"Plane crash"

Lord Birt patiently explained to the Culture Select Committee why they didn't really grasp the Bashir story properly - and then got a similar hail of googlies, beamers and bouncers. 

He told the MPs he didn't directly remember much of what happened in 1995 and 1996, but had read all the papers. He did, however, remember the behaviour of Martin Bashir as a reporter and presenter for others in the USA, and said he didn't like the smell of Bashir's documentary about Michael Jackson. It seems he took more of a continuing interest in the wider world of journalism than, say, James Harding and Jonathan Munro.

He noted "It's a tremendous irony that Bashir started his BBC career on Songs of Praise and finished as the BBC Religion Editor, and in between perpetrates one of the biggest crimes in broadcasting history". 

He also took the time to remind the Committee that he'd been brought into to rescue the BBC.