Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Martin Bashir???

213 replies

CuriousaboutSamphire · 10/11/2020 12:48

What the hell?!?!?!?!

OP posts:
ancientgran · 10/11/2020 16:22

I'm not very interested in the RF in general, don't wish them ill but not interested.

True enough, but isn't there a bit of a difference between one (probably misguided) woman and a supposed public service provider encouraging and rewarding deceit? I don't know what the BBC knew before the interview, isn't it all supposed to be down to Bashir? The thing is if you spend years manipulating the press and public the way she did I don't think we should view her as some innocent victim. In fact I think it is a bit insulting to her. She was a smart operator and to make her out as some naive victim doesn't seem right.

GroundAlmonds · 10/11/2020 16:45

The thing is if you spend years manipulating the press and public the way she did I don't think we should view her as some innocent victim. In fact I think it is a bit insulting to her. She was a smart operator and to make her out as some naive victim doesn't seem right.

So it would be okay to defraud you because you are skilled at X or have Y personality trait, would it? Confused

ancientgran · 10/11/2020 16:58

Was she defrauded? Did she say anything she hadn't said before? Did she lie when she said she hadn't seen the statements?

So it would be okay to defraud you because you are skilled at X or have Y personality trait, would it? That is twisting what I said, look at it like this I am a poker player, I'm skilled and I win alot but one day I meet someone who is a more skilled poker player than I am and I lose. Should I be pitied, poor little Ancient, someone beat her at poker and took her money or should they shrug their shoulders and say I played poker, I knew the rules and this time I met my match.

She was skilled at what she did.

MrsTwitcher · 10/11/2020 17:02

Someone at the bbc must have read and approved his interview and asked what evidence he had. Someone authorised paying the graphic designer. MB didnt act alone in this despicable and rather desperate affair.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 10/11/2020 17:02

She was a smart operator and to make her out as some naive victim doesn't seem right

I agree completely, but that really doesn't excuse the BBC's alleged behaviour in this - two wrongs don't make a right and all that

Not being involved in any investigation I obviously can't know if it's "all supposed to be down to Bashir", but I'm pretty confident the Beeb will claim it is, if it gets them off the hook

As I said, thoroughly dirty behaviour all round ...

mateysmum · 10/11/2020 17:05

Although it happened so long ago, these events are important for several reasons.
Firstly this reflects terribly on the reputation of Bashir, Panorama and the BBC. The Savile scandal was bad enough, but this could strike at the core of the BBC's reputation for honest journalism at a time when the TV licence and the Beeb's whole future is under debate.
Secondly, although Diana was an active participant in the manipulation of stories about herself and the Royal family, arguably it was the interview that set in train the events which resulted in her death.
Not only did it convince Diana that her fears were more than justified, the lies meant she did not confide in those who could have helped her, for fear they were in on "the plot".
As a result of the interview, the Queen instructed Charles & Di to divorce and prompted Diana to get rid of her official security - and we all know where that ultimately led.
Rosa Monkton,a very close friend of Diana has written movingly today (can't remember which paper)about how Diana's mood changed after the Bashir meetings.
I'm no fan of the whole Diana circus, let the poor woman rest in peace, but if true, the BBC has behaved disgracefully and may well indirectly have altered the course of history.

Plantingbulbs · 10/11/2020 17:11

@mateysmum

Although it happened so long ago, these events are important for several reasons. Firstly this reflects terribly on the reputation of Bashir, Panorama and the BBC. The Savile scandal was bad enough, but this could strike at the core of the BBC's reputation for honest journalism at a time when the TV licence and the Beeb's whole future is under debate. Secondly, although Diana was an active participant in the manipulation of stories about herself and the Royal family, arguably it was the interview that set in train the events which resulted in her death. Not only did it convince Diana that her fears were more than justified, the lies meant she did not confide in those who could have helped her, for fear they were in on "the plot". As a result of the interview, the Queen instructed Charles & Di to divorce and prompted Diana to get rid of her official security - and we all know where that ultimately led. Rosa Monkton,a very close friend of Diana has written movingly today (can't remember which paper)about how Diana's mood changed after the Bashir meetings. I'm no fan of the whole Diana circus, let the poor woman rest in peace, but if true, the BBC has behaved disgracefully and may well indirectly have altered the course of history.
This is why it’s important and relevant and you summarised that very nicely.
PinkiOcelot · 10/11/2020 17:17

@Redcrayons ahhh I see. Thank you x

toconclude · 10/11/2020 17:33

@PleasantVille

There was quite a long documentary about it on last week. For those of us around the same age as Diana who lived every minute of those years with her it's interesting new information that caused her to make some (with hindsight) horrible decisions. For the young probably not so much.
I'm pretty much exactly the same age as Diana would have been and couldn't be less interested...
Silverstripe · 10/11/2020 17:40

That is a shockingly poorly written article - a total jumble with no context.

RubyViolet · 10/11/2020 17:42

I feel we are being PR’d in this thread, l mean the new series of The Crown is starting soon, the one that is centred on Charles and Diana.. Netflix subscribers dropped ... do we have a PR company presence on this thread.....is all the Diana noise a PR strategy ?

GroundAlmonds · 10/11/2020 17:43

@ancientgran

Was she defrauded? Did she say anything she hadn't said before? Did she lie when she said she hadn't seen the statements?

