John Simpson: 60 Years At The BBC

John Simpson: 60 Years At The BBC John Simpson has been at the BBC for 60 years and has had a long and action-packed career. He has been shot at, tortured by Palestinians, and has had to look on politely as Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi constantly broke wind during an interview. The BBC was a place where gentlemen worked, Simpson recalled. He might still think the news is strictly impartial, but a poll last year revealed that nearly a third of viewers think it has a left-wing bias. John Simpson has been at the BBC so long that, when he joined, the licence fee was £5 a year. Now, it's £180, which might explain why 539,000 people stopped paying last year. Simpson has had a long and action-packed career. He's been shot at, tortured by Palestinians, bombed by the American air force, sacked as a newsreader, battered by supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini, and he had to look on politely as Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi constantly broke wind during an interview. As a young political editor, he tried to shout a question at Harold Wilson about rumours of a forthcoming election. Simpson was punched hard in the stomach by Wilson.Simpson recalls BBC gentlemanly daysThe BBC was a place where gentlemen worked, Simpson recalled. This was illustrated by black-and-white footage of two men from the BBC newsroom with accents that would have made Edward VIII sound common. Covering the Islamic revolution in Tehran, Simpson and his cameraman were surrounded by a revolutionary mob.'They started the process of ripping us to pieces,' he recalled. He hoisted a picture of the Ayatollah and chanted in Arabic: 'Long live Khomeini.' 'You shouldn't have done that,' said his cameraman after they escaped. Simpson might still think the news is strictly impartial, but a poll last year revealed that nearly a third of viewers think it has a left-wing bias. Simpson has claimed in the past that the BBC had liberated Kabul from the Taliban.Simpson admits mistakes and regrets'I was such an idiot,' he says now. He blames himself for the death of a translator in a friendly-fire attack in Iraq, and regrets the way that his career affected his personal life: 'I've hurt a lot of people by how I've lived my life. ' To misquote the late Queen, opinions may vary.