Sunday 19 September 2010

BBC sanitises FTAC report

I was contacted Chris Summers of the BBC asking questions about my experiences with the FTAC. I was reluctant to help him because the BBC has repeatedly been told of the abuses that the FTAC get up to and have failed to investigate. He said, and I have no reason to disbelieve him, that the press conference by the police on the Pope’s security was the first time he had heard of the FTAC.

In due course, Mr Summers produced his piece and published it on the BBC website. Although I had not directly assisted him he had used a couple of phases lifted from the blog. He also cited the case of Maurice Kirk.

However, the piece has been truncated and all the references to Mr Kirk and my site quotes have been removed. The report in question as it currently stands at the BBC is to be found here.

Fortunately, the internet is a wonderful thing that never sleeps and never blinks. The history of the piece by Mr Summers can be seen at News Sniffer.

What possible reason would there be to remove one whole side of a reasonably balanced report?

I have e-mailed Mr Chris Summers (chris.summers@bbc.co.uk) to ask him if he got into trouble for his report.

Updates

Mr Summers replies, "Those paragraphs were removed by one of my superiors."

I enquire further with, "Doesn't it strike you as ..... well ..... proving the point of my objection to their existence?"

His response was, "No comment ;-)"