The new Crisis at the BBC: Tonights Story "Schofields list & The General Resigns!"

[Badnik Mechanic]

So I nearly posted this in but then thought... well the two are not really linked when you look at the details.

This has sorta spun off from the whole Jimmy Savile incident however it's a seperate thing but it's a combination of the two things which have happened to force the outcome involving the BBC's former director general.

So we all know about the Jimmy Savile thing right?

Well... on November 2nd, Newsnight broadcast a show which criticised the North Wales Abuse Tribunal. If you don't know what that is, it was an investigation back in the 70's into abuse claims at various childrens homes.

The investigation interviewed people who were said to have been abused at the time, and one guy a Mr Steve Messham claimed that he had been abused by an MP of Thatchers government at the time. He even named someone who had abused him who turned out to be a former MP and now a 'lord.'

So we have that...

Then... about 2 days ago, Prime Minister David Cameron (boo!) was on daytime TV show 'This Morning.' When one of the hosts, a Mr Philip Scholfield who has usually been seen to be quite a sensible bloke. Leant over and handed the Prime Minister a list of names and said 'I did about half an hour's searching on the internet, and I found the same names being mentioned over and over again, those are the names, most of which are political figures and celebrities, all of which have aparently abused children, what are you going to do about it.'

Now... this was a very stupid thing to do... for the following reasons.

1: The PM was completel unprepared to have this thrown on him so there was no way he could ever give an answer that Schofield wanted.

2: The list has absolutely no evidence to support it.

3: ITV... didn't blur the names on the list... and if you paused the show at that point and thanks to Sky+ and all other recording devices... the list of names was shown on TV, all easilly identifiable.

So ITV basically broadcasted a list of names of well known people who they claimed were child abusers, and this list was basically found on the internet with no research done on it at all. One of the names was the guy who the bloke on the newsnight show had named.

Then yesterday, things really kicked off.

The guy who had been named on Newsnight & This Morning released a 1000 word statement denying all involvement with the abuse claims and indicated he had never been to the said care home, nor had he even set foot in the county that the care home is in. Turns out... HE HASN'T! After some people actually investigated the claims made by this abuse victim who now doesn't look like he is a victim at all, it appears that this Lord hasn't ever been to this place where abuse aledgedly took place.

This then prompted the guy who claimed this bloke had abused him to come out and say 'Oh wait... no he hasn't... it wasn't him.'

Tonight, the Director General of the BBC George Entwistle has now resigned over the Newsnight segment and has admitted that it should not have been broadcast. The claims made by Steve Messham were never investigated by Newsnight, nor was the guy who he accused even contacted to respond to the claims!

To top it off.... George Entwistle had only been the Director General for less than 8 weeks.

People in the UK can watch his resignation here.

Other sources are as follows.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20282942

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20277732

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/09/newsnight-lord-mcalpine-abuse-allegations

I would link you to the "Schofield List" as it's been called but it's probably not a good idea, though a quick google search and you'll find it.

[iDEATH]

Man, this whole thing is a mess....

Don't know enough about Entwistle as this moment to be able to comment on that. I'll come back later.

As for Cameron, yes his reaction was a bit stupid but I genuinely don't think he meant any offense by his reaction. He was caught off guard with Schofield's list and was just scrabbling for any answer. So yeah, bit stupid but I'd say that's about it.

People are complaining saying he deliberately dodged the question but as he said himself, there's no point debating a list of names pulled from the net with no research or evidence.

This sort of fact free discussion NEEDS to stop, my facebook page is smothered daily with pictures that people reblog from various political mostly anti-tory pages that just perpetrate and regurgitate statements like this list without providing any links to sources or proof.

Saying things like this without proof has the potential to ruin lives, as we've seen with this guy who has now shown to be innocent. For the rest of his life he will be associated with this investigation for no reason.

[Your Vest Friend]

Oh yeah, heard about Lord McAlpine (he was named on the news report) defending himself from allegations on Friday night, had no idea it had gotten so messy since then.

[Patticus]

I'm not a massive fan of Cameron by any stretch, in fact I more or less hate the slimeball, but his reaction on air to that was absolutely spot on. He owned Schofield, who seemed to have been going for a Frost/Nixon hard hitting interview on a crappy daytime TV show, and said exactly what was necessary.

[Badnik Mechanic]

I'm not a massive fan of Cameron by any stretch, in fact I more or less hate the slimeball, but his reaction on air to that was absolutely spot on. He owned Schofield, who seemed to have been going for a Frost/Nixon hard hitting interview on a crappy daytime TV show, and said exactly what was necessary.

I agree, I do not like Cameron at all. He's our version of Romney. But he handled schofields list quite well. When you watch it, you can see Schofield almost thinking 'this is it, this is where I go down in history!' only for it to completely backfire in every respect.

[- Eternal Paradox -]

You know, I'm pretty sure they've broken a few rules there.

I'm not sure whether or not this applies to TV programs or not, but the Press Complaints Comisson have an editor's code (which you can see here if you're interested). If they are/were in the Press industry, they'd be in trouble.

The things I'm refering to are this:

1. The press must not, even if legally free to do so, identify children under 16 who are victims or witnesses in cases involving sex offences.

2. In any press report of a case involving a sexual offence against a child -

i) The child must not be identified.

ii) The adult may be identified.

iii) The word "incest" must not be used where a child victim might be identified.

iv) Care must be taken that nothing in the report implies the relationship between the accused and the child.

Also this:

11.Victims of sexual assault

The press must not identify victims of sexual assault or publish material likely to contribute to such identification unless there is adequate justification and they are legally free to do so.

The problem with this is, while the rules are good, most editor's don't give a sh*t about them and carry on reguardless, because the punishment is basically a slap on the wrist.

Edited November 11, 2012 by Paradox

[Stacy]

Meanwhile that wrinkled old wanker Rupert Murdoch, is rubbing his hands thinking about all the delicious papers he can sell.

I agree, I do not like Cameron at all. He's our version of Romney. But he handled schofields list quite well. When you watch it, you can see Schofield almost thinking 'this is it, this is where I go down in history!' only for it to completely backfire in every respect.

I don't like him much either but he isn't that bad. I dislike all the current main British Party leaders.

Edited November 11, 2012 by BW199148

[pooshoes]

When you watch it, you can see Schofield almost thinking 'this is it, this is where I go down in history!' only for it to completely backfire in every respect.

Schofield handled that with all the savvy of an A-Level politics student. What a snide, jumped up little shit he is. Now I think Cameron is a massive bellend as much as the next man does, but he dealt with this well. You can see he's hiding how angry he is just by the number of times he cuts them off mid sentence.

[TheGerkuman]

He's our version of Romney.

Arguably more like a cross between Margaret Thatcher, Ron Paul and a Gila Monster Lizard.

Edit: Most of the time Scofe tends to seem like a normal bloke, especially on Twitter. So I'm putting this down to the fact that he probably really hates the PM. After all, you gotta be pretty left-wing for Guido Fawkes to stick up for you.

It was cretinous though, just as Jonathan Dimbleby said.

Edited November 11, 2012 by Gerkuman

[Stacy]

Arguably more like a cross between Margaret Thatcher, Ron Paul and a Gila Monster Lizard.

Edit: Most of the time Scofe tends to seem like a normal bloke, especially on Twitter. So I'm putting this down to the fact that he probably really hates the PM. After all, you gotta be pretty left-wing for Guido Fawkes to stick up for you.

It was cretinous though, just as Jonathan Dimbleby said.

Schofield doesn't usually come across as a twat, I wouldn't be surprised if ITV paid or pressured Schofield to do it.