Spare a thought

Before we all get stuck into Leveson, and the inevitable Leveson Lite solution, let's spare a thought for others caught up in a pre-judged process.

On November 12, the BBC made public the barest elements of the investigation by Ken MacQuarrie into what went wrong at Newsnight in the report that led to a legal settlement with Lord MacAlpine. Since then, disciplinary proceedings have been going on, with both the Chairman and Acting DG repeating that "shoddy journalism" was to blame. So, in their eyes, somebody is "guilty", and an expectation has been created. (This excludes my favourite theory - a sort of collective "looking the wrong way", with everyone involved assuming without re-checking, that the core of the story was a given - and that a story without a named culprit was "safe".)

So, in the headlights of everything else that is going on, there's a presumption that one or a number of those  involved is "guilty" and then comes the second problem for those acting on behalf of Tim Davie. An appropriate sentence. There's very little precedent for this, and I feel very sorry for all those, judged and judging, caught in this terrible mess.