Martin Bashir and the dodgy cheques

The more you read about the Martin Bashir Panorama interview with Princess Diana in 1995 the more astonished one gets that a perfectly capable reporter used such devious methods to persuade her, through her brother Charles Spencer, to talk to him. Forged cheques to show that certain people including Patrick Jephson, Diana's aide, had been paid to monitor her every move?! How does a reporter think of doing such a thing? And why did he think that making up cheques to show that Diana was under surveillance would persuade her to give the interview? He claims she never saw the cheques and they played no part in her decision to be interviewed. But the fact is at that time Princess Diana was under all sorts of strains and pressures both real and unreal because of the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles, and the persuasive voice of Bashir, with or without those forged cheques in his hand, would have played on her mind and finally psuhed her to say yes to the interview. There is nothing wrong with charm and persuasion. All good reporters use such qualities to get people to talk to them. But persuasion based on guile and falsehood aimed at someone who is going through an intense personal crisis, someone vulnerable and fragile, like she was, that's a different form of journalism which I don't recognise as either acceptable or professional or forgiveable. Why did he do it? Was he so desperate to get the interview of the decade because he knew others in the BBC, such as Nicholas Witchell, the royal correspondent, were also wanting to interview Diana, and Bashir didn't want to be beaten to it? Again, rivalry for a scoop is fine, that's part of the journalism game. But at what point in his legitimate ambition to interview one of the most famous women on the planet did he think to himself, "I know, let's get a forged cheque or two drawn up to show I have access to secret stuff which could be the deciding factor. Nicholas Witchell, Ha!!" That giant step from legal and professional endeavour to laying a false trap, that's what I find extraordinary. As a fellow journalist. It was a move by him which had devastating consequences, not just for Diana and the whole Royal Family, but also in the end for him too.