Royals slam BBC for Princess Diana interview
The Spectator Associate Editor Douglas Murray on the BBC deceiving Princess Diana for an interview.
EXCLUSIVE: Tom Quinn believes "we are now in the extraordinary position" to hear Prince William slam the BBC.
The Duke of Cambridge spoke out after it was revealed that Martin Bashir used "deceitful behavior" to secure his controversial interview with his late mom, Princess Diana, in 1995.
The 127-page report, released on Thursday, concluded that the journalist "deceived and induced" the royal’s brother, Earl Charles Spencer, into securing the interview for Panorama, The Telegraph reported.
Quinn told Fox News that William speaking out to make "devastating criticisms" of the BBC was remarkable, considering the outlet is "another hallowed British institution."
"William is particularly angry that the BBC knew his mother had been tricked into giving the interview, but then covered up the wrongdoing that had taken place – even to the extent of re-hiring Martin Bashir, the very man who had used forged documents to persuade Diana and her family to give the interview in the first place; when Bashir was rehired in 2016 the BBC knew he had lied to get his interview," said Quinn.
PRINCE HARRY, PRINCE WILLIAM CONDEMN BBC FOR 1995 PRINCESS DIANA INTERVIEW
The British author recently released a book titled "Kensington Palace: An Intimate Memoir from Queen Mary to Meghan Markle," where he spoke to those who worked for the royals over the years.
"The BBC will say it has changed over the past 25 years since the interview took place, but from the royal family’s point of view it hasn’t changed enough," said Quinn. "They believe that the BBC still protects its own and will do almost anything to get a story about the royal family."
"It is ironic that the BBC, which likes to think it has high standards, will behave just like tabloid newspapers to get a story and to protect its own – that is the view of Prince William and Prince Harry and of many others," he added.
Soon after William condemned the BBC, his younger brother Harry released his own statement about the report’s findings. Quinn said he isn’t surprised the brothers are horrified by how their mother was mistreated.
Martin Bashir interviews Princess Diana in Kensington Palace for the television program Panorama. (Photo by © Pool Photograph/Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
"This is really what both Harry and William are so angry about, and they are aware that their mother said things in the Bashir interview that worsened her relationship with Prince Charles and made her more paranoid, more fearful of whom she could trust and more isolated," said Quinn. "All her renewed fears and paranoid were caused not by what was really happening but by the lies and misinformation fed to her by Bashir."
"Harry's statement about the Bashir interview is consistent with what he has said for many years about the press's responsibility for his mother's mental deterioration and death," Quinn continued. "He has always been able to be more open in his criticisms because he was never likely to become king. He believes and I think now that his brother William would agree with him that it was not just the paparazzi chasing his mother on the night of her death who are to be blamed; it is also Martin Bashir and the BBC."
In a statement obtained by Fox News, William thanked former High Court Judge Lord Dyson, who confirmed the report’s findings.
The 38-year-old, who is second in line to the British throne, also released bullet points expressing his concerns towards the findings.
In this Nov. 21, 1995 file photo a selection of front pages of most of Britain's national newspapers showing their reaction to Princess Diana's television interview with BBC journalist Martin Bashir. Prince William and his brother Prince Harry have issued strongly-worded statements criticizing the BBC and British media for unethical practices after an investigation found that Bashir used "deceitful behavior" to secure Princess Diana's most explosive TV interview in 1995. (AP Photo/Martin Cleaver)
"It is welcome that the BBC accepts Lord Dyson’s findings in full – which are extremely concerning – that BBC employees:
• lied and used fake documents to obtain the interview with my mother;
• made lurid and false claims about the Royal Family which played on her fears and fuelled paranoia;
• displayed woeful incompetence when investigating complaints and concerns about the programme; and
• were evasive in their reporting to the media and covered up what they knew from their internal investigation.
"It is my view that the deceitful way the interview was obtained substantially influenced what my mother said. The interview was a major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse and has since hurt countless others."
"It brings indescribable sadness to know that the BBC’s failures contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation that I remember from those final years with her," he continued. "But what saddens me most, is that if the BBC had properly investigated the complaints and concerns first raised in 1995, my mother would have known that she had been deceived. She was failed not just by a rogue reporter, but by leaders at the BBC who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions."
PRINCE HARRY WILL 'ABSOLUTELY' ATTEND PRINCESS DIANA TRIBUTE WITH PRINCE WILLIAM: REPORT
Martin Bashir with his BAFTA Award for best talk show. (Photo by Fiona Hanson - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)
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The royal also made it clear that Panorama, the show that initially aired the tell-all, should never be used in any capacity again.
"It is my firm view that this Panorama programme holds no legitimacy and should never be aired again," he said. "It effectively established a false narrative which, for over a quarter of a century, has been commercialised by the BBC and others. This settled narrative now needs to be addressed by the BBC and anyone else who has written or intends to write about these events."
"In an era of fake news, public service broadcasting and a free press have never been more important," William concluded. "These failings, identified by investigative journalists, not only let my mother down, and my family down; they let the public down too."
Bashir has stepped down from his role as the editor of religion for BBC. The departure was confirmed in an email BBC’s deputy director of news Jonathan Munro sent to staff.
In the infamous interview, the Princess of Wales said "there were three of us in this marriage," referring to Prince Charles’ relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles, who he married after Diana's death. Diana, who divorced Charles in 1996, died in a Paris car crash in 1997 as she was being pursued by paparazzi. She was 36.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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