The Fake News Factory: Tales from BBC-land by Sedgwick David

Author:Sedgwick, David
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-01-31T00:00:00+00:00

8

Congratulations & Jubilations:

Scooping Sir Cliff

An organization’s culture can influence how ethical decisions are made, and the pressure to adapt ones behaviour to organizational culture may lead to unethical behaviour . . . when unethical behaviours are reinforced by the culture, members tend to exhibit more unethical behaviour.[398]

— Journal of Business Ethics

As 9.30 am approached on the 14 August 2014, BBC activists were beside themselves with excitement. Since daybreak a BBC team had been in situ outside the Berkshire home of Sir Cliff Richard where, cameras poised, they watched and waited. Hoping to doorstep the singer though unsure of his precise location that morning, the broadcaster was not only waiting outside his UK abode but had also despatched personnel to Sir Cliff's homes in Portugal and Barbados too. Nothing was being left to chance. The sting was on.

Charges of historic sexual abuse having been brought against the singer, the broadcaster's ears had immediately pricked up. It desperately wanted a piece of the action. And who could blame it? To date, a worrying proportion of historic sexual abuse cases - those involving the likes of Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris and Stuart Hall had one thing in common: their connections to the BBC. Rumours suggested an organisational culture that had always been peculiarly conducive to certain types of 'behaviour.'

Over compensation is the psychological phenomenon whereby guilty actors wish to atone for past misdemeanours usually by excessive or disproportionate reactions. Was the broadcaster's involvement in this case some form of mea culpa perhaps? It began to look that way. Going after Sir Cliff had certainly required determination and as we shall see, an extraordinary amount of persistence - what veteran broadcaster Sir Michael Parkinson would later term a 'witch-hunt.' The broadcaster wanted nothing less than the singer's head. Villain outed, Auntie would naturally receive plenty of plaudits for her fearless pursuit of sexual predators. Who could but doubt her sanctity?

An old, rich, white, Christian male, Sir Cliff Richard fitted the BBC bill for persecution perfectly. It was full speed ahead.

A few minutes after 9.30 am a fleet of 5 police cars duly arrived to execute a warrant to search the singer's property. Circling above the gated community in well-to-do Sunningdale, a BBC-commissioned helicopter filmed the police entry and subsequent search. The broadcaster had clearly been anticipating the raid. Long haul flights to Barbados and hire of helicopters were evidence of planning as well as determination; no expense had been spared by the ever profligate tax-payer funded broadcaster.

Just how then had the corporation managed to book a ringside seat at this confidential and highly sensitive police operation? It would take a High Court hearing to establish precisely how and why the fake news specialists came to be hanging around outside the gated property that summer morning.

For now, the broadcaster had what it wanted: exclusive footage of a police raid on the home of Sir Cliff Richard together with implications of historic sex abuse. Within a couple of hours the whole world would know all about the morning's events which had occurred in this quiet; leafy part of the Berkshire countryside.

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