Auntie Beeb’s deceit

Monday 24th May, 2021

An independent investigation into BBC’s bombshell interview with the late Princes Diana, in 1995, has shed light on the dark side of the media world. BBC has come under heavy fire for using deceitful tactics to persuade Diana to go public with a host of issues concerning the royals in general and her personal life in particular. Martin Bashir, who became a hero overnight by conducting that career-defining interview, has become a villain. BBC, which has incurred the wrath of the royal family and others alike, has tendered an apology.

All the hullabaloo over Auntie Beeb’s deceit is proof that the western media gods have feet of clay.

It is being argued in some quarters that Bashir’s interview led to the divorce of Diana and Charles and ruined the lives of their children, Harry and William. There may be some truth in this assertion in that the Queen reportedly wrote to Charles, asking him to divorce Diana, immediately after the telecast of the interview. Harry and William have also lashed out at Bashir. There, however, are others who opine that Diana would have spoken to BBC anyway, as she was at the end of her tether, and Bashir should not be blamed for the breakup of the royal marriage.

In an interview with The Sunday Times (UK), yesterday, Bashir claimed, “Everything we [Diana and BBC] did in terms of the interview was as she wanted, from when she wanted to alert the palace, to when it was broadcast, to its contents.” Whether he is telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, one may not know, but the fact remains that Diana wanted to hurt the royals, and most of the things she came out with in the Panorama interview, were already known to the British public; she had an affair; she felt worthless owing to Charles’s affair with Camilla; she was suffering from bulimia and disposed to self-harm, and she was at the receiving end of a hostile campaign by a section of the royal staff. Prince Harry’s wife, Meghan, also said in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, a few moons ago, that she had been fed up with life at the palace so much so that had even contemplated suicide while she was pregnant.

Bashir has been accused of forging some documents to gain access to Diana and make her open up. Such tactics have no place in ethical journalism and, most of all, forgery is a criminal offence. Among those scandalised beyond measure by the deplorable manner in which BBC secured the interview at issue is British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has censured BBC publicly, admonishing it to ensure that no such thing will happen ever again. “I can only imagine the feelings of the Royal Family,” he has said. One cannot but agree with him on this score. He, however, needs to be told that it is not only the royals who have feelings; others also do.

Can’t PM Johnson imagine the feelings of the families of the Iraqi civilians killed in an illegal war waged on the basis of forged documents? It has now been established that President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair had intelligence dossiers falsified to provide themselves with a casus belli to wage their war for oil, which as well as economic sanctions imposed subsequently left hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead including more than half a million children. Curiously, Blair’s involvement in forging documents and killing civilians in Iraq has not scandalised Johnson, at all! The same goes for all those who are hauling BBC over the coals for deceit, etc., as regards the Panorama interview, but have chosen to ignore far worse methods the US and British leaders have used to commit heinous crimes with impunity, in other countries.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry told Winfrey in March that he and his wife had stepped back from life as working royals last year because that role was destroying his mental health. He said he had been willing to drink, take drugs and ‘do the things that made him feel less like he was feeling’. “I would probably drink a week’s worth in one day ….” Given that it was so hard for Diana, Harry and Meghan to be members of the royal family, one can guess how excruciating life must have been for the people who were kept under the British monarchy, in countries like Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). Harry took to heavy drinking, unable to put up with the royal family for more than 36 years, but the people in this part of the world had to endure the British monarchy for well over a century! The ill-effects of British imperialism are still felt in former colonies, and one wonders whether this is one of the reasons why many a Sri Lankan does a Harry when bending his elbow, and chugalugs a week’s worth of firewater in a single day.