Sunday 24th January


My letter to the BBC

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Dear Sir/Madam

This is a stage 1b complaint sent in response to my original complaint, case number CAS-3652170-5BN96F. I am unsatisfied with your response and wish to reiterate my original points.

Leaving aside the rudeness of replying to a specific complaint with a reply to someone else's complaint, the reply I did receive did not address the point at issue, namely, that 'The staff of the Daily Politics show, including Laura Kuenssberg, colluded with Steven Doughty such that he (Doughty) would resign on air, minutes before PMQs '. It is not whether Mr Doughty was going to resign that is at issue, rather it is the fact that, as stated above, the BBC engineered a situation where he would resign on air, minutes before PMQ's. To be clear, his wanting to resign is not in dispute, it is the fact that, as is described with clarity in the deleted blog post mentioned in Mr Gibbs response to Seamus Milne, the BBC persuaded Mr Doughty to resign on air, something which he clearly would not have done without some persuasion.

'Within the hour we heard that Laura had sealed the deal: the shadow foreign minister Stephen Doughty would resign live in the studio'

No one would have known about the 'sealing of the deal' if it had not been for the deleted blog post, which clearly describes the process by which Mr Doughty was persuaded to resign on air. If the process by which this came about is so innocent, why did Andrew Neil not preface the interview with a statement such as 'we spoke to Mr Doughty earlier today and he agreed to resign on air'? This is not reporting the news, or even breaking a story, this is creating news, news which the BBC employees involved must have known would have negative effects, as indeed it did, on Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party; this is a breach of the BBC's duty to 'impartiality and independence'.

Mr Gibb may not want anyone to draw 'inference' from the deletion of the blog post, however this is wishful thinking on his part. The blog clearly states that Laura Kuenssberg acted to persuade Mr Doughty to resign on air and that this was done to create 'a dramatic moment with big political impact '. David Cameron then used the BBC's engineered story to attack Jeremy Corbyn, a moment apparently watched with satisfaction by the BBC employees involved.

Please issue an apology to your viewers and the The Labour Party for this unacceptable breach of standards and require Mr Gibb to release a statement that this oversight will not happen again.

Your sincerely

David O'Brien

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https://tompride.wordpress.com/2016/01/07/bbc-producer-deletes-blog-where-he-admits-political-manipulation-before-pm-questions/