BBC admit: We got it wrong
Thursday 26th February 2009, 3:00PM GMT.
THE BBC’s flagship current affairs programme Newsnight has been strongly criticised by its own standards watchdog for its handling of an interview with former Chief Minister Frank Walker about events at Haut de la Garenne.
The programme, in which ex-Senator Walker was grilled by star presenter Jeremy Paxman, ‘distorted the facts and misled its audience’, the BBC Trust has ruled in response to a complaint about the broadcast a year ago yesterday.
The damning report from the trust, published today, criticises Newsnight for the way Senator Walker was portrayed during the interview with Mr Paxman two days after the first claims, now dismissed, that children may have been murdered at the former home.
Senator Walker and former Health and Social Services Minster Stuart Syvret were interviewed live outside Haut de la Garenne, where ex-deputy police chief Lenny Harper had sparked off an international media frenzy with a press conference to announce that human remains had been found there.
A complaint made by a member of the public against the programme has been upheld, and the trust is to write to the BBC’s deputy director-general to ensure that programme makers correct ‘serious errors’ in future.
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Nothing wrong with the Interview. I wonder who made the complaint???
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Now I think it is only appropiate that all of Frank Walker’s critics release an apology. Many internet bloggers made a big meal out of this and like no murders the whole thing is just a lie.
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The facts of this whole sad affair will never truly be known. Newsnight and the Paxman interview were based on the available information, misleading or not, at the time.
Sadly the then CM, Deputy Chief of Police and Stuart Syvret were all at loggerheads and there was obviously mis-trust between them.
Paxman had every right to ask the questions he did, how they were answered and handled is another matter, as is how the initial claims entered the public arena.
The true course of Justice has since then been fudged and muddied by claims and counter claims.
The victims are the only people affected and are still being affected by this bitter and pathetic ‘infighting’.
This debacle has not put portrayed Jersey well in the International arena, due to the ‘feud’ by the people in the media spotlight.
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BBC admit: We got it wrong… No they didn’t.
walker and the other politians have-
‘distorted the facts and misled its audience’ – for years
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errr? what? i know what i heard on the bbc recording of walker and syvret and the “shafting jersey” comment. Paxman wasn’t very nice to walker but he pretty much nailed it. no distortion or misleading as far as i’m concerned. what a shame the bbc has lost it’s backbone.
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The BBC would apologise to Harold Shipman for not reporting all of his murders, so the Walker camp would get Auntie Beeb to bend over and say sorry.
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So where is this so called ‘damning report’? I’d like to read it to see for myself exactly what is said about the portrayal of Frank Walker…Far better than reading this second-hand news.
Darren, as a Frank Walker critic I owe him nothing, least of all an apology!
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so now we have it from the horses mouth the bbc trust have admitted that the newsnight presenter jeremy paxmen distorted the facts in his interview with frank walker and as a consequence exposed him to unfair ridicule and criticism and yet we still have people on your comment page continuing to attack walker quoting the rubbish from the newsnight programme i say to these people get a life move on show some contrition admit it as the bbc have done fubar bruce etc have you no shame chaps right is right and wrong is wrong and you lot are a great example of the latter
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Pretty much agree with everyone else – apart from not being able to pronounce Syvret’s name I though Paxo was OK.
For a long time it did look like there might have been bodies there, 60 plus fragments of bone
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Yes there were human remains found – lots and lots of teeth – yes the head turned out to be a coconut shell but that was forensics fault not anybody elses.
As for it all being a lie Darren I can only assume you’re referring to the murders and not the proven sexual abuse to children. If you think the sexual abuse was a lie you are just as bad as walker – sweeping anything damaging under the carpet.
Child abuse has gone on in jersey for years with victims being too scared to speak up about it to the police
Victims rarely go to the police as the ones that do get treated like lying attention seeking children and rarely do the cases even get to court
“the whole thing is just a lie” – I wish it was but i doubt it with this island’s record for keeping dirty secrets…
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FUBAR
Your evidence is?
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Anyone who doesn’t believe that Jeremy Paxman misled the audience cannot have been watching the programme. Walker said to syvret, “You are trying to shaft Jersey internationally.” Paxman claimed that Walker had said that “We’re trying to promote the international image of Jersey.” Frank Walker quite rightly denied that he had said any such thing, yet Paxman claimed that everybody had heard him say it in the radio studio. Frank Walker did not say what Jeremy Paxman accused him of, and this apology from the BBC is long overdue.
