It is unclear how much his wife or children knew and that most certainly is not any of our business. There has been much sympathy for him in some quarters. However, the damage from several days of frenzied coverage is unlikely to be wound back. Long honest and open about his battles with mental health, Edwards is in hospital.
Edwards is one of the best-known newsreaders at the BBC as well as its highest-paid presenter, fronting its coverage of the UK’s most important events, including Queen Elizabeth’s funeral and King Charles’ coronation, as well as elections.
But the most damning and serious allegation came after Edwards’ identity had been revealed. Two BBC staff and one former employee told BBC News that they had received what they thought were “inappropriate messages” on social media from the News At Ten anchor.
One employee said that they received “suggestive” messages this year from Edwards, 61, that made them feel uncomfortable and awkward. The employee highlighted a power dynamic that made the messages “inappropriate” and called for managers to examine relationship dynamics between presenters and junior staff, something they felt had been ignored.
The BBC’s coverage of the saga, too, has attracted criticism. The British media had chosen not to identify Edwards owing to British privacy laws that have created new legal risks for publishers and broadcasters. British defamation law has also traditionally been so generous to claimants that London earned a reputation for libel tourism.
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But this has confused and infuriated the public (who perhaps suspected a protection racket) while his name was widely circulated on social media and the presenter’s identity was known by many in the media industry, including inside the BBC.
The broadcaster also appeared to have taken its cue from the national press, leading its bulletins with breathless coverage of a story about its own employee. Perhaps over-correcting amid fears it would be accused of bias, it live-blogged the saga on its news website, as it did with the recent Phillip Schofield case, when the former ITV presenter quit after an affair with a much younger colleague.
Coverage of Ukraine being cleared to join NATO or US President Joe Biden’s visit to London were relegated to much lower in news bulletins.
The broadcaster has been fighting battles on many fronts to protect its reputation. Its chairman, Richard Sharp, stood down last month over a scandal involving a loan to former prime minister Boris Johnson. Its handling of the latest crisis has sparked both anger in the corporation’s newsroom, with some demanding greater transparency, and attacks by politicians over the failure to investigate the original complaint more fully.
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Dame Elan Closs Stephens, who replaced Sharp, said on Tuesday the board was satisfied that the organisation had acted “swiftly but with appropriate duty of care”.
Edwards’ wife said he would respond to the allegations when he was well enough to do so. Until then, a national treasure’s reputation is in tatters and a beloved institution is engulfed in yet another damning crisis.
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