Susanna Reid has described Jeremy Vine’s “move” to put pressure on an unidentified BBC broadcaster at the centre of a crisis as “weird.”
The Channel 5 broadcaster, who has explicitly denied being the mysterious male presenter, has urged them to “come up openly.”
He emphasised that leaving is “his decision and his alone,” but said that the fresh claims would focus more attention on his “innocent” colleagues, while the BBC is “on its knees.”
Susanna appeared to disagree with the issue while addressing it on Wednesday’s Good Morning Britain.
‘Of course, other names have been circulated on social media, and there have been threats of legal action,’ she revealed while presenting with Ed Balls.
‘And now we have a very high-profile presenter, Jeremy Vine, putting pressure on the unnamed presenter to come forward, which I think is a strange move for another presenter.’
Susanna continued: ‘But it reflects the fact that there are other people who feel they are unwittingly caught up in this.’
GMB guest and journalist Andrew Pierce replied: ‘People who are presenters at the BBC are saying, “We’re being named, they’re looking at us.”
‘Their social media feeds are filled with hatred, and people are saying, “We know it’s you.”
‘And they’re fed up with it. It’s defamatory what’s being said about them.
‘And Jeremy Vine is a good man and just wants it to stop, and this person to come forward and take the pressure off.’
Writing on Twitter on Tuesday, Vine, 58, had said: ‘I’m starting to think the BBC Presenter involved in the scandal should now come forward publicly.
‘These new allegations will result in yet more vitriol being thrown at perfectly innocent colleagues of his. And the BBC, which I’m sure he loves, is on its knees with this.’
He concluded: ‘But it is his decision and his alone.’
According to reports, a second young person reported to the BBC that they got ‘threatening texts’ from the anonymous broadcaster after chatting on a dating app.
This comes after the suspended male presenter was recently accused of paying a separate young individual more than £35,000 for sexually explicit pictures when they were 17 years old.
The lawyer for the young man, who is now 20, called the allegations “rubbish.”
The individual’s parents, on the other hand, said that they stood by their charges, which were reported in The Sun.
On Saturday, July 8, Vine tweeted that “whoever the “BBC Presenter” in the news is,” it “definitely” wasn’t him, following the likes of Gary Lineker and Rylan Clark in dismissing any speculation that they were the presenter in issue.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1.
