Peter Rippon (editor of the World at One, which broadcast an interview the Archbishop before his lecture) forgets to mention (or completely misses) the following facts:
1. The story was trailed at the top of the news programme with the headline: The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the adoption of Sharia Law in some parts of Britain is inevitable. (No he didnâ??t, or not in the way that your headline was inevitably going to make people think.)
2. The BBC was running an article before it broadcast the interview under the heading: Sharia law in UK is â??unavoidableâ??, with the first paragraph: The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams says the adoption of Islamic Sharia law in the UK is â??unavoidableâ??. (ditto)
3. The BBC website is a key source of news for ALL the media, and has 13 million unique visitors per week.
4. Reactions from bloggers to the headlines were coming in before the 9 minute interview had even finished .
So it turns out that the Beeb was reporting inaccurate statements about â??ABC says Sharia is inevitableâ?? even before the interview was broadcast. Rowan (and a well-tempered debate) never had a chance.
Matt Wardman Archbishop Rowan Firestorm was started by the BBC
