This morning, John Humphrys and Norman Smith on the BBC Today Programme pushed to keep alive the Telegraph's smear against Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP (segment begins at 2:40:00).
Friday night, the Telegraph released a story that Sturgeon had claimed in private she would prefer Cameron remain as PM, without checking first with any of the principles involved. Within minutes, the story was categorically denied by Sturgeon, and within hours categorically denied by the French Consul General and French Ambassador who were supposedly quoted in the secret memo. Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Carmichael (above) admitted his office was responsible for the memo, saying "these things happen". (If the story had broken a few days earlier, that last phrase would have convinced me it was all an April Fool.) Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood has ordered an inquiry into how the memo was leaked.
No mention of any of these facts in the Today Programme segment, only an argument as to how, despite the memo not being fact, it might still in essence be true. More and more, I am losing my faith in the BBC, and increasing my conviction that Scotland needs to run its own national media.
See also Zoe Williams in The Guardian, and Alex Salmond in The National.
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