Simpson learned a lot from his first assignment.
My very first reporting assignment was a photo call for the prime minister, Harold Wilson, at Euston Station, in London.
The newspapers were full of election talk, so I went up to him and asked when he was going to name the date.
Wilson exploded. He punched me in the stomach, tried to wrench the microphone from me, and threatened to complain formally about my outrageous behaviour.
The incident was observed by the entire British national media, yet no hint of it appeared in the newspapers or on radio or television.
That's a favorite bias technique of the BBC to this day. They ignore important stories or leave out important information so the story fits their left wing agenda. Here's a good example of Simpson doing just that.
But it [the BBC] was dwarfed by the big American broadcasting networks.
Nowadays the BBC is the world's biggest international broadcaster, leaving rivals like CNN, Fox or Al-Jazeera behind, both in terms of its bureaux and correspondents and its vast worldwide audiences.
And the American networks scarcely register nowadays in the reporting of international news.
Using the bias technique he learned early in his career, Simpson fails to report some important facts here, namely that CNN and Fox are cable broadcasters and Fox has only recently been available here in Britain and many other countries. In fact Fox and al Jazeera are only 10 years old. Further al Jazeera, with the backing of rich Muslims and broadcasting to Muslim countires whose populations are far larger than Britain's, is rivialing the BBC.
Simpson also leaves out the important fact that the BBC is funded by a tax and backed by the state.
Simpson then goes to plant the idea that the BBC is a respectable organization, telling us that twice within 3 paragraphs.
The BBC used to be managed by charming, tweed-clad, middle-aged men who watched over your career and made the corporation a pleasant place to work.
Nowadays it is tightly run and impersonal. You still don't work for the BBC for the money. But the work was fascinating, the BBC was much respected, and you stayed with it for life.
Well, it is still wonderfully interesting. The BBC gives you a freedom and a scope which no other broadcasting organisation can offer. It is still as highly respected as ever.
If that were true, one would have to wonder why Simpson felt the need to repeat it. The reason is, Simpson want's to soften the blow of his next revelation.
Of course, the BBC took a big hit at the time of the Kelly/Gilligan affair in 2004, when we reported that the Blair government had knowingly exaggerated the evidence for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
The government hit back with unparalleled ferocity. We defended ourselves robustly, but an inquiry by a senior judge, Lord Hutton, went against the BBC.
You mean Lord Hutton went with the truth don't you, John? Why else did the two men at the top resign? A not so insignificant point Simpson once again leaves out.
Simpson then sinks into denial and outright lying.
Yet the BBC's reporting, though flawed, has largely been vindicated. There was an immense upsurge of public support for us. Our self-confidence was shaken, but it has long-since returned in full.
Just how the BBC's reporting can both be "flawed" and "vindicated" at the same time, Simpson doesn't explain.
As for Simpson's claim that there is an "immense upsurge of public support for" the BBC, that is demonstrably false as you easily see here. This from March of this year - barely 5 months ago.
Buffeted by greater competition from digital rivals, BBC1 sunk to its lowest ever peak-time ratings on Wednesday night as a combination of Davina McCall and Panorama failed to woo viewers. On average just one in six of those watching television at the time were tuned in to BBC1 between 6pm and 10.30pm, the channel's worst evening ratings.
Last year the Guardian had this headline. "It's official: the BBC is a turn-off"
Figures published tomorrow will show that the BBC's audience share has fallen to its lowest level for years.
BBC News 24 had a share of 0.35 per cent, down from 0.40 per cent in 2003.
Audience share at BBC1 and BBC2 has been falling steadily for months,...
Later in the year the Guardian reported on the utter failure of the BBC's digital radio.
Every one of the BBC's five digital radio stations has lost listeners over the second quarter of this year, despite the corporation ploughing more than £70m into the services.
Audiences have fallen across the board from April to June, compared to the previous three months, with only two of the five stations recording increased audiences over the past year
Simpson's claim highlights the arrogance of BBC reporters but this puts it in the spotlight.
Future British governments will surely think more carefully before attacking the BBC.
You see, in Simpson's alternate arrogant universe, the BBC's reporting is "flawed" but "vindicated" as shown by the continuing delcine in viewers and listeners!
Having proven himself to be a raving lunatic, Simpson jumps the shark.
Over 40 years I myself have made many mistakes, every single one of which I feel badly about.
But, like my colleagues, I can honestly say I have never broadcast anything I did not believe to be correct. The culture of telling the truth for its own sake is as deeply embedded in the BBC in 2006 as it was in 1966.
Once again that is demonstrably false. Here is a long, long list of BBC lies, spin, bias and fabrications.
Listen here as the BBC's own defense correspondent, Paul Adams, in 2003, complained that the BBC was lying in its reporting from Iraq.
"I was gobsmacked to hear, in a set of headlines today, that the coalition was suffering 'significant casualties'. This is simply not true," Adams said in the memo.
"Nor is it true to say - as the same intro stated - that coalition forces are fighting 'guerrillas'. It may be guerrilla warfare, but they are not guerrillas," he stormed.
"Who dreamed up the line that the coalition are achieving 'small victories at a very high price?' The truth is exactly the opposite. The gains are huge and costs still relatively low. This is real warfare, however one-sided, and losses are to be expected," Adams continued.
That's the BBC's own man proving Simpson a liar. Read the list, there's lots more and search my blog using BBC for much more. Likewise, Biased BBC has been documenting the BBC's fabrications for years.
Simpson remains arrogant and clueless to the end.
It's a funny old outfit: slow, cumbersome, and sometimes intensely irritating. But it still does its level best to be honest and unbiased.
For that I remain profoundly grateful.
You're just grateful you have such a large left wing soapbox, paid for by the UK taxpayer, to spew your left wing propaganda from.
It was Simpson who said the 7/7 Muslim terrorists were "misguided criminals", called al Qaeda the "resistance", says Iran is a "democracy" and it was Simpson who was caught lying about Iraq war casualties.
Not only does the BBC's defense correspondent prove Simpson a liar, the BBC just aired a video admitting their anti-Israeli bias in the recent Lebanon war.
Somebody put this lunatic in an asylum.
UPDATE
Seems I'm not the only one reporting on the BBC's left wing propaganda.
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