Fiona Bruce in Domestic Violence Gaff row

[Cactus Jack]

Fiona Bruce has stepped back as an ambassador of domestic abuse charity Refuge following claims she had trivialised domestic violence during a discussion about Stanley Johnson on Question Time.

The presenter of the BBC politics show faced a social media backlash after intervening when the father of former prime minister Boris Johnson was discussed on Thursday night.

In a statement given to the PA news agency, Bruce said that she was “required to legally contextualise” a response about Mr Johnson and the words are not an expression of her own opinions and she would never minimise domestic abuse.

The 58-year-old former newsreader added: “I know survivors of domestic abuse have been distressed by what I was required to say on-air. For that, I am deeply sorry.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 99772.html

For those who did not see when it was said that Boris Johnson's father had broken his now deceased wife's nose Fiona stepped in quickly to say that it was 'Only once'

Many people saw this as trivialising a serious domestic violence issue, ignoring the many other times Stanley Johnson was alleged to have beaten his wife and failing to state that serious injury in very rarely, if ever, the result of an isolated incident but usually points to a pattern of abuse.

Obviously in her role as an ambassador for Refuge, a charity that supports victims of domestic violence, Fiona Bruce would have been aware of this.

Accepting entirely her explanation that she was merely repeating words she was required to say she has done the only thing she can do by stepping back from her role with Refuge and explaining what happened.

Therefore the question we are left with is who put those words into her mouth? And why did a senior and respected broadcaster not feel empowered to challenge that choice of phrase?

[ArchieG]

I daresay Fiona wasn’t the only one saying that through gritted teeth. The BBC had to say that because, left unchallenged, they’d be broadcasting unproven allegations against a powerful and litigious person. That’s all. The once was proven, the fact that everyone thinks there’s very rarely such a thing as a one off is beside the point, legally. He would still win in court unless the BBC could find a witness to testify otherwise. And if such a person had been willing to come forward before, this wouldn’t have happened. As is so regrettably frequent in cases of violence against women, witnesses are hard to come by. I won’t open Stooo up to litigation by pursuing that to it’s logical conclusion.

[Cactus Jack]

I daresay Fiona wasn’t the only one saying that through gritted teeth. The BBC had to say that because, left unchallenged, they’d be broadcasting unproven allegations against a powerful and litigious person. That’s all. The once was proven, the fact that everyone thinks there’s very rarely such a thing as a one off is beside the point, legally. He would still win in court unless the BBC could find a witness to testify otherwise. And if such a person had been willing to come forward before, this wouldn’t have happened. As is so regrettably frequent in cases of violence against women, witnesses are hard to come by. I won’t open Stooo up to litigation by pursuing that to it’s logical conclusion.

That's less true than you might think.

I can understand exactly why Fiona Bruce said what she said, she was repeating words as they came into her ear and trying to concentrate on all the other things she need to do but whoever was putting words into her mouth from the gallery got it completely wrong.

The issue is there was no denial that Stanley Johnson had been violent towards his wife. Had there been a denial then the situation would be more or less as you said, and it's something we've seen almost every week as with many cases like

QT Guest - Boris Johnson lied to Parliament
FB - Boris Johnson says he didn't lie because he was only report the facts as he knew them at the time.

As long as Boris Johnson was saying he didn't lie it's right for Fiona to report it that way, curiously even after the forthcoming report which will say Boris Johnson definitely lied there may still be an obligation for her to say that he continues to deny it.

In this case however there was no denial.

If you want to know if someone is a wife beater you ask this is question

How many times did you beat your wife?

If the number they give as an answer isn't zero they have admitted to being a wife beater.

So if Fiona Bruce had said "these are allegations that have never been proven" it would have been OK, for her to say "it was only once" is the worst of all possible worlds.

[Grafenwalder]

The mistake she made i've highlighted in red. Had she not said those words she would have been in the clear

Last week on Question Time, journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown said 82-year-old Johnson's alleged history of violence was "on record" and he was a "wife beater".

