you that that bit is wrong, for a start.
And the Pope, and every major religious leader in this country. Face it, the ‘despicable and backward’ view of Islam is extreme and held by a minority. And ‘utter, utter c*nts, every one of them’ is blind prejudice. Has Backwoodsman met all 20,000 of them?
oh no
it’s islamophobia and waayyyyycissssmmm
And once again, a thread about something BBC related descends into irrelevant religion-bashing and pathetic name calling. Grow up.
ok daddy
if you say so
see if you don’t like biased-bbc,why are you always here?
do you always go out of the way to be offended 🙂
Not just any religion – the BBC’s very own pet, to-be-protected-at-all costs, religion. The religion that has everything short of bet the farm on getting rid of Israel, with the Beeb doing all it can to help. What is your vested / personal interest in standing up for it, I wonder.
Vested interest? How about ‘standing up for religious tolerance’, like centuries of good Christians? Your intolerance is extremism and is rejected by the Church of which I am a communicant member.
The CoE is has taken loving its enemies too far on this one – they have failed to realise that this particular intolerant socio/political ideology cum religion, that legitimises violence and falsehood, is unique.
All religion should be treated with equal amounts of contempt.
” despicable and backward religion.” that is what backwoodsman said. Just that.
You said: ” ‘despicable and backward’ view of Islam”.
Now, I can make asumptions of the actual religion that backwoodsman referred to, but I wouldn’t call him into a debate without checking just WHICH one he meant.
Perhaps I have missed some clues as to which one, if so apologies to all.
Perhaps not a conspiracy but those ‘metropolitan liberals’ employ birds of a feather who in turn do the same which has the same outcome, a narrow left of centre viewpoint.
This is the less extreme view and I think the correct one. It is self perpetuating, because so many young people attracted to the career are liberal in their views. They need to do more to attract potential recruits with right-leaning inclinations.
They already have right-wingers on the BBC like Clarkson, Andrew Neil and many others. The problem is the lack of balance. Left-centred commentators still greatly outweight right-centred ones, and worse, they’re often much further to the left than the right-wingers are to the right. Clarkson gets a lot of stick for his deliberately provocative comments, but compared to Andrew Marr or Jeremy Hardy he’s a centrist.
…and Clarkson doesn’t set the news agenda – the section of the BBC most able to influence political thought.
‘the BBC is the most skilled and persistent propaganda organisation in the world‘
Not on ‘climate change’ it isn’t, but it runs a very close second to the IPCC.
By the way RWB, you might like to have a look here (lifted from a later thread) and then have another think about the BBC pushing a socialist agenda:
http://blackswhitewash.com/2012/01/05/richard-black-influencing-world-policy/#comment-211
George ” I know nothing ” Bentwhistle on a £1 million pound salary.
Feel sorry him ? Nah
now to be fair,I think he’s “only” on £400k odd-big pay cut after Thompson
poor fell’s on the bread line
Yes, the poor guy is practically homeless.
Where is Paxman and Kirsty Squawk in all this ? Why are they hiding ? ITV should get Conrad Black to interview them.
That is a great idea. And I bet Conrad would be up for it.
Newsnight is toast. Entwhistle is toast. The programme has no credibility, the DG is responsible for the organisation and has to carry the can.
Putting all the “it’s a conspiracy” bollocks to one side, this is a monumental editorial failure. This is very serious indeed and you have to question the editorial skills at play here — did no one check?
They will just replace newsnight with another similar program, probably with the same presenters and carry on as normal. Send suggestions for a name for the new show on a post card to BBC TV.
Jackanory
Half the story in Ballamory
So pleased to be able to agree with you at last, if you really are Nicked Emus.
I am and I do. I have been a hack for 20 yrs. This is a shocking piece of journalism – quite inexcusable.
If you have the evidence then you run the story but you have to put the allegations to the subject. There is something called the Reynolds Defence which you can use in cases like this. They know it and they know the conditions that have to be met. But they didn’t do that and instead used a weasel form of attack. It was inexcusable. Put up or shut up.
In terms of destroying a man’s reputation there is nothing worse that you can accuse someone of. If you are going to do that you have to be on rock-solid ground, and I mean rock solid. Newsnight tried took a shabby way out.
This was shoddy journalism of the worst kind, worse than shoddy, utterly negligent.
Newsnight is over. Entwhistle has to fall on his sword.
