Back in the days of Margaret Thatcher and the Australian ‘Spycatcher’ trial, Sir Robert Armstrong brought the phrase ‘being economical with the truth’ into contemporary usage. It means conveying an untrue version of events.
Over the summer we have seen a crisis of trust developing between British audiences and those responsible for what is shown on our TV screens. Broadcasters have been caught manipulating the truth; perhaps they would say being ‘creative’ with it in order to produce greater impact. The latest example emerged at the beginning of August. ITV was to transmit a documentary titled Malcolm and Barbara: Love’s farewell, on the tragedy of an Alzheimer’s case. No doubt this is a worthy and moving subject. But before it was broadcast it came to light that the final scene was intentionally misleading. Here the patient ‘passes away’. The man’s brother blew the whistle. Malcolm Pointon actually died three days later.
The BBC had already faced controversy over editorial dishonesty. In July news broke that the Corporation had sometimes deceived viewers over phone-in competitions on the programmes Blue Peter, Children in Need and Comic Relief. The fact that the last two shows are involved in raising money for charity made the revelations particularly shocking. And all this followed the furore over a trailer shown by the BBC which appeared to show the Queen storming out of a photo-shoot when she had done nothing of the kind; scenes had been reversed to give that impression. But, supposedly, such drama would have attracted more viewers and who cares about truth in the battle to increase your audience ratings?
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …