Questioning Question Time

I didn't watch the programme with Nick Griffin; I just saw it as a cheap publicity stunt to improve ratings for Question Time.
I think the BBC should be ashamed, not for inviting the BNP leader to be on in the first place, but:
- For doing so in such a public way simply to generate publicity, and;
- To preserve their reputation as caring liberals who found the BNP abhorrent, staging a lynch mob atmosphere (I understand from those who did watch it) with questions primarily focused on the BNP rather than on normal topics. This ganging up by representatives of a widely disliked establishment will have increased sympathy for the BNP.
I’d rather see the publicity die down as it is just playing into both the BBC’s and BNP’s hands. They BBC should have had a normal programme handled in a low key way to highlight the poverty of policy, and an interrogation by someone like Paxman to highlight character issues. But that would have been quality public service broadcasting and would not have played to their egos.