Very clever, Nick. Love the ‘conspiracy’ accusation – up there with ‘racist’, ‘Islamaophobe’, ‘right wing bigot’, ‘climate change denier’ etc as a knee-jerk reaction when defenders of the indefensible have nowhere else to go.
Monbiot? Guardian? BBC? Watson? Smearing the ‘Thatcher era Tories’?
Coincidence or magic – you decide. I have.
PS, in case you choose to avoid the later thread on Richard Black and the BBC’s ‘settled science’, put this one through your ‘conspiracy’ spinwash machine:
http://blackswhitewash.com/2012/01/05/richard-black-influencing-world-policy/#comment-211
It’s not him!
Nicked emus differs in the name Nicked Emus.
I wish folk wouldn’t sign in under fasle id’s
signed Elizabeth Windsor.
“Wasn’t it the whole of the BBC’s News organisation that went after the ‘leading Conservative Thatcher era politican’?” (copied from alans original OP)
The BBC script their news reports so that they all (radio 2 to 5) lead with the same.
Entwhistle claims he can’t se everything. I agree he can’t, It’s to big, break it up to something managable.
Of course the CEO can’t know everything that’s going on in a huge corporation, but I was taught by IBM that delegation is the key to successful management. The CEO sets the objectives and the other levels of management achieve them.
It is clear that objectives have not been set and that there has been a massive failure of communication and common sense.
It may be too late for some to “learn lessons” because it seems clear on this occasion, all things considered, that the BBC have not “got it about right!”
Did you notice they got a fall guy, a real smug creep called Eddie Mair to present Newsnight last night.
Why didn’t the BBC just use a sock puppet instead, that would have been better.
Entwhistle = Toast
Boaden = Burnt Toast
Patten = Well Buttered Toast
Newsnight needed something to redeem themselves after Saville – an attack on a Toree just fitted the bill – they couldn’t wait – but I noticed on the Today programme on this Saturday morning more use of the ‘Conservative Party’ instead of ‘Tories’ – have they realised they have some sucking up to do?
The website running order of today’s programme had at 7.44 Sian Kevill ‘talking about the scandal’, she is the ex-editor of Newsnight who in 2002 had only Labour supporters on the programme the night that Mandelson resigned over his involvement with the Hinduja brothers and even the governors at that time admitted the programme that night was biased in a pro-Labour way.
What became very obvious in Humphrey’s interview with Entwhistle was how much the Corporation depend on Twitter, and how even Humphrey sees it as a major source of news gathering and news distribution. Perhaps as part of any review the BBC, whilst navel gazing, should consider how if they want to use Twitter.
And just for the record could Naughtie inform the public how many times he has met Balls and Milliband for private lunches in the last couple of months – compared to the number of times he has met Campbell and Osborne? In the interests of openness, of course.
‘how much the Corporation depend on Twitter, and how even Humphrey sees it as a major source of news gathering and news distribution.’
Some did try and point out that dependence was veering off course.
The BBC of course dug in to the bitter end.
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/trust-upholds-complaint-against-bbc-news-over-inaccurate-tweet
The BBC and inaccuracy seem synonymous.
And when confronted by the consequences their default is to bunker down and lawyer (x6 plus Hugs) up.
On our dime.
I agree Deborah, we should not lose sight of the fact that this whole story was dug up by Newsnight at the same time as it was under attack concerning the Savile story.
They have disgraced themselves here. The “non story” was an attempt at deflecting the main story, it was little more than an irrational kicking back, something we see professional footballers do every week
‘Guardian’:-
“BBC chief unaware of Newsnight’s Tory peer child sex abuse story.
“George Entwistle says BBC staff face disciplinary action over ‘totally unacceptable’ Newsnight report that wrongly implicated Tory grandee in north Wales child sex scandal.”
[Excerpt]-
“The BBC director general, George Entwistle, has admitted he was totally unaware of a Newsnight report that wrongly implicated the former Tory treasurer Lord McAlpine in child abuse until the day after it was broadcast.”
By Lisa O’Carroll.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/10/bbc-chief-unaware-newsnight-tory-peer
The Graun appears to have opted more for a policy more akin to coming not to praise Ceasar, but to bury him.
This is becoming a bit like adolf saying he knew nothing of the holocaust?
Looks like
http://www.tom-watson.co.uk/
is having problems.
Error establishing a database connection
Coincidence ?
This webpage is not available
The connection to http://www.tom-watson.co.uk was interrupted.
how very convenient
His hosting is up, and DNS appears to be functioning – looks like the database connection has been pulled. Quick way to shut a site down.
