Martin Bashir???

[CuriousaboutSamphire]

What the hell?!?!?!?!

I was devastated for Diana whilst she was still alive, I am even more devastated for her now, and "her boys". I don't care if Martin Bashir (and anyone else knowingly involved in this fraud) is at deaths door, he/they must be brought to justice.

Jimmy Saville was already dead when the truth came out about his disgusting behaviour, no-one has thought (presumably because of the amount of evidence against him) that he shouldn't be vilified because he is not here to defend himself, or because "you shouldn't speak ill of the dead". If you have committed awful crimes, however long ago, however old or ill you may be now, you need to be held to account.
I am very glad that the OP brought this to my attention, and her first post/headline didn't confuse me, it got my interest, and lt was hardly difficult to read a few posts to understand exactly what she meant. Some people are just too precious if they get upset because everything isn't spelled out to them in one short phrase, or post.

@B13ss3dm0m but you’re not even remotely comparing what Bashir did with what Saville did are you?? Not remotely.

That would be insane

ruleofstix I think PP means the principle of the cover up is the same.

I listened to an interview with the 'forger'
He said that he was asked to make mock ups of Bank accounts that had been seen. Something he had done before for panorama. He didn't knowingly commit forgery
As more came out he started to realise then lost work and was scapegoated. It has really impacted his life
MB and the BBC need to answer for this. I didn't even like Diana but it is horrible how they treated a vulnerable woman

She was quite the drama queen and the overdone make up and looking coyly up at the cameras

Oh well she is dead now so what purpose does this serve. She was an adult that chose to dish the dirt. Neither came out of the marriage smelling of roses. At least her string of men kept a lid on the affairs which is something - she chose some decent men although I think at least one was married to have flings with.

didn't Diana herself say she never saw the bank statements, they didn't influence her, and she was able to make up her own mind about doing the interview? Certainly before, during and after she made it pretty clear that she was glad to get the chance to give what she perceived to be her side of the story. @MoonJelly I heard via radio news that Lady Diana had ‘sent’ a letter stating the above. A letter that is now ‘lost’.

@MoonJelly

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.

There was apparently a letter in which she said the bank statements didn't influence her decision - although strangely enough the letter has gone missing.

She didn't say that the other 14/15 lies that Bashir told her didn't influence her decision. Things like William being given a watch which spied on her/Charles having an affair with Tiggy/HM having a serious heart condition.

After the meeting between Charles Spencer, Diana and Bashir, Spencer realised that he should be avoided, and apologised to Diana for wasting her time. The on-going contact between Bashir and Diana was without her brother's knowledge, as was the interview.

In the long run it isn't about her.

If this is all true then the Panorama team, Bashir, the BBC have overstepped their remit, skirted / broken laws. They committed the gravest of journalistic sins, they didn't report the news they made it

I fully understand that in these days of instant news, internet, social media, post truth there is less credence given to the media as a whole but, considering all the current blustering and lies in America, maybe it's a good time for the reinstatement of some good, old fashioned journalism.

But we are seeing decades of corruption, root and branch, so maybe not!

At least her string of men kept a lid on the affairs which is something - she chose some decent men although I think at least one was married to have flings with

Her conduct was quite creepy. The wife of one of the men she targeted said she used to turn up uninvited and just sit there saying nothing till the wife left the room, whereupon she would become really animated and start flirting with the husband.

@MoonJelly

At least her string of men kept a lid on the affairs which is something - she chose some decent men although I think at least one was married to have flings with

Her conduct was quite creepy. The wife of one of the men she targeted said she used to turn up uninvited and just sit there saying nothing till the wife left the room, whereupon she would become really animated and start flirting with the husband.

Really, that is creepy

This thread isn't about Diana having affairs, it's about whether Martin Bashir & the BBC abused & lied to Diana who would have believed them because of their position of power and trustworthiness. She was mentally unwell and vulnerable. That doesn't make her stupid or stop her being manipulative. But this is about Martin Bashir and the BBC.

I only heard part of the interview, but it did seem to me that someone who willingly creates forged bank statements for a reporter can't claim to be entirely blameless.

Depending on what was done.

News reports frequently have backgrounds that look like bank statements / wage slips / DWP letters.

@Mrsjayy

I was no Diana fan but she really was used and abused in her life time but the attention she craved was her downfall in this interview, I think we forget how young she was when she married Charles.

Her father "sold" her to the Royal Family to get Spencers on the throne of the United Kingdom.

Update on this - I saw the ITV documentary on this last night - interesting - on the one hand Diana seems batshit crazy and yet on the other hand there are way too many journalists etc who had their properties broken into and computer disks, documents stolen which were relevant to stories about Diana.

