Whatever you make of the slur on Band Aid, the BBC’s apology to Sir Bob must have posed a dilemma.
On the one hand, one of their favourite enterprises, fundraising for charities, fronted by one of their favourite personalities, Sir Bob Geldof.
On the other hand, one of the BBC’s most intransigent internal organisations, the complaints department indoors which must be obeyed.
So the complaints department eventually capitulated, and Sir Bob was sufficiently appeased to refer to the episode as ‘an unusual lapse in standards.’
One thing certainly emerged. The admission that though the programme allegedly didn’t actually accuse Sir Bob directly, deliberately playing their music throughout. smeared Band Aid by association.
“We acknowledge that some of our related reporting of the story reinforced this perception”
Michael Grade spluttering “outrageous” on Today, as though deliberately manipulating programmes to look a particular way never happened in broadcasting.