I feel for Mr Sweeney of BBC's Panorama.  He was given the task of exposing the cult of Scientology and he went at it with all the delicacy of a bull in a china shop.  But asking John Sweeney - hard man reporter of the BBC - to do anything less was naive. 

And the end result?  The BBC has egg on its face.  Mr Sweeney lost it with the press officer after days of in-your-face-inquiry.   And it was all caught on camera. YouTube's offering on the subject is a good watch.  But you do feel for the Sweeney.  It must have been a rough day for him and I do feel for him - been there (not done that).

No doubt John Travolta, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and others will be witholding interviews for a while.

But what is intruiging is that follow up to all of this.  Sandy Smith, Panorama's Head, went on the telly to admit that this was less than professional and has posted a blog.   The pity is that - for today at least - the public's comments posted on it seem to have been put up, then taken down - particularly one from America that was less than complimentary of the piece. 

Wonder what the Scientologists will make of that?