@GerardWay123

This thread isn't about Diana having affairs, it's about whether Martin Bashir & the BBC abused & lied to Diana who would have believed them because of their position of power and trustworthiness. She was mentally unwell and vulnerable. That doesn't make her stupid or stop her being manipulative. But this is about Martin Bashir and the BBC.

And I think the Royal Family etc contributed in a big way to making her mental illness and vulnerable state considerably worse.

Who here would like to be spied on like she was - it would turn most of us mad.

Her father "sold" her to the Royal Family to get Spencers on the throne of the United Kingdom.
Absolutely a 19 year old girl expected to do her duty !

She herself had fully bought in to the fairytale - although good parents would have sat her down and explained the reality of marriage to the heir to the throne.

The Camilla issue would have been a killer for her - maybe she genuinely did want to call the whole thing off, or maybe in her immaturity, she thought she would be able to get Charles to fall in love with her. Who knows.

She made many mistakes, but she was put in an impossible position, and presumably did whatever she needed to survive. Some of her decisions were misguided by her understandable paranoia.

Quite honestly I am unsurprised. Remember Joanne Lees, the woman whose partner was murdered in the Australian outback? I read her autobiography and she details how Bashir tried similar tactics to get her to talk - wanted the scoop as she was rightly suspicious of the media who kept twisting her words and all-but accusing her of murder. Her mother was terminally ill all the time and Bashir worked around her to get to Lees. Then, when he had her on camera on the pretext of putting her story out there and seeking help to find Peter Falconio, he hurled in her face the question of whether she - the victim of a violent crime who'd narrowly escaped being murdered herself - had killed him.

That whole debacle was just breathtakingly despicable and unethical in the extreme. Personally I can't imagine a murkier depth to which a journalist could sink (stoking a terrified woman's paranoia, perhaps). If he's really guilty of this then it doesn't matter how long ago it was, both he and the BBC need to be brought to book.

The "forger" said that he was asked to make mock ups of Bank accounts that had been seen. Something he had done before for panorama. He didn't knowingly commit forgery

Bit of a fine line though isn't it - especially with the detail which would have been demanded, rather than it being just some generic prop

Of course he's going to spin the "I didn't know" line, just as the BBC will spin Bashir's alleged illness, but it all seems just a bit too convenient to me

@Gremlinsateit

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.

That’s true. You hadn’t thought of that. Awful.

I hadn’t thought of that.

The BBC admit MB used fake bank statements that were shown to her brother, why cant he just write a statement admitting his part in this disgraceful affair. It goes a lot wider than just MB, no doubt the BBC will expect license payers money to pay their lawyers.

@MarieIVanArkleStinks

Quite honestly I am unsurprised. Remember Joanne Lees, the woman whose partner was murdered in the Australian outback? I read her autobiography and she details how Bashir tried similar tactics to get her to talk - wanted the scoop as she was rightly suspicious of the media who kept twisting her words and all-but accusing her of murder. Her mother was terminally ill all the time and Bashir worked around her to get to Lees. Then, when he had her on camera on the pretext of putting her story out there and seeking help to find Peter Falconio, he hurled in her face the question of whether she - the victim of a violent crime who'd narrowly escaped being murdered herself - had killed him.

That whole debacle was just breathtakingly despicable and unethical in the extreme. Personally I can't imagine a murkier depth to which a journalist could sink (stoking a terrified woman's paranoia, perhaps). If he's really guilty of this then it doesn't matter how long ago it was, both he and the BBC need to be brought to book.

Poor Joanne!

I know a few journalists - and I don't think they'd stoop to these depths - however - you never know. Some have few scruples when it comes to morals.

Bashir sadly - it just looks from his whole demeanour recently that he's been underhand in many ways - Diana wasn't the only person.

@ajandjjmum

She herself had fully bought in to the fairytale - although good parents would have sat her down and explained the reality of marriage to the heir to the throne.

The Camilla issue would have been a killer for her - maybe she genuinely did want to call the whole thing off, or maybe in her immaturity, she thought she would be able to get Charles to fall in love with her. Who knows.

She made many mistakes, but she was put in an impossible position, and presumably did whatever she needed to survive. Some of her decisions were misguided by her understandable paranoia.

You can tell with Diana - that she was a naive 19 or whatever her age was when she got engaged - she believed in the big white wedding happy ever fairytale. She was a naive nursery school teacher with not much life experience.

She had no idea of the consequences of marrying into The Firm or what being a HRH/Princess entailed bar what her DF who was 'selling' her told her.

You have to feel slightly sorry for her in that respect, lamb to the slaughter really.

The "forger" said that he was asked to make mock ups of Bank accounts that had been seen. Something he had done before for panorama. He didn't knowingly commit forgery

But he would have had to be given a precise bank account number, and names and accounts. I could see that being necessary for, say, a fictional detective story, but for things like Panorama they're only there as set dressing and it doesn't matter what is actually in the documents.