The Newsnight team were rapped on the knuckles by the BBC yesterday, after presenter Emily Maitlis opened Tuesday’s show with a monologue saying Dominic Cummings had broken the rules with his lockdown trip to Durham. The corporation ruled that the introduction ‘did not meet our standards of due impartiality’.
Safe to say, those working on Newsnight were not happy with the BBC’s reprimand. In response Maitlis ducked out of presenting the show last night, while policy editor Lewis Goodall sent tweets praising the ‘world class presenter’ and reiterating his support for the programme.
So you can imagine Goodall’s delight this afternoon when it was reported that Durham police had concluded that Cummings had broken the lockdown rules. After all, this would prove that Maitlis was right to say that the Number 10 adviser broke the rules in her introduction. Almost immediately, Goodall launched into a twitter thread, saying that the revelations supported Newsnight’s presenting on Tuesday night.
Unfortunately though, it appears the BBC journalist may have jumped the gun. Shortly afterwards, Durham police released their full statement, which only said that Cummings ‘might’ have broken the rules with his trip to Barnard Castle.
Realising his mistake, Goodall quickly deleted his tweets, and has not mentioned the incident since. Though Mr S might suggest that if Newsnight want to avoid accusations of lack of impartiality about the Cummings affair, they simply wait to hear all the facts next time…
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