THIS POST IS IN MEMORY AND LOVE OF THOSE WHO WERE MURDERED JUNE 17th 2015 IN CHARLESTON SOUTH CAROLINA.
UPDATE 7/3/15:
We finally got a response! We received this message from the BBC in our email. While it does do a yeoman’s job of sticking to their stated policy of journalistic integrity, it doesn’t really deal with Scott Terry’s milquetoast “retraction” where he claims it isn’t “technically true” that the BBC “paid [his] way.” We’re left with two possibilities: the BBC screwed up and is trying to do damage control– or the simpler and far more likely possibility, that Scott Terry screwed up and was operating under the delusion that a film crew documenting his freakish and degrading antics constituted his elevation to media stardom.
A BBC Spokesperson said:
“We in no way assisted or encouraged Mr Heimbach’s decision to go to Charleston. We also absolutely reject any suggestion that we sought to stage or influence a confrontation.
“We are filming a wider programme about race in America and as part of that we have interviewed several organisations and groups to hear their different perspectives. The programme is being made in accordance to the BBC’s editorial guidelines.
The original post continues below:
The face of media has been changing and evolving over the past decade due to the internet. Anyone with a keyboard and a cellphone camera can now 2.0 report and bring news to the public that the mainstream media is either ignoring or too self-serving to pay attention to. Bigger blogs such as HuffPost, Addicting Info and Crooks and Liars are replacing more traditional mainstream media outlets. This has probably caused some insecurities in the mainstream media and they are possibly struggling to keep up with the blogs and Tumblr posts that are stealing their audience. The pressures to provide head turning content is obviously at an all time high, but how low will the mainstream media wallow to obtain this content?
A real news story is organic– every blogger with ethics knows that. Real news is about reporting a situation that is happening– without a hand in creating that story by the reporting party. Has the BBC blatantly crossed that line? You tell us!
About a month ago anti-racist journalists and activists started getting emails from a “Livvy Haydock” from the BBC, claiming she was a producer looking to create a film documentary about “racism in America.” Okay, we all know this is an overdone and spent documentary topic, but America is facing a very intense moment in our history regarding racism. She then made it very clear that she was looking for the “rallies or events” where she may “see groups congregating and promoting their message”
A few weeks later this blog post by white nationalist Scott Terry pops up. Now for a little background, Scott Terry is a person we can safely say has some serious “issues”. He made his first media appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in 2013 when he made a public statement claiming slavery was good because it gave black people free “shelter and food” and in the next breath made a call for racist segregation.
Terry has had a number of other less publicized histrionics but we digress. Terry keeps a blog called “Shotgun Wild at Heart” on wordpress.com. Readers can find it on their search engine of choice– we are not going to create any traffic for him. On June 26, 2015, Terry made a post called “Shotgun Goes to Charleston” about how he and his other white nationalist cronies, Matthew Heimbach and Tom Bulls, imposed themselves on the memorial vigil in South Carolina on June 26th where mourners were grieving and honoring those massacred during a bible class on June 17th.
In this post Terry makes a very interesting claim which was “It didn’t hurt that the BBC was making a documentary and agreed to pay our way”…wait what?
He then goes on to claim that “the BBC wanted to get our interaction with black nationalists and wondered if we felt safe”…whoa!
Now aside from the fact that Terry’s post is hard to read, racist and appalling, it did reveal a strong possibility that he and his rabble were not there only by their own accord, but as a staged situation for this BBC documentary footage.
An un-named anti-racist activist did email and confront Ms Haydock about the exchange of money to Terry and friends and she claims no money was given to them on behalf of the BBC. Terry then backpedaled his post and removed the “paid our way” statement and posted this note:
“This wasn’t technically true”?This sounds a bit open ended to us. Now, it’s plausible that money did exchange hands or expenses were paid in some manner out of pocket, but let’s assume none did for now. There still appears to be a strong BBC hand in the presence of these three individuals being placed as theatrical props at an event honoring the dead. It also doesn’t discount the fact that the BBC producer appears to have possibly encouraged these white nationalist to confront the mourners for their footage.
Other white nationalists were contacted by Ms Haydock, like this post from John Anthony Gage from the “National Youth Front,” which is a William Johnson / American Third Position Party youth group run by Gage. In receiving his email he promptly posted on his open Facebook group which reads:
“Hi,
I am a television Producer from BBC Current Affairs. We are currently amiking a television documentary about racial tensions and fears in the USA and groups that have established themselves in reaction to those issues. We are very keen to show the younger generations and explore issues as to why they have felt it neccesary to take an active role in defending being white. I would love to discuss the documentary with you and tell you more.