Questions can’t now be asked.
Certain powers not so keen on being held to account.
Seems… familiar.
Tom, bless ‘im, probably thinks his spook contacts have wiped away all the evidence for him. when in fact it’s all stored for future use.
Maybe RWB is over there putting him right on his sintax (3…2…1..)…
Er, do you mean ‘syntax’? (I’d insert a smiley if I knew how)
Er, do you mean ‘syntax’?
Er, no.
That was what the 3,2,1 was for.
And Mr. Watson, tax and sin… seemed to fit.
As Turing tests go… interesting on response and reaction time.
Redwhiteandblue doesn’t do subtle or satire or read between lines.
He is very black and white.
“He is very black and white.”
altogether now-
that’s waaaaycissssssst”
Like the ancient joke about the newspaper (He is a ‘hack’ after all) he is black and white and red all over.
I think you meant Sin Tax which is what the TV licensee fee has become. A tax which pays for the excesses of the BBC.
What worries me is the continued insensitivity with which the BBC is reporting news related to child abuse which occurred within it’s walls, or which its journalists are investigating.
I get the sense that they are fed up with the attention and wish it would turn to someone else. For example, Torin Douglas this morning started his headline piece with: “As if the Jimmy Savile investigation was not enough…” and another commentator mentioned the “Jimmy Savile saga”.
For the BBC it may be an undesirable intrusion into the unchallengeable impartiality and professionalism of that sacred institution, but for the rest of us it’s a necessary forensic look at the BBC’s part in one of the most horrific pedophile cases in Britain, and in journalists inability to properly investigate accusations of abuse/pedophilia when they are made to it
George Bentwhistle has got a problem over Newsnight.
Maybe he should write a letter to Jim’ll Fix It.
Entwistles shambolic performance doesn’t really matter.
The BBC’s main business, the mass manufacture of TV dross like Eastenders and Casualty, is unaffected by who is the BBC’s boss and how they perform.
I think it kinda does
leftist market rate talent being promoted well above their suitable pay grade,and funded by a compulsory tv tax
do agree about the other dross though
If the BBC’s main business was producing the dross you mention they would be doing no great harm. But their main purpose is to broadcast about 90% of News and Current Affairs in this country and they are doing enormous harm with their left/liberal bias. Slowly the whole culture and politics of the country is being shaped by them.
Hopefully if more and more people wake up to what they are really about we might get enough public support for the Tories to act and break up of the monopoly.
Scandals like the two recent ones will undermine the BBC but they won’t go down without a fight and left/liberal chums will help them as much as possible. So the likes of Sky, Daily Mail and Telegraph will have to keep the pressure up day and night to make some cracks in the edifice which the timid Tories might exploit.
Not sure I agree that they’re having that great an effect on shaping the country’s politics. They’re doing a good job of keeping the public uninformed on a lot of issues, like immigration and the EU and the NHS backdoor privatisation bill, but I still see far more unwanted influence coming from right-wing Fleet Street publications and corporate lobbyists. The BBC is, if anything, spineless and self-congratulatory more than it is actually influential on the political landscape.
The “Tory Press” has far more influence than the BBC? Is that why the majority of Question Time audiences clap like trained seals every time a Left-wing panelist spouts some ideological drivel?
The BBC can gin up a feeding frenzy as well as the Mail or Sun any day of the week. And neither of those papers have other products in which they can infuse their Narrative on a given issue (Thatcher/Belgrano, Religious Mohammedans = good/religious Christians = mockable nutters). Only the BBC can spread it over multiple outlets.
“If the BBC’s main business was producing the dross you mention they would be doing no great harm.”
Eastenders does enough damage on it’s own. They should put the Samaritans phone number up on the screen at the end of each episode. What on earth do people from outside the U.K. think of us when they see this utter bilge?
I turned in my grave when Eastenders was first broadcast.
In my day the people responsible for this show would of end up in a lunatic asylum.
The BBC IS a lunatic asylum!
They’re at home already!
I’m with you there regarding Eastenders. It’s a cancer on the culture!
That programme is classic Frankfurt School subversion.
I don’t want to make any libelous allegations,
but I think a BBC employee who was very high up in that organisation, who now resides in New York, must be pissing himself laughing, how lucky he is that he left his job when he did.
Well, maybe HE had the newsnight investigation spiked so had enough time to escape first?
Thompson is partially responsible for the lack of integrity and low morale.
