Marcus Ball’s oily pitch couldn’t persuade me – and I’m amazed Gary Lineker and Kate Adie fell for it, writes GUY ADAMS
Why did Gary Lineker agree to be interviewed by Marcus Ball? Why did his BBC colleague Kate Adie and veteran MPs Dawn Butler and Chris Bryant co-operate with the film-maker, too?
I can offer some insight.
In May, the anti-Boris Johnson conspiracy theorist made a concerted effort to convince me, also, to take part in his nasty little film.
He first made a somewhat oily pitch via Twitter, saying he was producing a documentary ‘about lying in politics around the world and the damage it causes to society’.
Ball explained that he wanted ‘a journalist with a different view to my own’. My contribution, I was told, would provide valuable counterbalance.
Gary Lineker attendING day six of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 08, 2023
Television reporter and combat-zone veteran, Katie Adie
‘Kate Adie, Jennifer Nadel [a BBC journalist turned Green Party activist], Chris Bryant MP, Gary Lineker etc have already been interviewed,’ he wrote.
Ball further claimed that ‘Netflix had asked to see’ the documentary.
I politely declined the invitation. However, Ball wasn’t taking no for an answer.
READ MORE: Gary Lineker duped over ‘vile’ film’s lies about Boris’ Covid: BBC star forced to distance himself from documentary after we expose its smear that PM was never close to death
‘We’ll light and mic you up so well, you’ll look and sound great,’ he responded. He also offered to pay me £350.
When I again demurred, Ball asked: ‘What would make it worth it for you?’
By this point, his tone was ringing alarm bells. Why was Ball so keen for my participation? Four years ago, I’d written an article in the Daily Mail about his crowd-funded attempt to prosecute Boris Johnson over claims that he lied during the 2016 referendum campaign by saying the UK gave the European Union £350 million a week.
It was headlined ‘Remain obsessive battling to sink Bojo’.
I wrote that Ball was a Walter Mitty character who had changed his name via deed poll and set up several companies (some since dissolved) making various questionable claims on their websites.
In other words, not someone I would be happy to help with a documentary about lying.
In any case, I am fully aware of the pitfalls of pre-recorded broadcast interviews when many minutes of conversation can be reduced to a misleading soundbite.
In this case, my fears were justified – a project pitched as a documentary about ‘lying in politics’ appears to have been turned into a mendacious hit-job seeking to peddle the grotesque untruth that the then Prime Minister had lied about nearly dying from Covid.
Everyone who chose to appear in this film will be tarnished by association.
I’m glad to have avoided such a fate – but amazed that broadcasters of the standing of Gary Lineker and Kate Adie, not to mention two veteran Labour MPs, agreed to participate.
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