I hope to hear from you soon,Very ebst wishes,
Livvy Haydock”
Just to note we found this sentence kind of interesting:
We are very keen to show the younger generations and explore issues as to why they have felt it neccesary to take an active role in defending being white.
Moving right along…
We are concerned by this situation and for the lack of regard for the gravity of this event, so we emailed the BBC and Livvy herself.
Dear XX XXXXX,
We were not sure if you are the correct person to bring attention to on this matter. We are research and report group based in the United States who monitor hate groups.
In our monitoring we came across a blog post by an American white nationalist, Scott Terry, who we have been following for a number of years.
In this post, which we are providing in the attachments states number of disturbing things we find questionable in the practices of one of your producers who is apparently working on a documentary on racism in the United States.
We have been informed by others we work with that this producer is Livvy Haydock, because she has contacted them for this documentary as well.
According to this blog post Livvy Haydock, has apparently been staging the appearances of American white nationalist spokesman Matthew Heimbach and members of the white nationalist group Traditionalist Youth Network (TYN).
The blog post status that not only did she arrange for them to appear at a memorial vigil for the mourners of those murdered in the Charleston South Carolina shooting, she also appears to have paid their travel expenses.
It also stated that Livvy was encouraging the TYN members to confront mourners in order to create an atmosphere of tension and agitation during a solemn ceremony solely for her footage.We not only find this completely irresponsible hack journalism, but egregiously disrespectful for those who lost their lives in the shooting and to those grieving for their lost loved ones. If this is in anyway factual, we have never in our lives seen have seen anything this disgusting.
We have also provided individual screen shots from Scott Terry’s blog wherein he states that the “BBC agreed to pay our way.”
The issue here is plainly obvious: It is implied that Livvy Haydock arranged for this scene to take place, arranged for the travel costs of these people and in effect, engineered and staged a situation that would not have occurred without her involvement.
If this is true, the Charleston Memorial footage appears to be nothing more to Livvy than a way to stage sensationalist journalism.
Our suggestion is that if your company wishes to preserve its integrity, it would scrap all of the footage of Heimbach and TYN in Charleston.
Anyone would agree that if any of the footage of Heimbach or other TYN members in Charleston is used, this lowers the final product to little more than a high-budget neo-nazi infomercial.
We have also alerted the anti-racist activists not to participate in this production.
If you are not the proper person to call attention to on this matter, please forward to the appropriate department.
Thank you,
The Liberty Lamp research team.
We heard back right away from Livvy, her response was not at all concerned about those mourners who were imposed on and used as a sensationalist backdrop at all:
Livvy Haydock
Jun 30 (1 day ago)to
I would like to make it very clear that I have not left the office in London and am not a Producer working on the ground in the United States. Such allegations will be taken very seriously and I will seek legal action should they persist.
Livvy Haydock
Seriously? A duck and hide, and threats of “legal action” and no care or concern for what went down, really?
Well, this was our response to that:
Ms Haydock,
Your name has been on every email as the point of contact for this production. Whether you are or are not responsible for how this production is being executed in the United States does need a further investigation by the BBC.
What is most interesting is your immature and unprofessional response to this situation.
Instead of showing any concern for any chance that a memorial for nine human beings has been completely disrespected for the footage of a one hour sensationalist documentary, it appears that you and your production team do not, and that shows exactly why we have the problem of privilege, entitlement and racism in the United States.
Those nine lives do matter, that memorial was for them and those who needed to grieve for them, not to be used as the set of a carny act centered around a spoiled white boy (Matthew Heimbach) who grew up in a wealthy Washington DC suburb and views black people as subhuman.
I fail to see how using that event for cheap footage is any different than how Matthew Heimbach thinks and believes.
Instead of apologizing or promising to look into the matter that is obviously your responsibility in some way, you react with legal threats.
This is why we have the problems we have about race in America, because of this kind of insensitive and privileged mentality.
I hope the BBC will take a careful look at the obvious unprofessional mess this production is appearing to be.
The white nationalist group Traditionalist Youth Network– for which Heimbach is the spokesman– is using this production for their fundraising campaign:
This drives our point home about the reality of this situation. We earnestly hope the BBC will take this situation as seriously as we are and will perform a proper investigation into what is happening on this production.
Now, of course the BBC has not responded, other than Ms Haydock’s little tantrum and then a worthless email we were supposed to contact instead. If this production comes to fruition, we want to alert the public about the possible unethical, insensitive and brash disregard it was created in.
The Lamp 