I would expect the Murdoch empire to be all over this like a rash after the way the BBC delighted in Murdochs difficulties.
A lot of people will be on the BBC’s case now.
We should all do something – however slight, to discomfort the BBC and bring it down. We should be like a swarm of angry hornets.
Buz, buzz, buzz
John Humphrys (incredulous) to George Entwistle:
‘Did you read the Guardian yesterday morning?’
Hardly unreasonable. Any half decent CEO (and journalist) reads all the papers every day. If his organisation is in crisis this is particularly the case.
“Any half decent CEO (and journalist) reads all the papers every day”
and only one takes it script and politicial outlook from the guardian
**one organisation
You’re missing the point. The Guardian *contradicted* the BBC story. It was singing from a different hymn sheet entirely.
no I didn’t
this has to be a first for the grauniad,but I suppose even they had to feel some shame and couldn’t defend the indefensible
by the way
where is nickedemus?
It was a fair question to ask in the circumstances.
appears he did not. shame on him not reading instructions.
It most certainly WAS NOT just Newsnight. it was ALL the BBC.
Leaked e-mails show that their planned defence of a cancellation of the Newsnight Savile report was that they needed two sources To back each aspect of the story. This they could not do. Therefore they cancelled. Why was this “two sources” policy abandoned when it came to accusing a ‘senior tory’? Where is the paperwork, emails that show who took this decision, and why?
They didn’t name the suspect, indicating they were not sure about the truth of this story, but still reported it numerous times over the next few days almost always with the description “senior Tory politician of the Thatcher era.”
Why did the BBC smear the Tory party when unsure of evidence? “Senior retired politician” would have been a much fairer way to report the case. It is clear that guidelines were issued to different news teams THROUGHOUT THE BBC, such was the similarity in terms of reporting. Release all the correspondence instructing editors how to report story, who sent them and what was the reasoning. It looks like nothing more than a calculated smear against Conservatives, and a brief look at the comment sections of some newspapers shows that it has worked. ‘Tory party – paedophile scum” is a common sentiment. Was this what was intended when the BBC set out to “manage” public reaction to Newsnight Savile report? Distract attention from the BBC guilt, and point a finger at the conservative party?
Oops, forgot link to leaked BBC email.
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/leaked-email-reveals-pr-questions-newsnight-managing-savile-expose
“Aside from any promotional efforts, we may well need to do a bit of managing around this – despite such rumours circulating in the media for years.”
[suggested answer to poss qs]
How did you corroborate the validity of your sources? As the country’s most trusted news provider the BBC has strict guidelines to ensure accuracy in our output, contributors’ stories are checked and double checked as is any relevant documentary evidence.
They figured letting a third party do it would be okay. Less accountability. Oops.
“George Entwistle under fire: the full transcript of Today interview”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/9668884/George-Entwistle-under-fire-the-full-transcript-of-Today-interview.html
-George Entwistle to be played by John Bird in Bremner TV special? On the lines of:-
Compare hypocrisy: If a (tory) politician refuses to be interviewed during a crisis, they are roundly condemned. The bBC are refusing to put up any representatives to other news programs to explain themselves.
Even in a crisis, Beeboids only work a five-day week, much less in case of part time Patten.
Listen carefully to the BBC interview below.
You would think that given the seriousness of what’s happening the presenter/interviewer would be showing a little respect.
At 0.22 she clears her throat then she does it again at 1.22. It’s as if she isn’t even listening.
Then listen to the tone of her voice when she comes back with a “question” at 1.52 – the full force of her BBC snobbery and arrogance comes out and yet again she/BBC try to shift the blame.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20276761
Funny. “Enough about the real story, let’s focus on how other people are doing something wrong.”
LOLZ
it just gets better
sky news just announced that “the BBC will not be making george entwhistle or any other executive available for us to interview today”
the cowardly scum
what goes around comes around eh bbc?
how’s that for accountability for a compulsorily public funded propaganda machine?
you couldn’t make it up
you couldn’t make it up.
Strangle the BBC are and that’s why it’s going hysterically tits up for them !
Strangely !
This bloody comments system !
‘Strangle the BBC’ was fine.
Delicious isn`t it?
The BBC and its smug foreskin of a current affairs phallus started out doing what lefties always do-stick it to the fuzz, the beak and smoke out the authoritarian scum that might stalk them doing drugs etc.
