Inquiry Leaves BBC in Crisis

[dmr]

2nd Official Quits Over Iraq Findings; Journalists Walk Out
By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 30, 2004; Page A11

LONDON, Jan. 29 -- The British Broadcasting Corp., the world's largest broadcast news organization, faced one of the worst crises in its fabled 82-year history Thursday following the forced resignation of a second senior executive, an unreserved apology to its political overseers and a walkout by hundreds of staff members across Britain in protest.

Greg Dyke, the corporation's director general and editor in chief, stepped down, while the corporation apologized to Prime Minister Tony Blair and other government officials for reporting they had exaggerated prewar intelligence about Iraq's access to weapons of mass destruction.

Dyke's resignation came the day after a judicial inquiry concluded the BBC had broadcast "unfounded" allegations against Blair and his aides and then had failed to adequately investigate their complaints. The corporation's chairman, Gavyn Davies, resigned Wednesday after the inquiry's report was published.

More .....
Washington Post

[T_i_B]

1. Hutton a whitewash, say 56%

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/01/30/nhutt30.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/01/30/ixportaltop.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=106

A majority of voters thinks the Hutton report on events leading to the death of Dr David Kelly is a "whitewash", a YouGov poll for The Telegraph says today.

The survey found that 56 per cent of people interviewed said Lord Hutton, as a member of the Establishment, was too ready to sympathise with the Government.

Only 34 per cent thought his report represented a thorough and impartial attempt to discover the truth about Dr Kelly's death.

After the BBC suffered the most traumatic 24 hours in its history, the poll shows that the corporation is still trusted more than the Government. YouGov found that 67 per cent trust BBC news journalists to tell the truth, compared with 31 per cent who trust the Government.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/kelly/story/0,13747,1134983,00.html

Three times as many people trust the BBC to tell the truth than trust the government, despite Lord Hutton's damning judgment, an exclusive poll by ICM for the Guardian shows.

The prime minister's net personal rating was minus 17 points, with 55% of voters unhappy with his performance compared with 38% expressing satisfaction. This compared with a net rating of minus 15 points a week ago. Support for the war fell by six points from 53% a week ago to 47%, with a five-point increase in opposition, from 41% to 46%.

The survey, which polled 532 adults hours after the publication of Lord Hutton's report, found 31% of voters trust the BBC "more" to tell the truth. This contrasted with 10% who trust the government more, a figure which dropped to 5% among 25 to 34-year-olds. A total of (7%) trust both. In a sign of the challenge facing Downing Street, as it tries to improve relations with the Labour party in the wake of the fiasco over university top-up fees, the poll reveals that 17% of Labour voters trust the government to tell the truth. This compares with 25% of Labour voters who trust the BBC.

Greg Dyke may be encouraged to learn that more people believe Tony Blair should have been the one to resign. In the survey 37% said the prime minister should quit, compared with 35% who said Mr Dyke should go.

[StClone]

2. Americanization of BBC?

Break the one voice of fact and reason of the former fourth estate capture it and train it to do 1984 new tricks.

[T_i_B]

3. Here's a clue as to what Blair wants...

...as his ideal news channel.

http://www.foxnews.com/

[salinen]

4. BBC will become

the next FAUX. Sad day indeed.

[cprise]

5. The PBS-isation of the BBC

...tiny and subject to constant political interference.

They might even turn the BBC into a charity organization.