Fascinating to watch Newsnight’s ‘coverage’ of the Whittingdale story (13 mins)…….what we got was only half the story because the BBC itself and Charter review never got a mention.
Maitlis begins by asking ‘Is this a story about breach of privacy or a fatal conflict of interest?’ Telling us ‘We bring you what we know’. Now that’s just not true from the off.
We hear that this was a story that ‘all the British newspapers did not run’…..no mention of the BBC not running it either.
We hear that ‘The story first surfaced on Byline.com’. Again that’s blatantly not true. The infamous Natalie Rowe has been very publicly making it known that Whittingdale had something to hide since 2014. At the end of 2015 this was bubbling up again very publicly with a story about the Independent…now that’s 4 months or so ago. Did the BBC not see that?
Byline published its story in the 1st of April…so what took the BBC so long?
Why has the BBC not mentioned Natalie Rowe at all on Newsnight or in its web report which is the headliner?
John Sweeney on Newsnight says that ‘This is a story about why the newspapers didn’t run the story and why that matters’. Again no mention of the BBC or the fact their knowledge of Whittingdale’s romance gave them leverage over him.
Then we had Hacked Off’s Brian Cathcart on to tell us that this was a story about the newspapers and a compromised Whittingdale in relation to Leveson……again no mention of the BBC and the Charter Review.
Maitlis finishes by asking if Whittingdale is compromiseed and can he still oversee the regulation the newspapers? Not the BBC’s Charter review then also?
Quite extraordinary omissions of major parts of this story by Newsnight which tells us that they ‘Bring us all they know’.
That has to be a blatant lie…they know full well the real source of the story and when it originally broke back in 2014….the BBC and friends are clearly trying to hide the fact that the BBC knew and also didn’t publish the story and that this is linked to Charter review as well as the hacking inquiry.
Again you have to ask why the BBC is not revealing the truth….did they put pressure on Whittingdale, along with the likes of Labour’s Tom Watson, to ensure he toed the line on Press regulation and later on the Charter Review (bet they couldn’t believe their luck when he got that job.)?
Perhaps Lord Hall Hall should be asked a few questions about what he knew.
The BBC have been biding their time, is all. ‘Witless’ Whittingdale has been a marked man since he first took office as Culture Secretary (his lukewarm enthusiasm for the bullying Corporation was already well-known), and the liberal fascists at the BBC have been keeping their powder dry for just as long. Now is the time to strike – and, more importantly, to keep the momentum going against him. Their aim is to have him removed from office well ahead of the Charter Renewal. Look like they’ve decided to make their move…
It’s disgusting, but it’s exactly how the Media Party behave. Unaccountable to anyone, a law unto themselves.
In addition to offering them some warm cuddly words, Whittingale has already offered the BBC a number of concessions that, to my mind, are unacceptable:
– A seeming commitment to the licence fee for another ten years
– A rejection of proposals to decriminalise non payment of the licence fee
– Agreeing that free access to the iPlayer needs to be addressed
I agree that Whittingdale should be removed, but not for anything that the BBC have accused him of, but for not getting to grips with the threat that the BBC represents to the plurality of broadcasting and news dissemination in this country.
He should be replaced by Michael Gove.
Number 88, Quite agree. He has done nothing to give the BBC any cause for concern whatsoever. But I am sure he has “the full support ” of Cameron.
He has done nothing wrong, and like Cameron’s tax non payments, his actions were legal. But I still hope the pair of them go down. We are a nation at war, enemies are using the BBC as a propaganda machine, and Witterwhipass has not expressed any idea to clean up the state broadcaster. I hope he is ridiculed out of office.