Nick Ferrari slams 'sanctimonious' BBC over Princess Diana interview

22 July 2022, 08:10 | Updated: 22 July 2022, 08:57

Nick Ferrari slams the sanctimonious BBC

EJ Ward

By EJ Ward

A furious Nick Ferrari has hit out at the BBC over their 1995 Panorama interview with Princess Diana branding the corporation as 'lower than a snake's belly.'

Yesterday the BBC announced it would pay "substantial damages" to Prince William & Harry's former nanny for false allegations made against her.

Journalist Martin Bashir claimed Alexandra Pettifer had an affair with Prince Charles to help him secure an interview with Princess Diana.

The corporation has publicly apologised and vowed not to broadcast the 1995 Panorama program ever again.

Nick Ferrari used his morning show on LBC to give his furious take on the behaviour of the nation's public broadcaster.

Nick said: "Can we have an end to the sanctimonious preaching from the BBC about how journalism is done?!"

"Please God never let me see another BBC journalist wringing his or her hands about how newspapers behave,"

"You are lower than a snake's belly when it comes to morales or principals BBC!"

"Programs such as Panorama, faking an abortion!"

"For the love of God!"

"I have been around this industry for more years than I care to remember, I have never seen anything on that scale."

"And yet this sanctimonious bunch seeks to preach to the rest of us."

"Oh, by the way, Panorama, that special you did a few weeks ago about how the brave men and women of the SAS in Afghanistan might have shot the odd Taliban."

"How's that progressing? Got a lot more evidence have you? Standing it up are you? When's part 2? Oh, it's not happening."

"Panorama, Newsnight specials, journalists wringing their hands in horror about tabloid reporters."

"Meanwhile, we're paying a bloke a fortune to fake an abortion."

"And we all know what happened as a result of this."

"It's widely reported the Queen watched or heard of the interview and ordered Charles to end the marriage and Diana was left emotionally vulnerable. I won't tell you the rest..."

"All tracks back to the BBC."

"And they seek to tell us how to do journalism?!"

"As I said, they are lower than a snake's belly over there."

Prince William criticises BBC over 1995 Princess Diana interview

On Thursday, BBC director-general Tim Davie said: "Following publication of the Dyson Report last year we have been working with those who suffered as a result of the deceitful tactics used by the BBC in pursuit of its interview with Diana, Princess of Wales for the Panorama programme in 1995, including the matters that were mentioned in court today in respect of Miss Tiggy Legge-Bourke, now Mrs Alexandra Pettifer.

"The BBC has agreed to pay substantial damages to Mrs Pettifer and I would like to take this opportunity to apologise publicly to her, to the Prince of Wales, and to the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex, for the way in which Princess Diana was deceived and the subsequent impact on all their lives.

"It is a matter of great regret that the BBC did not get to the facts in the immediate aftermath of the programme when there were warning signs that the interview might have been obtained improperly. Instead, as the Duke of Cambridge himself put it, the BBC failed to ask the tough questions.

"Had we done our job properly Princess Diana would have known the truth during her lifetime. We let her, the royal family and our audiences down.

"Now we know about the shocking way that the interview was obtained I have decided that the BBC will never show the programme again; nor will we licence it in whole or part to other broadcasters.

"It does of course remain part of the historical record and there may be occasions in the future when it will be justified for the BBC to use short extracts for journalistic purposes, but these will be few and far between and will need to be agreed at executive committee level and set in the full context of what we now know about the way the interview was obtained. I would urge others to exercise similar restraint."

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