UK (VINnews) — Once again, the BBC’s journalistic integrity has proven to be sorely lacking.
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The British news station interviewed Alan Dershowitz following the Ghislaine Maxwell conviction, however they failed to mention that Dershowitz has a massive conflict of interest in the case.
The former Harvard Law professor used to represent Maxwell’s partner Jeffrey Epstein, and was himself accused of abuse by one of Epstein and Maxwell’s accusers. In fact he spent part of the interview discrediting that accuser.
After getting inundated with scathing criticism, the news agency is now saying the interview “did not meet the BBC’s editorial standards.”
Dershowitz is accused of abuse by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who also accused Prince Andrew. (Both deny the claims). In addition, Giuffre sued Dershowitz for defamation after he called her a liar, and he countersued on the grounds that she is lying.
When interviewed on the channel Wednesday, they introduced him only as a “constitutional lawyer”, with no reference to his conflict of interest. He attacked Giuffre’s credibility, but was not challenged. The agency did not mention that Dershowitz and the witness are in lawsuits over her accusations, and that he is heavily linked to Epstein and even flew on his plane.
Dershowitz praised prosecutors for not calling Giuffre to testify, “because they ultimately didn’t believe she was telling the truth and they didn’t believe a jury would believe her and they were right in doing so”.
The BBC has gotten intense backlash over the egregious episode.
Statement on interview with Alan Dershowitz pic.twitter.com/MlXkqdJI8u
— BBC News Press Team (@BBCNewsPR) December 30, 2021
The company now says that Dershowitz “was not a suitable person to interview as an impartial analyst, and we did not make the relevant background clear to our audience. We will look into how this happened.”
In addition, a statement said: “The interview with Alan Dershowitz after the Ghislaine Maxwell verdict did not meet the BBC’s editorial standards, as Mr Dershowitz was not a suitable person to interview as an impartial analyst, and we did not make the relevant background clear to our audience. We will look into how this happened.”
This is an idiotic article and BBC did nothing wrong in interviewing Dershowitz. A”conflict of interest” is a legal term, such as a witness or a judge in a court trial, who may be disqualified. the media can interview anyone they want. You can always challenge a person being interviewed by the media for credibility, but it’s not a “conflict of interest.”
Fake news. Dershowitz has proven he had nothing to do with Epstein. Yet the fake news AP lies bec he supported Trump