Martin Bashir

Martin Bashir   (journalist)
Born	Martin Henry Bashir 19 January 1963
Alma mater	King's College London

Martin Bashir (born 19 January 1963) is a British journalist and former presenter on American and British television and for the BBC's Panorama programme who came to prominence in 1995 after obtaining a BBC interview with Diana, Princess of Wales; it was later determined that he used forgery and deception to get the interview. In 2003 he presented his 2003 ITV documentary about Michael Jackson, which was also proven to be fraudulent in a rebuttal documentary hosted by Maury Povich, released by Jackson after the airing of Bashir’s documentary. Bashir also admitted on ABC News after Jackson’s untimely demise, that he had seen nothing amiss at Neverland, thus inherently admitting to lying in the documentary. Bashir also stated of Michael Jackson in the same news take that “...while his lifestyle was unorthodox, I don’t think it was criminal.”

TV journalist

Martin Bashir worked for the BBC from 1986 until 1999 on programmes including Panorama before joining ITV. From 2004 to 2016, he worked in New York, first as an anchor for ABC's Nightline and then as a political commentator for MSNBC, hosting his own programme, Martin Bashir, and a correspondent for NBC's Dateline NBC. He resigned from his position at MSNBC in December 2013 after making "ill-judged" comments about the former Governor of Alaska and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. In 2016, he returned to the BBC as religious affairs correspondent.

Independent inquiry

In 2020 the BBC's Director-General Tim Davie apologised to the brother of the princess, Earl Spencer, for Bashir's use of faked bank statements to secure his 1995 Panorama interview with the Princess of Wales, Spencer's sister. Former Justice of the Supreme Court John Dyson, Lord Dyson conducted an independent inquiry into the issue. Lord Dyson's inquiry concluded Bashir had commissioned fake statements to deceive Earl Spencer in order to gain access to Diana and in so doing had "acted inappropriately and in serious breach of the 1993 edition of the Producers’ Guidelines on straight dealing."

Resignation from the BBC

On 14 May 2021, Martin Bashir resigned as the BBC's religious affairs correspondent, citing health reasons. Two days later, the BBC announced that the broadcast of John Ware's Panorama investigation into Martin Bashir’s 1995 interview with Diana, Princess of Wales was to be delayed due to a “significant duty of care issue”. On 20 May 2021, the BBC finally broadcast "Princess Diana, Martin Bashir and the BBC":

Twenty-five years ago, Panorama reporter Martin Bashir secured his global scoop interview with Princess Diana.

Now, a new Panorama team fronted by journalist John Ware has carried out its own four-month investigation, with exclusive interviews and revelations from internal BBC documents.

This is the inside story of how Martin Bashir obtained his career-defining interview, and how the BBC responded when it discovered he had faked bank statements and shown them to Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer.

According to Ware, the small BBC appointments board that gave Bashir the role of religious affairs correspondent in 2016 did not ask questions about his dubious record at the BBC, nor at Tonight on ITV, where he had interviewed Michael Jackson, nor in America at ABC and then NBC. Criticism of his methods and attitudes had made newspaper headlines several times with each broadcaster.

Instead, Bashir’s response to a question that was asked of all candidates about the doctrine of St Paul won them over. “Asked by the then head of news and current affairs, James Harding, to explain the difference between the Pauline doctrine and the original teachings of Jesus Christ, Bashir apparently acquitted himself brilliantly. Harding, himself a theology buff, was duly impressed,” writes Ware. The BBC announcement of Bashir’s appointment that September praised his “immense knowledge” as a “student of theology”.

Specific questions were not asked, Ware believes, about the background to the Panorama interview that had increased the isolation of the Princess from the rest of the royal family. This was despite the fact that senior BBC news staff, including the serving Director-General, Lord Hall of Birkenhead, were already aware of Bashir’s deceptions.

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References

This page imported content from Wikipedia on 31 May 2021.
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