The process by which Martin Bashir emerged as BBC Religious Affairs Correspondent in September 2016 is pretty convoluted, as tracked by Ken MacQuarrie - but quite simple, if you untangle it. The timeline starts on 14 June 2016, when it was announced that Religious Affairs Correspondent Caroline Wyatt was stepping down with immediate effect due to ill health; it was announced internally that the BBC would be advertising for a replacement. One week later, Head of Newsgathering Jonathan Munro met Martin Bashir for coffee.
In July of that year, there were seven internal candidates for the vacancy; an eighth, the mysterious candidate X, was invited to apply - we're not told by whom. Three were shortlisted for interview, but Home Editor Richard Burgess didn't fancy any of them, because he started a process to attach a higher salary to the job. Spookily, he was proved right: an interview panel led by Richard Burgess decided that none of the three internal candidates was suitable, though Candidate X 'received the highest score'.
On 8th August, Director of News James Harding and Richard Burgess met Martin Bashir for coffee to discuss the role. On 26th August, the Director of News James Harding announced he wanted to interview Martin Bashir and Candidate X. Jonathan Munro said to Richard Burgess that Candidate X should be told that they “shouldn’t expect to get it, but it’s a good chance to get some time with [James Harding]”.
This all happened, spookily, before the job was announced as open to external candidates on 30 August 2016. Richard Burgess led the shortlisting of 18 applications, and, spookily, came out with a shortlist of Martin Bashir and Candidate....Z. MacQuarrie notes that Burgess upped Bashir's scoring by Liz Shaw, UK Affairs Editor, but opines that Bashir would still have made it to the final two without the adjustment.
Then, it seems, Candidate Z withdrew after a chat with Caroline Wyatt, who was stepping down from the role. So Candidate X stepped forward again, for an online interview with James Harding, Jonathan Munro, Head of Newsgathering, and Joanna Carr, Head of Current Affairs. They decided Bashir was best, and the announcement was made on 26th September.
Spookily, Mr MacQuarrie records "We have not been able to locate the interview notes for the two interviews."
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