Bruce interrupted, telling the panel member and the audience: "I'm not disputing what you're saying, but just so everyone knows what this is referring to, Stanley Johnson's wife spoke to a journalist, Tom Bower, and she said that Stanley Johnson had broken her nose and that she'd ended up in hospital as a result.

"Stanley Johnson has not commented publicly on that. Friends of his have said it did happen but it was a one-off."

https://news.sky.com/story/bbc-question ... e-12832971

[Guest]

The mistake she made i've highlighted in red. Had she not said those words she would have been in the clear

Last week on Question Time, journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown said 82-year-old Johnson's alleged history of violence was "on record" and he was a "wife beater".

Bruce interrupted, telling the panel member and the audience: "I'm not disputing what you're saying, but just so everyone knows what this is referring to, Stanley Johnson's wife spoke to a journalist, Tom Bower, and she said that Stanley Johnson had broken her nose and that she'd ended up in hospital as a result.

"Stanley Johnson has not commented publicly on that. Friends of his have said it did happen but it was a one-off."

https://news.sky.com/story/bbc-question ... e-12832971

This is getting a lot of traction on a number of forum and I honestly don't see how people don't recognise that it is the words in red that are the problem.

Fiona Bruce didn't have to say them, or if she was obliged to report them being said, as some have claimed, then she would have been free to add something along the lines of "but of course that still means they're saying it did happen"

She either said too much or too little and for a broadcaster of her experience that's quite an error.

If I wanted to go all conspiracy theorist I would say she left it where she did precisely because she knew it would cause this backlash and bring the matter of domestic abuse to the fore.

[Text]

The mistake she made i've highlighted in red. Had she not said those words she would have been in the clear

Last week on Question Time, journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown said 82-year-old Johnson's alleged history of violence was "on record" and he was a "wife beater".

Bruce interrupted, telling the panel member and the audience: "I'm not disputing what you're saying, but just so everyone knows what this is referring to, Stanley Johnson's wife spoke to a journalist, Tom Bower, and she said that Stanley Johnson had broken her nose and that she'd ended up in hospital as a result.

"Stanley Johnson has not commented publicly on that. Friends of his have said it did happen but it was a one-off."

https://news.sky.com/story/bbc-question ... e-12832971

Fiona Bruce read it out with a sickening smirk on her face. Sooo inappropriate.

"He only broke his wife's nose once".
So how many times is he supposed to smash his own wife's face before he's told off? She needed 8 months of hospital treatment to fix her nose.

I don't understand wife beaters. She gave you 4 children. You watched her go thru the pain of birthing babies 4 times, then you wallop her some more!!!

[Cactus Jack]

Research shows that a victim of domestic abuse is likely to experience 35 separate incidents before calling the police.

https://onthewight.com/victims-suffer-3 ... e%20police.

It only happened once

[Text]

If you want to know if someone is a wife beater you ask this is question

How many times did you beat your wife? If the number they give as an answer isn't zero they have admitted to being a wife beater.

Isn't the classic question 'When did you last beat your wife'"?
PS: typo in the title. The gaff/gaffe mixup seems quite commonplace. Myself included, probably.

[Cactus Jack]

If you want to know if someone is a wife beater you ask this is question

How many times did you beat your wife? If the number they give as an answer isn't zero they have admitted to being a wife beater.

Isn't the classic question 'When did you last beat your wife'"?
PS: typo in the title. The gaff/gaffe mixup seems quite commonplace. Myself included, probably.

I thought both were acceptable but every day is a school day.

On the subject of which the classic question is
"Have you stopped beating your wife."

The form is called a loaded question or if you want to be a bit more la-di-da an invalid propostional enquiry in that it does not allow a straight yes or no answer.

Yes means you used to beat your wife
No means you still beat your wife

The unfair form for Stanley Johnson would be that he stopped beating his wife after she died - creating an immediate correlation between the incidents of domestic voilence and Charlotte Wahl's death in the minds of a casual reader that does not exist.

In common with many victims of domestic violence Charlotte said she was physically abused many times and was made to feel she deserved the violent attacks by her then husband