#bbc #conhome #ukuncut #werspartacus
Background
In July 2011 the position of Andy Coulson as the PR’s Press Secretary was the subject of a great deal of controversy. One of the tactics the Tories were using to deflect criticism was to attack the appointment of Tom Baldwin with claims ON Guido fawkes Blog and Conservative Home suggesting that Baldwin was responsible for ‘outing’ Dr Kelly who committed suicide when his name was released to the media during the ‘dodgy dossier’ affair.
Conhome – the libellous page which has still not been deleted nor an apology printed:
Here is the Independent from July 20
This is almost a year ago and, as is the BBC’s wont these days they ran the original Tory story and not the truth, including on the Nicky Campbell Show.
I complained to the programme and this was originally dismissed by the programme and the producer so I elevated the complaint to the Editorial Complaints Unit. Here is their response:
Note that although it took over 6 months for them to acknowledge this failure, long after the event, and long after the Tory libel has become the accepted truth, this letter was received on February 9th 2012, it is now April 15 and the complaint has still not been published.
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Update May 11 2012 – Complaint published
Despite stating that I would be informed when the complaint was published this has not happened, possibly because they are ashamed of the response.
The Outcome is plainly incorrect: ‘information had emerged later’ – the programme was broadcast in 2011 IN 2003 IT WAS KNOWN THE ALLEGATIONS REPEATED BY NICKY CAMPBELL WERE INCORRECT. (see letter above). It also suggests that, far from being down to the Nicky Campbell Programme being a live show, the only reason for these allegations being made during the interview was that these were the very arguments being used by the Tories to distract from the Coulson affair.
The reason for upholding the complaint is not given, it was a breach of the BBC’s own editorial guidelines on accuracy; the BBC reject arguments about bias almost as a reflex.
