Adapted extract from "Trial by Conspiracy"

Chapter Nine: The Evil Empire

(page one of four)

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Index to articles on Granada Television's Diana: The Secrets Behind the Crash

The adapted extract below from Jonathan Boyd Hunt's book Trial by Conspiracy touches on the interweaving links between Mohamed 'Al' Fayed and two TV companies: Fulcrum Productions and Granada Television.  
    
Fulcrum and Granada TV were responsible for making the ITV documentary "The Secrets Behind the Crash", which promoted Fayed's allegations that Diana, Princess of Wales, had been assassinated by the British security services.  In his discourse Hunt explores the dishonest journalism that was used in the making of the programme, which has resulted in the majority of Muslims across the globe becoming convinced that the Duke of Edinburgh ordered Princess Diana's murder.  In one fell swoop Hunt destroys the credibility of the account of the crash given by the 'star witness' on whose evidence-free word Granada TV and Fulcrum had hung the programme's premise.
    
Hunt's interest in the British media's reporting of the death of Princess Diana had arisen after noting that Fulcrum Productions had also made a dishonest documentary transmitted in January 1997, entitled "A Question of Sleaze", which had contributed to the wrongful destruction of Conservative MP Neil Hamilton.  As with the "The Secrets Behind the Crash", this previous documentary also relied on prejudicial imagery and evidence-free allegations, but this time to promote The Guardian newspaper's Fayed-dependent 'cash for questions' allegations.
    
The extract below begins with an account of the iron grip over the British media wielded by The Guardian, followed by an exposure of the relationships between the organisations that made both of these programmes.  (Other elements of Hunt's research into The Guardian's influence over the British media can be found in Section Four of this website.) 

After the appalling behaviour of The Guardian, both in its 'reporting' of the "cash for questions" affair and in its attempts to intimidate Malcolm and myself, I decided that I needed to look a little more closely into the extent of The Guardian's influence over the rest of the British media…. 

….The Guardian's subliminal influence over broadcast media is strengthened by its involvement in television.  Guardian Media Group owns Broadcast Communications plc, the third largest 'independent' producer of TV programmes, and the parent of TV companies Initial Film and Television, Bazal Productions, Hawkshead and Lomond Television.  Together they supply around 700 hours of programmes every year to the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and BSkyB.  And, according to a recent annual report of The Guardian Media Group, stronger links are also being forged between Broadcast Communications and Fourth Estate, publishers of David Leigh's vile fantasy [on the 'cash for questions' affair], Sleaze.
    The Guardian also wields direct influence; its staff work hand-in-hand with factual programme-makers for (and within) some of the biggest television companies in Britain.  There is, of course, nothing immoral or unethical about broadcast television companies employing journalists from Fleet Street.  Many of them from all newspapers fill our screens on all sorts of programmes, but The Guardian is probably the only newspaper to cultivate relationships with television personnel specifically to have its conspiracy-theory stories made into documentaries.
    For instance, Granada Television's "World in Action" documentary, "Jonathan of Arabia," which levelled corruption allegations against the former Tory Minister Jonathan Aitken, was produced by Guardian journalist David Leigh, assisted by his colleagues David Pallister and Alan Rusbridger.  This trio also penned articles on the "cash for questions" story.  So, since "World in Action" commissions its own programmes from Guardian journalists, you could hardly expect them to commission a story telling how The Guardian embarked on the most scandalous cover-up in the British press's history -- even though by all that is fair and just, this criminal conspiracy should be bigger news by far than the original "cash for questions" affair.
    "Jonathan of Arabia" was also based on false information supplied by Fayed.  Although Aitken's subsequent libel action against Granada TV and The Guardian collapsed when The Guardian produced evidence to show that he had lied about who had paid his hotel bill from a stay he had had at the Paris Ritz, Granada and The Guardian had already withdrawn their most damaging allegations -- that Aitken had procured prostitutes for Saudi royals and had been involved in illegal arms trading -- before the case went to trial.

Central Television's "The Cook Report," was also embroiled in a story by The Guardian, this time by Guardian journalist David Hencke.  In October 1993, after seeing an article by Hencke, Sylvia Jones, a researcher on the programme contacted him.  Hencke then persuaded Central's Clive Entwhistle to investigate The Guardian's theory that lobbyist Ian Greer paid MPs to act on his behalf in Parliament.  He then worked alongside the production staff in a sting operation to entrap Greer into stating 'off the record' that he could get an MP to put down a question in Parliament by paying him.
    Greer made no such admission despite being induced to do so.  The sting failed and the programme was aborted.  But this shows how The Guardian's influence in television resulted in one of Britain's best investigative TV programmes embarking on a wild goose chase.

"Dispatches" is one of the most respected current affairs programmes in British television.  However, The Guardian and Fayed's media campaign to demonise Neil Hamilton obviously softened up Channel 4's commissioning editor, David Lloyd, to the point where he accepted as fact that Neil Hamilton was corrupt to the bone.  On 16 January 1997, timed to coincide exactly with The Guardian's delayed submission to Sir Gordon Downey's parliamentary Inquiry, Channel 4 broadcast Fulcrum Productions' 45-minute documentary on the "cash for questions" affair, piling more pressure on Downey.  Made in full collaboration with The Guardian, it told the paper's story in an identical propagandist style.
    It opened with shots of Parliament and a voice-over stating that the Major Government depended on the support of a number of MPs who were "fighting to save their reputations."  In a darkened room a slide-projected photograph of Neil Hamilton appeared.  An earnest voice-over introduced him: 'Neil Hamilton, Conservative MP for Tatton, former Minister for Trade and Industry, and the man who dropped his libel action in the "cash for questions" scandal.  A man battling to be believed.'  Fayed then related how he had given Neil Hamilton 'free shopping', free Harrods gift vouchers,' and a free holiday.  'If he is innocent,' Fayed thundered, 'why did he run from the court case?'  No explanation was made of the real reason.

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