04:06pm (The Guardian blog)
So did the Scientologists' pre-emptive YouTube strike against John Sweeney spike the guns of last night's Panorama? Or just provide some splendid pre-publicity?
If you missed last night's BBC1 Panorama which prompted all the fuss, you can watch it on the show's website, here.
The BBC counter spin machine is certainly swinging into action online: Panorama editor Sandy Smith has also had his say, with his own blog about the furore.
BBC Northern Ireland reporter William Crawley has also given his view.
My trawl of the web found that Panorama has been here before, with a 1987 film, The Road to Total Freedom. Wonder if any of that is up on YouTube? Probably not.
The war of words rumbles on - the latest is that the Scientologists are considering legal action.
1pm update: the Scientologists have set up a website giving their own take on last's show, BBCPanorama-Exposed.
Under the same banner "Freedom Television", Graeme Wilson, who gives his job title as editor, Freedom TV, has been sending out a letter accompanying a DVD featuring footage Sweeney's now infamous rant. In the letter, Wilson says the DVD 'details 154 would be violations of the BBC and Ofcom guidelines in making the recently produced Panorama story'. As of lunchtime Monday, Ofcom said it had not received any complaints about Sweeney's documentary.
And former BBC correspondent, Martin Bell, approves of Sweeney's outburst. Writing on the Guardian's Comment is Free blog, he says:
'John Sweeney's outburst on Panorama was a rare and wonderful moment of authenticity, shining like a bright light against the blandness of so much of what passes as television reporting. Enough of the even-handed and soft-spoken. Sweeney does it differently.'
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