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Darren is quite right, the BBC has admitted it misquoted FW – several times – and left out of the interview anything that showed him in a positive light to dishonestly slew the story. Thos who sneered at the time, and those on this forum, should feel ashamed.
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Mr Walker was not portrayed in any light other than which he deserved. It is available for all to see and hear what he said.
Incidentally, you have failed in your report to name the person who made the complaint, some-one not far removed from our ex CM!
Why?
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Name the ‘member of the public’
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I agree that Jeremy Paxman misquoted Walker’s words, putting in words about Jersey’s international reputation, which while not accurately reflecting the appalling rude and unstatesmanlike language of Walker himself, surely conveyed the gist of his strongly expressed feeling, while not descending to the same level of gutter slang.On reading this article it looks as if Mr Walker never uttered the phrase “”You’re trying to shaft Jersey, internationally”, but of course he did.
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Mr Paxman is a formidable interrogator who is able to unnerve and tie even seasoned UK politicians in knots. To let him loose on Mr Walker was akin to lions and Christians and he did indeed look like a rabbit caught in headlights. As a professional “griller” he will pick on the slightest worded mistake or faux pas and go for the throat. This is his nature as an interviewer and of course it makes for good ratings.
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“You’re trying to shaft Jersey, internationally”, say no more. Name the complainant. What is there to hide? They felt strong enough to complain.
Dont ever forget that children were abused.
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Read the report!
It was far from ‘damning’.
The BBC only gave a partial apology.
Paxman will not give an on air apology.
Your article is way overstated.
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I don’t know Frank Walker and I’ve not been long here long enough to form an opinion of the man but I do have experience of just how TV can make absolutely anything look the way they want it to look.
The most basic example I can give of how my words have been edited comes from one of those reports where presenters stop members of the public to get a public opinion answer to a question… I’ve had that done to me and the question I answered was not the one that my ‘vox-pop’ clip was then put against! In fact the two questions were complete opposites so my opinion (disagreeing with the first question) was edited in as an agreement for what they had actually wanted to ask! I can only presume they couldn’t get anyone to agree with them so had to manufacture it.
Regardless of what your views of Mr Walker are from your own experience of him don’t allow them to change on the basis of TV evidence. Once it’s been edited it is the least credible form of ‘evidence’ there is. In the list of priorities for TV companies number of viewers is at the top with truth right down the bottom somewhere. Trust your own instinct of the man over the TV!
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Full Report can be found at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/appeals/esc_bulletins/2008/december.pdf
Key extracts relate to recording
The unedited exchange:
Senator Syvret:
“Frank, we’re talking about dead children.”
Senator Walker:
“Yes Stuart exactly so you shouldn’t be politicising it. You should be throwing your support behind the police and behind every effort to find out…”
Senator Syvret:
“I have. I’ve made every effort…”
Senator Walker:
“No, you’re trying to shaft Jersey internationally.”
The edited exchange:
Senator Syvret:
“Frank, we’re talking about dead children.”
Senator Walker:
“Yes Stuart exactly so you shouldn’t be politicising it… You’re trying to shaft Jersey internationally.”
Therefore the key phrase
“You should be throwing your support behind the police and behind every effort to find out….” was edited out by the BBC
Extract from report “The Committee therefore considered that the programme had, by editing the conversation, distorted the known facts and misled the audience as to what Senator Walker had said.”
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I have read the report and it appears that JP’s ‘mistake’ was to fail to allow Walker to respond properly to the misquote, thus leaving the viewer with the impression that Walker was callous and only cared about the island’s reputation.
I disagree with the decision because Walker was given the opportunity to respond, albeit limited, but, instead of explaining that he had been misquoted and telling the audience what he had really said and explaining what he meant, he fudged the issue and lied.
I say he lied because the relevant exchange was:-
JP – “You said, ‘We’re trying to promote the international image of Jersey’.”
FW – “Mr Paxman, you have not heard me say anything remotely approaching that.”
In my view, what Walker said was similar to the misquote in substance and meaning. Just not exactly the same words. It cannot realistically be said that it wasn’t “anything remotely approaching that”
This denial is repeated again in the next exchange.
JP – “Mr Walker, I’ll just remind you, you obviously didn’t hear the piece, ‘We’re trying to show off Jersey internationally’ was what you said”. (even closer to the actual Walker words than the last misquote)
FW – “I said no such thing today whatsoever. What I said was we’re giving every support…”
Again, rather than correcting the misquote (which would arguably have not done him any favours) and explaining what he meant, he explicitly denied saying ‘any such thing’ and simply tried to repeat the less damaging part of his statement.
I think he had his chance and blew it by not being upfront.