Newsnight was(I use the past tense) an awful self-righteous pug pretending to be an attack dog. It presumed to smoke out the CPS and the police about not proceeding with its prosecution of the victims of Savile…there was NO intention to smoke out Savile of his fixers at the BBC who paid him to groom and abuse kids on BBC premises and car parks etc.
The self-righteous fools were so blind to their OWN employers culpability in all this, so carried on regardless and into a trap of their own making.
And so, with the BBC in the crosshairs…what else would they do but reflexly turn to Thatch, to Tories and to care homes?…a swirl and a scurry of innuendo, accusations served up like the skunk that the BBC now is….smells, whiffs, smears and lies being patted out for the rest of us as “news”.
The BBC have therefore compounded the Savile slurry with their double or quits last desperate roll of the dice to trash the Tories….and hasn`t it backfired spectatularly?
The BBC employs the Paedos that Rupert used to expose…so maybe losing the New of the World has brought down the BBC…delicious eh?
The BBC have been shown up for the lying, weasly scum that they have always been…and it needs dismembering and casting to the four corners of the country…goodbyeBBC…serving nothing but its own agenda since 1992…
Let Labour and the Liberals pay for their own PPBs without free 24/7 sophistry and fug from the BBC and Guardian.
P.S Don`t Welby and Entwhistle look alaike?
Amen !
From reappointing BBC/Guardian darling Allegra Stratton
‘It’s a privilege to be returning to Newsnight. It is a great programme with an important role in stimulating political debate, especially at such a turbulent time both here and abroad’
‘Newsnight editor Peter Rippon said he was delighted to welcome ‘such a talented journalist as Allegra to the team’.
To surrounding Paxo with wimmins issues and making him look a right big boob.
To encouraging Pop Mason’s anger and protest kiddies and euro commies
Newsnight has nosedived in the ratings.
More leftist = less popular.
Getting the message yet BBC?
Allegra? Sounds like that rubbish car British Leyland used to make in the 1970s – you know, when the socialists all but destroyed everything they touched. Maybe her parents were of that period; a bit like those parents who give their child the name Keir.
They should make a special edition of their beloved The Thick of It for this. Is Chris Langan out of jail yet?
After seeing Dennis MacShane’s career go up in flames last Friday who would have theouhgt we’d have an even better Friday the following week?
Dez and the Dandy been in?
Could Newsnight’s faliure to fully check the facts on this story have anything to do with the fact that the monstrously false accusations had to do with a former Thatcher aide?
The BBC has now questioned how Messham got it wrong. He says the police misinformed him. Even with the attempt at bringing in gravitas with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the rump of Newsnight still got it wrong. Ranting about a Labour politician is fun, but the real villain here is BBC management, not just Newsnight. And the Bureau of Investigative Journalism have a lot of ‘splainin’ to do.
Newsnight never actually named McAlpine. The alleged victim didn’t even name McAlpine on his own. Only the police named McAlpine – wrongly. Messham claims he identified a photo of his abuser, only it was the police who told him that’s who it was. And nobody noticed. I wonder if any of these world-class, highly trained and experienced journalists asked to see the photo before running the story. Entwistle actually tried to blame Messham for the error, rather than the police. Pathetic. These people aren’t amateurs. Whichever mini-boss temporarily in charge of Newnsight probably figured they’d be safe from criticism if they let this other group do it. Entwistle pretty much admitted that to Humphrys. Success has many fathers, etc.
Soon-to-be think-tank mandarin (you know he’ll slide into something comfy) Entwistle, who didn’t watch the feature before broadcast and trusted the other blind mice to vet it for him, has ordered somebody from BBC Scotland to have a full report on his desk in the morning. That’s what tv show and movie bosses always say to the hero after a successful job during which they broke a few rules, and the boss tacitly agrees to overlook it.
I wonder if there was some quiet understanding between Entwistle and Boaden and whichever junior officer of the deck who approved it that the new DG should be kept out of the loop on this one because that’s the only way he and they can sell his George HW Bush Iran-Contra Affair defense about the Savile story. Somebody should already have been under orders to inform him directly of something like this. I find it difficult to believe that this wasn’t the case. It wasn’t selling very well this morning on Today.
I know the BBC’s first priority is to rehabilitate its own name by whatever circular firing squad means necessary. I laughed out loud when Entwistle dismissed the charge that Newsnight’s recent problems tar the entire corporation by saying that, among other things, the BBC’s reporting from the US was excellent. He should resign just for thinking that. But I don’t see how this pointless grilling of Entwistle makes any angry license fee-payer feel better about trusting the BBC ever again. I assume they failed to get Watson to speak with them, giving them the benefit of the doubt that they actually tried.
