Don't judge the standards of journalism on shoddy BBC reporting

WATCHING the BBC Remembrance Day ceremony from the Cenotaph today demonstrated the Beeb at its very best.

There was David Dimbleby's narrative with every word precise, and tightly-scripted, his statesmanlike commentary littered with intricate detail which captured the sombre mood.

There were the moving links of the last letter written to his family of a serviceman who was killed in Afghanistan, and the heart-rending interview with the family of Private Thomas Wroe, who also died in Afghanistan, this time eight weeks ago aged just 18.

The broadcasts was mixed with such delicate camera work woven with the stirring music from the military bands. How could you not be moved by such broadcasting which the BBC rises to on such state occasions?

The irony was the tme of the broadcast, the morning after the night before when the BBC's director general, George Entwistle, resigned after the "Newsnight" programme wrongly led former Conservative party treasurer, Lord McAlpine, to being wrongly accused as a child abuser. Although Lord McAlpine was not named on Newsnight, he was identified on the internet as the subject of the allegations, which he has since described as "wholly false and seriously defamatory".

Here was shoddy journalism, made more alarming that the accuser was forced to recant his statement having not been shown a picture of Lord McAlpine, and the fact that no-one actually contacted the Tory peer to corroborate the claims. It is just simple, basic journalism and it defies belief how content with this degree of danger was aired on the BBC without the very basic checks. How could it possibly happen?

All this, of course comes on the back of the Jimmy Saville abuse investigation and how the former BBC presenter, who died last year aged 84, may have abused as many as 300 people over a 40-year period. Not forgetting Newsnight's role is binning an investigation into Saville's unsavoury past, as well as the Beeb's own role in turning a blind eye to what was going on with the flamboyant presenter.

With the Leveson inquiry due to report its findings later this month into press standards and notably the principle of statutory legislation., these are troubling times for the media.

The Lord McAlpine story was downright shoddy journalism of the highest order which has no place in any news organisation, let alone the BBC. I'm dumbfounded how no balances or checks were made about a story which was gold-plated litigious.

As for the Saville inquiry, this leaves such a bitter taste to my mind.

These are allegations which absolutely need investigating, especially the culture of cowardly ignorance which pervaded some organisations. There are victims who were abused, victims who need answers and victims who need protecting. Yet, I don't feel completely comfortable with raking over the coals of something so historic where the man himself is dead and cannot defend himself. It is possible too that that some opportunists are crawling out of the woodwork seeing the chance to cash in.

Journalism stands in the dock at its lowest point, but that should not disguise how there is a lot of good journalists operating in the UK, who report with integrity and decency. They live in the communities they serve where the slightest mistake is pounced upon by the community, by its readers and listeners.

There have been so many wake-up calls for the industry in the past year or so since the phone hacking scandal. This awful BBC mess does not help journalism's reputation, but it should be used as a stick to beat the industry with for there remains thousands of decent journalists in newsrooms across the country who are equally horrified by what is happening in Wapping and Broadcasting House.