Small wonder people are calling...

I did enjoy Beltane's comment here:

popeye

December 6, 2019 at 10:46 pm

The BBC bias is just everywhere and brought into everything, it’s not even subtle anymore. 6.00pm news about the serial rapist and how he managed to get out of prison and rape multiple victims. An “expert” went on and on about austerity and cutbacks in police numbers before letting slip that he was released early from prison due to “an administrative error”. So nothing to do with Government policies after all but the Labour campaign message once again getting delivered to the gullible public.

Beltane

December 6, 2019 at 11:25 pm

That was no expert Popeye, that was Mark Easton.

On looking into this, I was struck by how Mark Easton's studio conversations with the two newsreaders of the BBC News at Six and News at Ten were almost word-for-word, though four hours apart. 

Also, the BBC home editor was - characteristically - strongly editorialising both times.

Here are transcripts:

BBC News at Six:

Well, the most fundamental responsibility of the criminal justice system is to keep people safe, and McCann was known to be extremely dangerous, in fact the courts had done everything they could to protect the public by putting him on a sentence that meant he would be in jail until experts decided that the risk was low enough to release him. But the system failed, and not just once. It failed time and time again. Somehow despite all the red flags, the warnings, the history, despite a judge saying that he must go back to jail to continue the indeterminate sentence he was on, the Probation Service did not recall McCann to prison when he broke his parol license. Instead he was treated like a model prisoner and released in the normal way, and then, as we know, went on his appalling violent rampage. Now, a number of probation officers have been disciplined, two were sacked, but the failures in this case are so egregious that I think you have to look at whether the system itself is broken. An all-party parliamentary committee recently said that the Probation Service...er....said that budget cuts and botched reforms have left the Probation Service in a mess. The district responsible for McCann was more than 100 probation officers short. Huge budget cuts to the courst, to the Prison Service, perhaps also explain why communication broke down, in the criminal justice system. Now there was a time, you know, when catastrophic failure like this would have seen a government minister offering to resign. No hint of that tonight. Instead, we had that apology, the Ministry of Justice accepting that McCann was released in error, copies of an internal review sent only to victims not published. Small wonder there are calls tonight for an independent inquiry to be held in what went wrong and how we might be able to keep people safe from people like McCann. 

BBC News at Ten: 

You know, Clive, the most fundamental responsibility of the criminal justice system is to keep the public safe. McCann was known to be extremely dangerous, in fact the courts had done everything they could to keep the public safe by giving him a sentence that meant he could not be released from prison until experts were convinced that it was safe enough. But the system failed. And not just once, it failed time and time again, somehow despite all the red flags, the warnings, the history, despite a judge saying he should go back to prison, back on the indeterminate sentence he had been on, the Probation Service did not recall McCann to prison. In fact, when he broke his license instead he was treated like a model prisoner, released in the normal way, and then as we know went on this appalling rampage. Now, a number of probation officers have been disciplined. But the failures in this case are so egregious you have to ask yourself whether the system itself is broken. An all-party parliamentary committee said budget cuts and what it called "bodged government reforms" had left the Probation Service in a mess. The district responsible for McCann was more than 100 probation officers short. Now there was a time when a catastrophic failure like this would have seen perhaps a government minister offer to resign. No hint of that tonight. Instead, an apology, and that unpublished internal review from officials. Small wonder people are calling for an independent inquiry. 

It sounds as if Mark is placing the blame on the government, and is himself calling for an independent inquiry into the the effects of government budget cuts and botched government reforms too - and for a government minister to go.