Just listened again to John Beattie’s interview with Scott Arthur yesterday.
Does anyone really believe that Scott Arthur mentioned Wings to the BBC Legal Team in anything other than a derogatory light? He indicated that BBC seems more concerned with the full interviews rather than the clips. But then he said that most of the Wings stuff was clips “deliberately short so they could be taken out of context”. Contradicting himself right there. As well as being derogatory (he just can’t help himself). As a matter of interest, how long are the contested Wings clips?
Also, it was interesting how Scott Arhur wouldn’t challenge John Beattie. It was after all John Beattie who mentioned Scott Arthur’s name on air … he admitted it to him right there and then… but Scott Arthur didn’t have the cajones to challenge him or demand an apology from him… instead focusing on Ian Small.
Then John Beattie asked, “Have you had an apology from the BBC?” That was just surreal… if there was any apologising to be done, it should have been John Beattie right there and then… Seems Pacific Quay is still all at sea, they can’t even agree if they need to apologise or not.
Even more surreally, Scott Arthur said he had apologised to the BBC Legal Team in London for the time they had had to spend “on the clarification of the issue around me”… Did they have to go back and forth several times agreeing a statement that both could be happy with? There are a lot of weasel words in that BBC statement, which contradicts official policy up until now.
Scott Arthur let it slip too in his “lengthy and constructive discussions with the BBC Legal Team”, when he said something about how Wings was helping “drive people on to alternative news sources and social media… and all the issues with fake news related to that”. The ultimate aim of the BBC is to limit or even shut down social media sites so that they can control the news agenda. I fully expect that is what their policy review will be aiming towards.
The funniest bit was actually right at the start when the new announcer read out the BBC statement, “The BBC takes action across the political spectrum”, and then had a fit of coughing as the words choked in her throat.
