[ad_1]
Deadly deceit of TV ‘rogue’
HOW different the lives of Princes William and Harry might have been but for the lies of Martin Bashir and the BBC.
The interview he effectively tricked Princess Diana into, using fake documents to win her brother’s trust, had a global impact the word “explosive” barely begins to describe
It is possible the interview set off a chain of events which led to Diana’s death two years later in Paris[/caption]
It had catastrophic consequences for her family too.
It is possible that it set off a chain of events which led to her death two years later in Paris.
That without that interview — the revelations of a wounded, vulnerable woman obtained via BBC deception — she might be alive today.
For it triggered her swift divorce, and with it the removal of her Royal Highness status and the royal protection officers who might have kept her safe.
It is fair to argue Diana’s broken marriage would not have lasted anyway.
But that 1995 Panorama encounter and Bashir’s fabrications hastened its end, fuelled her fear and paranoia and made her split from Charles far more bitter.
How different the lives of Princes William and Harry might have been but for the lies of Bashir and the BBC[/caption]
No wonder raw rage, torment and grief seeps through every withering word of William’s extraordinary public response.
The whole family’s fury is entirely proportionate.
Diana was duped into telling all by a reporter apparently prepared to stop at nothing to make his name.
Bashir’s subterfuge might never have come to light but for Diana’s brother Earl Spencer taking notes of the meeting that helped him land the interview.
When suspicions about him were later made public, the BBC disgracefully covered it up.
News chief Tony Hall, later promoted to Director-General, conducted a perfunctory inquiry and rapidly concluded Bashir was honest.
News chief Tony Hall, later promoted to Director-General, conducted a perfunctory inquiry and rapidly concluded Bashir was honest[/caption]
Insiders rightly branded it a whitewash.
Bashir’s worried colleagues were discredited.
The graphic designer who created fake bank statements under his orders was scapegoated and told not to darken the BBC’s doors again.
Bashir, though, went on to enjoy a glittering international career, somehow surviving repeated claims about dirty tricks with others as well as Diana.
And, despite knowing about his past, the BBC rehired him from the US in 2016.
Ten years ago, when the phone- hacking scandal closed the News of the World, BBC journalists were among the loudest of those baying for blood and desperate to see The Sun engulfed too.
Their stinking hypocrisy is not lost on us.
They had a rancid skeleton in their closet — a jaw-dropping, indefensible betrayal of journalistic ethics which secured the corporation’s biggest scoop but wrecked and arguably ended lives.
And the BBC covered it up.
They circled the wagons, as they have so often when hit by scandal.
Most read in News
So what now for “rogue reporter” Bashir and his old bosses?
Will they ever get their just deserts?
Don’t hold your breath.
[ad_2]
Source link