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Jon Snow wants apology from Zac Goldsmith
C4 News anchor asks if Goldsmith will say sorry after Ofcom throw out his complaints
The feud between Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow and Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith is in danger of reigniting after Ofcom threw out Goldsmith's complaints about the show over a story concerning his election spending, which led to an angry on-air clash between the two last July.
Goldsmith claimed that Ofcom had "completely missed the point" after hearing the ruling, but Snow said that he was now waiting for an apology from the Richmond MP.
The row dates back to last summer when Channel 4 News ran a piece claiming that Goldsmith had bent the rules that govern election campaign spending. Goldsmith denied the allegation and also claimed the programme, broadcast on July 15, had given the impression that he had refused an interview on the matter.
The following day he appeared on the programme in person and rowed with Snow during a heated 10-minute discussion. In those exchanges Goldsmith claimed that he had been misrepresented. Snow told him that if he had an issue with the programme he should complain to Ofcom.
Goldsmith duly did so, but after an eight-month investigation the media regulator rejected his complaints. It said the MP had been given "an appropriate and timely opportunity" to respond to the claims broadcast on July 15. On the matter of whether or not Goldsmith had been denied an interview on July 15, it said he had been given ample time "to put forward his response".
The Tory MP, whose father was the billionaire financier James Goldsmith, said: "Despite eight months of deliberation, Ofcom has entirely missed the point of my complaint. Given some of its recent judgments, I assume I am not alone in being puzzled by its workings. What matters is that Channel 4's allegations about my general election campaign expenditure were dismissed by the Electoral Commission."
But Snow took to Twitter to say: "Ofcom Find against Zac Goldsmith on every single count of his complaint against myself and C4 news. Is an apology in the post from the MP?"
Jim Gray, editor of Channel 4 News, said: "We have always maintained that our investigation into Mr Goldsmith's election spending, and our dealings with him throughout have been absolutely fair and balanced – so it is pleasing to see Ofcom's research into his complaints reach the same conclusions." ·
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Couple of things here: I'm intrigued about the tactics from C4 - it's a well known journalistic tactic to claim a wider investigation when going after a specific individual in that it lulls the intended target into a sense of security. By going after 3 targets Goldsmith correctly refered the reporter to the CPP Office. It is interesting that once Goldsmith was at an arms length from the communications, C4 then notified the Office that they were targeting Goldsmith, but that wasn't communicated to Goldsmith's agent until the day before the interview. Goldsmith essentially is correct in that he didn't get a chance for a rebuttal since up until the day before his Agent and the CPP office had agreed a group line of explaining how the individual candidates had not broken the guidelines. Once Goldsmith understood he was the target he did actually attempt to set up an interview and was told it was too late.. so he did Sky instead, but provided C4 with a written response which they never used. Out of all of this I've no idea whether Goldsmith is innocent or not (I suspect this comes down to defintions of campaign material and 'wastage'), but I'm not impressed with C4's tactics and as for Snow.. he sounds like he's trolling :¬)