Still, Peter Rippon’s mood will have improved.
“I wonder if any of these world-class, highly trained and experienced journalists asked to see the photo before running the story.”
This is my point entirely. Did some sub-conscious (or not so sub-conscious) desire that the story not be proved wrong stop the Newsnight investigators from showing Mr Messham a photo of Lord McAlpine from the period?
Bottom line is, while it appears a Police identification error led Mr Messham to think he was abused by Lord McAlpine, it was a BBC Newsnight error in broadcasting the claims without properly testing them. If they didn’t have the evidence to name the alleged paedophile, they shouldn’t have run the report.
The weirdest thing about this is, is that in my opinon the BBC had excellent grounds for not broadcasting their Savile report. According to someone involved, they were told by Helen Boaden “We have to treat the story as if Jimmy Savile were alive and can sue the BBC”. Spot on. And yet this Newsnight person bewailed the fact she said it. ITV only ran a documentary with the same ex-detective who’d worked with Newsnight with a good deal of additional information on alleged abuse elsewhere.
BBC Newsight knew perfectly well that if they broadcast such sensational and extremely grave allegations against a ‘senior Tory politician of the Thatcher years’, the name would inevitably leak on the internet and at the same time a number of other Tories (viz that unspeakable moron Philip Scholfield ambushing Cameron with names bandied about in ‘internetland’) would get tarred as well.
Frankly, it is my strongest suspicion that “Senior Thatcher Tory Paedophile” was just too irresistable a story for leftie Newsnight. This angle on things of whether left wing political bias on Newsnight had any bearing on editorial misjudgment needs to be fully investigated. The fact is a head honcho from BBC Scotland is looking into the fiasco almost certainly rules this out.
George Entwistle is clearly not up to the job of being BBC Director General. I’d be delighted to see Andrew Neill or David Dimbleby in that role. If it was Dimbleby D, I’d write to congratulate him and ask him to sack his brother for being a left wing prick.
PS: Very amusing to hear Humphrys basically telling Entwistle to write “I will pay more attention in class” 100 times.
This morning I seem to recall Sgt. ‘I know nuzzink, nuzzink’ Entwhistle saying neither he or Newsnight are going anywhere.
Now, I wonder if he was only half right (and maybe not even that):
New Statesman @NewStatesman
Will the BBC “do a Murdoch” and close Newsnight? http://www.newstatesman.com/staggers/2012/11/will-bbc-do-murdoch-and-close-newsnight …
Rather feels like the Axis of Weevils ‘family’ members may be erring on a loss cutting strategy and any goats around may find they are on the altar of survival of the uniquest.
Even if they do close Newsnight, nothing will change. The (ir)responsible parties will simply shift over to other positions either on other shows or other channels, where they’ll do the same thing. At this level of “journalism” and media, they’re like sports coaches/managers. Screw up badly and get fired, but there are three other teams waiting to hire you, because you already have experience and the right connections.
For example, remember Jay Hunt, former Controller of BBC 1? She forced Carol Thatcher out for refusing to make the required Maoist apology over the golliwog remark, and then got forced out herself over accusations of discrimination against older women presenters. Before leaving, she declared that Jonathan Ross was a “responsible broadcaster”.
Hunt worked on….wait for it….Newsnight and Panorama, before being elevated to the upper tier. She was also part on the BBC’s Vision Board, which was led by….wait for it…George Entwistle. Her husband is BBC though and through, currently working at the BBC College of Journalism. Her sister is a BBC presenter. Hunt now works as Director of Creative Vision at Channel 4.
No consequences at all. And has anything improved since? No. The Controller of Radio 2, Lesley Douglas, who allowed Russell Brand the run of the place until getting fired over Brand/Sachs also moved on from one plum job to another at other organizations, although in other media departments, not broadcasting. No real consequences. You can bet both kept their pensions, had them transferred, whatever. Has anything really improved since? No. I’m sure others here can provide similar examples.
Only a serious purge and reformation of the entire system will actually change anything for the better.
As with any self-serving elite it soon becomes a matter of all in the family.
Because they get their money from the serfs by enforced taxation they get more and more disconnected from the people they are supposed to be serving.
The result is arrogance, lack of interest in reality, and the inevitable creative stagnation.
In short you get the BBC.
“Is the BBC toast? I wish!”
By James Delingpole
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100188919/is-the-bbc-toast-i-wish/