ITV could be in trouble after a list of alleged paedophiles put together by Phillip Schofield was shown on-screen on the ‘This Morning’ show. Claire Corrigan of The Daily Shift has more….
ITV could be in trouble after a list of alleged of paedophiles put together by Phillip Schofield was shown on-screen on This Morning. After misjudging the camera angle, Schofield inadvertently revealed the names of at least two former senior Tory politicians on the list to the 1.2 million viewers of ITV’s daytime show.
It was an ITV programme that exposed Jimmy Saville as a sex predator just last month leading to public trust in the BBC taking a nose dive however, this latest incident may put the station in hot water too.
After TV regulator Ofcom received 100 complaints, the channel have already made two apologies, one from Scholfield and the other from colleague Ruth Langsford. One of the complaints came from Tory MP, Rob Wilson, who wants Ofcom to look into whether ITV has breached its duty to give individuals a chance to respond before subjecting them to serious allegations on-screen.
The list consisted of a list of names which Schofield came across on the internet. Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper also criticised Schofield’s actions saying
“Clearly the Prime Minister can’t be expected to comment on individuals on live television. You can’t have this being driven by internet frenzies. What you need is proper criminal investigations to get to the truth.”
Mr Cameron was criticised for conflating homosexuality and child abuse after he warned that discussion on the internet of an alleged paedophile ring could degenerate into a witch-hunt against people who were gay.
However Policing and Criminal Justice Minister, Damian Green who also condemned Schofield’s actions renounced Mr Cameron’s statement saying,
“What the Prime Minister was warning about is that if we just start plastering names all over the place, of people against whom there may be no evidence, it may well turn into a witch-hunt and clearly because of the attitudes towards gay people at the time, in the 80s, many of them are likely to be on it.”
Jonathan Dimbleby, a British presenter of current affairs and political radio and television programmes, gave a particular scathing summary of the events saying,
“How cretinous can you get – giving a list of online names to PM as though they were evidence. Makes a mockery of our trade… Grow up.”
Ofcom have to decide on a course of action saying, “No decision has being made at this time.”
[...] Philip Schofield This Morning ambush causes backlash. [...]