Caroline Thomson, the BBC’s director of policy and legal affairs, said the Today programme report that led to Lord Hutton’s judicial investigation fell short of the “truth and accuracy” that are the “gold standard of the BBC”. She said the concessions made by the BBC during the inquiry had been “spectacular”…
Ms Thomson conceded that the BBC’s regulatory structure, in which the organisation’s editorial impartiality is upheld by its board of governors, was “out of kilter with modern fashions of regulation”.
…Ms Thomson, speaking on Radio 4’s PM programme, said Andrew Gilligan’s original Today story, in which he reported concerns about the September 2002 dossier that made the case for war on Iraq, was not up to scratch. “Truth and accuracy are the gold standard … but you don’t always achieve it and we rather spectacularly had to admit that we hadn’t got the entire details of the Hutton story, the Gilligan story right.”
It only took an expensive, sweeping government enquiry — which saw the testimony of even the Prime Minister — and the suicide of a good man to get them to admit it.
And people wonder why this website exists…
The BBC has long ago gone off the gold standard (having instead embraced the standards of Al-Jazeera).
To the contrary, at Bush House(!), it appears that Gresham’s law is alive and well. (Not, however, that the truth is hoarded there; for I very much doubt whether at this stage of the game, the BBC recognizes what truth is, let alone engages in hoarding it.)
BBC News24 Hardtalk
BBc’s John Soppel interviews William Shawcross.
Shawcross puts in his usual masterful performance.
Soppel becomes shriller & shriller (it is usually the interviewee that becomes excited).
I am sure the BBC would claim that Soppel was just putting an opposing view to Shawcross –
-Blair lied
-Saddam was not a threat
-US admin is full of crazed neo-cons
-Time for a united Europe to take the US down a peg or two.
But Soppels passion shows that these are his (& BBC standard issue) opinions.
Uhhh, can someone tell me if Mr. Gilligan has (gasp)lost his job?
But that would please the right wing extremists too much, now wouldn’t it? And we can’t have that.
Ken ,
The following link I feel is appropriate in that it also shows that BBC thinking seems to be “what does not agree with our thinking must be right wing and bad”. Truth is not central to their agenda.
http://www.currentviewpoint.com/cgibin/news.cgi?id=11&command=shownews&newsid=614
“Phillips editorial in the JC is her willingness to tell the readers and the world that her so-called ‘right-wing views’ (right wing means supporting Israel and/or the removal of Saddam) have resulted in BBC producers describing her as ‘mad’ “.
The really bad thing is that the BBC can get away with murder (let’s coin a new crime – Instigated Suicide) and destroy the livelihood of whoever does not agree with them.
I like this quote (taken from the masthead of Last Night’s BBC News:
“Due impartiality lies at the heart of the BBC. It is a core value … All BBC programmes and services should be open-minded, fair and show a respect for truth … Audiences should not be able to gauge from BBC programmes the personal views of presenters and reporters …” — BBC Producers’ Guidelines
If that hasn’t given you a good laugh, you must be made of stone.
Matt Frei has a new Christmas report from Washington. I know there are a lot of Frei fans here so go on over and take a look.
The link to the latest Frei emanantion is:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3358145.stm
It’s another gem of a Frei-ing:
Bush is responsible for ‘flu in the Frei household (“In the capital of the free world it is easier to find hard drugs or uranium these days than the humble flu vaccine.”)
Bush on Gaddafi: ‘President Bush hammered home the lesson in a television address.
To paraphrase: “If you confess your sins you too will be embraced by the coalition of the willing. If you don’t, you’ll get your teeth checked and your hair deloused on prime time TV.”‘This is the Bush doctrine in action, says Frei. Tyrants beware – unless your governments are already helping the US in the open-ended “war on terror”.
And on Mad Cow, the Frei take is:
“Government officials are force-feeding their children steak to reassure a worried public. And the cattle and ranching industry are up in arms.
They also happen to be some of the biggest donors and supporter
…of this President”.
Don’t you just love that “force-feeding their children”?
Frei is a true Poster Boy for BBC fairness and balance.
Yeah, that force-feeding thing was pretty over-the-top. What a fruitcake.
I kinda wish somebody would force-feed ol’ Matt some kind of drug that makes it impossible to type on a keyboard.