No alarms and no surprises

This is ridiculous.

Even somebody pretty sure of their legal ground would be cowed into blandness by a warning such as this delivered just before going live on air.

How can there be any kind of meaningful or enlightening debate if participants are intimidated with dire consequences if they threaten to get “a bit interesting”?

The latest Nadine Dorries scandal is days old. It’s hardly “breaking news”. There was no reason BBC News couldn’t have pre-recorded this segment and allowed the lawyers to give it the once-over prior to broadcast.

As it was, viewers got a tedious left/right bloggers’ spat, instead of an informative dissection of the odious bullying fishwife’s vicious online lies, smears and relentless deployment of the “victim card”.

• Inform: FAIL
• Educate: FAIL
• Entertain: Well, I suppose @torybear’s “I’m mad, me” hair was mildly amusing.