I think I’ll tune into the BBC News tonight to see if they play this.
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=474&id=1900372005
Humphrys' 'boring Brown' speech misguided but not biased – BBC
FERGUS SHEPPARD MEDIA CORRESPONDENT
Key points
• Radio 4 presenter in hot water over remarks about ministers
• Comments mark latest round in BBC vs Government confrontation
• John Humphries insists he was making "a good humoured, light-hearted speech."
Key quote
"Some remarks were inappropriate and ran the risk of calling into question John's own impartiality and, by extension, that of the BBC. We've made it clear to him that this must not happen again." - Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC
RADIO presenter John Humphrys was carpeted by the BBC last night for a private after-dinner speech in which he made a string of disparaging remarks about government ministers.
The famously combative presenter of Radio 4's Today programme was warned by the BBC that parts of a speech to the Communication Directors' Forum in June were "inappropriate and misguided".
But while Mr Humphrys was told not to repeat the behaviour, the reprimand stopped short of any formal action.
The BBC's ruling brings to a close a media spat which has ranged from allegations of anti-government bias at the BBC to claims of a Labour plot to smear Mr Humphrys, 62, long regarded as a scourge of Downing Street's spin machine.
Mr Humphrys faced claims of bias after a newspaper reported remarks he made about a number of Labour politicians.
The Radio 4 presenter said Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, was the most boring politician he had ever interviewed and John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, was indecipherable. The presenter was also quoted as saying that most people "detest" Peter Mandelson, the EU trade commissioner, while he had "scarcely spoken" to Tony Blair over the past four or five years. More controversially, Mr Humphrys said the now-notorious Today report that the government had "sexed up" the Iraq weapons dossier had been proven to be correct.
A video of his remarks was passed to the Times and the article appeared under the name of Tom Baldwin, a journalist known to have close ties to Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair's former communications director.
Mr Humphrys said he was misrepresented by the Times article, insisting he had made a "a good humoured, light-hearted speech" which conveyed "a great affection for politicians". He said the speech contained nothing he had not "said before in front of countless politicians" and he had only used bad language when quoting Mr Campbell.
However, the row prompted Michael Grade, the BBC chairman, to demand a transcript of the speech.
Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC, last night cleared the veteran journalist of tarnishing the Corporation's name. "I am satisfied that John did not show any party political bias or lack of impartiality, and that he did not intend to be contemptuous or dismissive about politics or politicians," he said.
"However, some remarks were inappropriate and ran the risk of calling into question John's own impartiality and, by extension, that of the BBC. We've made it clear to him that this must not happen again."
Claims that Labour sympathisers had orchestrated the row were raised yesterday after it emerged that the video of Mr Humphrys' speech had been passed to the Times by Tim Allan, a former deputy to Mr Campbell at 10 Downing Street who now runs a PR agency.
Mr Allan told The Scotsman that he welcomed the BBC's ruling that Mr Humphrys' speech had been "inappropriate" and said he had considered the broadcaster's remarks about government ministers "clearly a matter of public interest".
SHOOTING FROM THE LIP
JOHN Humphrys remarks, quoted in the Times, include:
John Prescott: "All you've got to do is say John Prescott and people laugh, it's not fair is it? I'm sure he makes a great deal of sense, but it's just that you can't understand a bloody word he says."
Gordon Brown: "I do get to interview Gordon Brown a lot, oh joy. He is quite easily the most boring political interviewee I have ever had in my whole bloody life."
Tony Blair: "We have not been the closest of friends over the last four or five years – indeed [we have] scarcely spoken to each other."
Peter Mandelson: "Now there is a man they, I think probably all, detest. I said to somebody once, 'Why do you all take an instant dislike to Mandelson?' and he said: 'It saves time.'"
On politicians in general: "There are those who do not lie at all ever and they don't get in to government. The whips won't go near you with a barge pole, well they will, but only to push you into the lake.
"The second lot are those who will lie but really don't like it. And the third lot couldn't give a bugger whether they lie or not. And there are some of those."
On Gilligan and the Iraq dossier: "The fact is that we got it right."
On the BBC's role: "If we were not prepared to take on a very, very powerful government, there would be no point in the BBC existing - that is ultimately what the BBC is for."
Alastair Campbell: "Pretty malevolent force ... who has been waging a vendetta against me for a long time."