He is hardly vindicated.
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I think it is fair to point out that throughout his time in office Mr Walker was portrayed as a world class politician hobnobbing with Tony Blair etc at various meetings and it turned out that faced with Paxman he just was not up to scratch.
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I never actually watched the interview in question but having seen Jeremy Paxton in action when he interviewed Tony Blair I can quite imagine that he twisted the words of Frank Walker and Stuart Syvret to suit his needs.
He is the most stubborn, ignorant and rude interviewer that I have ever had the displeasure to watch and I for one cringed throughout the Tony Blair interview.
If this is the kind of treatment that viewers actually want current affairs interview program guests to go through then there is really no hope for the future of Britain.
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I am a critic of Frank Walker for numerous reasons but I will always admit if I have made an error of judgement or got something wrong.However my opinion of his behaviour throughout this episode was that he simply couldn’t handle the pressure or the press.He may be an expert speaker when it comes to finance and promoting the finance sector but I felt embarassed for him and the island on several occasions when I heard/saw him interviewed over HDLG.Like numerous others I just wish the mud slinging would all stop and the truth,the whole truth,would be revealed and prosecutions made against the abusers who have escaped justice for too long.
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One can hardly expect an organisation such as the mainland BBC – riddled from top to bottom with Liberals and Marxists as it is – to report accurately and fairly on the island’s affairs, so one must congratulate the complainant for having the tenacity to extract an apology over this matter.
(I hasten to add that having watched the exchange again, I must say that Mr Walker was at his most eloquent, and represented both himself and the island splendidly. Certainly, I do not believe that he came off ‘second best’in any respect).
However, instead of an apology, perhaps a more appropriate would be for BBC Jersey to implement a broadcasting ban on Senator Syvret, similar to that enacted by Mrs Thatcher on Gerry Adams and his Sinn Fein/IRA cohorts in the 1980s, thus eliminating the opportunity for a repeat of this fiasco.
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proud jerseyman your initials wouldnt be FW by sny chance would they ???
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I don’t think it was Mr Walker’s words that embarrassed many local people, it was his attitude. He came over like a spoilt, bad tempered child and we wondered why we had someone like that on international tv representing the Island. Whether the BBC apologises or not makes absolutely no difference to me and I’m sure a lot of local people aren’t the slightest bit bothered either.
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No Nellie, I’m sure you’re not bothered. We had Syvret’s political grandstanding, exaggerating anything he could for his wider anti-establishment agenda. As the Chief Minister, Frank Walker defended the Island and Islanders against the demonisation that was going on. For that, you ridicule him. Could you or any of the new States members have done better? I think not.
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They had to have actors reading the IRA’s words on television – helped the acting profession no-end.
I’d like Senator Syvret’s words to be read by that great Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins, preferably in his Hannibal Lecter persona.
I can think of a whole raft of spin-offs: Rupert Everett reading the words of Frank Walker, and Frank Spencer reading the words of Jim Perchard – “Oooh, Betty – they’re bullying me on the Internet again.”
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I am with Nellie on this one. Normandy Norman obviously thinks that Frank Walker handled it well but I would like to point out that as an Islander, I did not feel I needed defending or that Jersey needed defending. Like items in the national media every day, things are blown up and then forgotten within minutes by people reading them/seeing them who aren’t personally involved. Frank Walker did appear to me like a spoilt kid who would burst in to tears at any moment because everyone was picking on Jersey, which they weren’t. They were simply grabbing at a “news story” which would be replaced by a different one soon afterwards.
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Whether Frank got his apology or not, he is unlikely to become popular all of a sudden. Having watched the interview first hand it was somewhat amusing to see the school bully picked on by an even bigger school bully, metaphoricly speaking.
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What would people have made of it if Tony Blair at the time had said something like that off air? What would the UK electorate have thought? Do you think the UK tabloids would have failed to mention these types of comments?
I think the whole saga was cringeworthy including the debacle at St.Martin’s parish hall! Mr.Walker as far as I was concerned looked out of his depth and was made to look very bad. Do people think he made Jersey appear better or worse with his off air comments and handling of the situation?
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i very little doubt that we will ever find the truth.
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I am glad that Frank Walker has been vindicated. I only wish we could have him back. He was miss-quoted, lied about and witch hunted by so called “change groups” and it was all a storm in a tea-cup in the end. Who is next in their horrible target list I wonder?
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Interesting how Jersey officials insisted on keeping control of the investigation. Interesting how they claim to have dismissed the evidence without elaborating more as to what their supposed true use was?
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