So it would be okay to defraud you because you are skilled at X or have Y personality trait, would it? That is twisting what I said, look at it like this I am a poker player, I'm skilled and I win alot but one day I meet someone who is a more skilled poker player than I am and I lose. Should I be pitied, poor little Ancient, someone beat her at poker and took her money or should they shrug their shoulders and say I played poker, I knew the rules and this time I met my match.

She was skilled at what she did.

Maybe but the game he was playing was a completely different game to the one she was playing.

I think she had been maintaining a tenuous position of implausible deniability in respect of the Morton book. So, in fact, going on national television to unambiguously admit adultery, denigrate Charles’ suitability for the throne, describe bulimia and self harm and so, was considered a step too far. The Queen thought so. That’s why she instructed them to divorce after the broadcast.

FirstOfficerDouglas · 10/11/2020 17:47

It wasn't just Diana though. People lost jobs, had their reputations damaged, friendships were broken because of the lies.

If my boss lied about me twenty years ago and I never got a contract with the biggest supplier in my field again - I wd be fucking furious - and NO I would not let it go.

And the gaslighting was brutal. Of course you would believe it. If someone showed you "evidence" that your best friends were lying about you and your DP was cheating - evidence in the form of bank statements for example - how would you feel?

And if your mother was hounded, lied to, isolated from her friends and then made decisions that led to her giving an interview that she later regretted and which embarrassed you and maybe led to her abandonning her security and making rash decisions that contributed to her death - would YOU say "Oh but it was ages ok - let's leave it be."?

I would want the bastards exposed and punished.
Absolutely it should be called to account and names cleared.

megletthesecond · 10/11/2020 17:49

It's despicable how they tricked her into the interview. She was a lamb to the slaughter.

Kit19 · 10/11/2020 17:55

@user1471565182

Whys all this stuff about Diana popping up all of a sudden?
I expect because series 4 of The crown which covers the 80s ie the Diana years airs from Sunday

The critics are all raving about Emma corrin’s Princess Diana & just like when she was alive, any and all things Diana related are news because they generate hits/sell papers & magazines

MrsTwitcher · 10/11/2020 18:41

Maybe its because it's 25 years since the interview ITV have made the documentary and the graphic designer wants an apology.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 10/11/2020 18:45

A new investigation, 2-part documentary and a man setting himself up for possible legal action and you think it's for a telly series?

I covered Post Modernism in my degree. If anyone has a child doing the same tell them they could easily use this as an essay topic!

OP posts:
MoonJelly · 11/11/2020 01:20

And the gaslighting was brutal. Of course you would believe it. If someone showed you "evidence" that your best friends were lying about you and your DP was cheating - evidence in the form of bank statements for example - how would you feel?

But she said she didn't see it and it had nothing to do with her decision to give the interview.

Anordinarymum · 11/11/2020 03:11

I watched both programmes with interest. Some of it went completely over my head regarding the falsified documents, and also how Martin Bashir managed to get the gig in the first place? A lot of grey areas. Was her brother involved ?

What struck me afterwards was after this interview the writing was on the wall for her and nothing to do with Dodi Fayed.

lljkk · 11/11/2020 03:48

People always using Diana's lifestory & image for their own agenda. This thread is mostly about BBC bashing. Disturbing that anyone takes all agency away from a 30-something year old woman, too.

Mummyoflittledragon · 11/11/2020 04:09

Diana’s brother was one of the few people she could trust after she was sold a pack of lies. In her paranoid state, she believed she was conspired against and in tangible danger. It doesn’t matter if she saw the falsified documents or not. Her brother did and Diana trusted his judgment.

As a person of trust person, he persuaded her to agree to the interview. Persuaded by a dirty, lying journalist, Charles Spencer has to forever live in the knowledge that as a result of his intervention in his sister’s life she cut herself off from almost anything and everyone, who could keep her safe.

I struggle to understand how anyone can say she played the press and then she was played. She wasn’t even playing the same game. Hers was one of cat and mouse. Wooing the press. Then rejecting it. Naive child’s play in comparison to Bashir ‘s sinister game.

I was disgusted by Diana at the time of the interview. When she died, I felt sorry for her and her boys. I was still a young woman at the time. As I have aged, I have married and became a mother. I see how flawed and unhappy she was - and Charles.

Personally I don’t care how ill Bashir is. And he clearly isn’t that ill if he can buy wine and takeaways. It is time for the press to hound him. Time for him to answer those pertinent questions he so loved to ask himself.

Gremlinsateit · 11/11/2020 04:21

Completely agree mateysmum and mummyoflittledragon. That interview had enormous repercussions. If she was tricked into doing it, that means Bashir and the BBC caused the situation in which she gave up her HRH title and consequently her security; she would most likely be alive today if it were not for that interview. Not a Spencer fan but imagine how he feels, not to mention her sons.

Mummyoflittledragon · 11/11/2020 04:30

Gremlins
Exactly. Also not a Spencer fan myself. I feel for him in this regard, of course. And her sons. Someone upthread said no wonder Harry is so guarded about the press (I would say at times to the point of paranoia). I understand far better now why that could be.

StartupRepair · 11/11/2020 04:33

It's a wicked piece of gaslighting.

Gremlinsateit · 11/11/2020 06:49

It gives more context to why Spencer was so full of rage at the funeral too - if he thought she’d been spied on etc.

Swipe left for the next trending thread