BBC chairman to quit over Hutton

[rjbcar27]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3434661.stm


BBC chairman Gavyn Davies is to resign in the wake of Lord Hutton's criticisms of the corporation's reports.

BBC political editor Andrew Marr said Mr Davies would soon be telling the corporation's governors of his decision.

It comes after Lord Hutton said the claim in BBC reports that the government "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq's weapons was "unfounded".

And he criticised "defective" BBC editorial processes over defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan's broadcasts of the claims on the Today programme.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

1. FWIW, Jon Snow on Hutton

(for non-Brits, Jon Snow is the anchor of Channel 4 News & sends out a daily e-mail on what's coming up.)

You don't order a public inquiry in this country as Prime Minister unless you are pretty confident of its outcome. Lord Hutton has rewarded Tony Blair's confidence. The Hutton Report into the death of Britain's top Iraq Weapons Inspector completely vindicates the Government in almost every quarter. There is mild criticism of unnamed Ministry of Defence officials for not caring more for Dr Kelly after he had been revealed as the source of the BBC's claim that Downing Street had 'sexed up' their dossier on Iraq's WMD.

Mr Blair attracts no criticism from the Judge, neither does the Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, nor the top civil servant in the Defence Department, Kevin Tebbit. So in short, the Prime Minister did not lie. The BBC however did broadcast a lie, according to Hutton and fell down on its management systems. Hutton's findings damn the BBC, it will be a very difficult time for them.

In the end there is a culture clash surrounding this report. Whenever there is doubt involving the Government Lord Hutton determines that Government acts with integrity, journalists tend to regard the Government with scepticism. The true case for war has still not been inquired into nor the failure of the intelligence services. Though David Kay, who resigned as head of the Iraq Survey Group only last week is giving evidence in Washington this afternoon. We'll see what he has to say.

Whatever, the likelihood is that the BBC and its fate will now come to dominate the debate rather than the issues surrounding the war. As regards the BBC, whatever mistakes were made, Government clashes with the state broadcaster are dangerous, there are implications for every journalist. This is very dicey territory. We could find that the death of David Kelly ends up robbing Britain of the best public service broadcaster in the world. To the great joy of several newspaper magnates and their empires.

This is one of the most worrying and difficult days of my broadcasting career. I hope we rise to the occasion. We shall be trying at seven.

[rjbcar27]

2. I like Jon Snow. Very good man.

Channel 4 news is excellent BTW.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

3. Jon Snow is a damn fine broadcaster

I'm with him on this. We have to save the BBC, it's the front line in a war to protect public broadcasting from government co-option.

[magidon]

8. How can we get on the Jon Snow email list? n/m

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

9. Go here:

http://www.channel4.com/news/snowmail/

& just enter your e-mail address (then you've got to reply to the e-mail you get sent)

[magidon]

12. Thanks Monkey! n/m

[AP]

13. Someday, liberals will appreciate the brilliance of what

happened here.

The fact is that Gilligan is a shitty journalist who was trying to take down Labour (and isn't very different from wingers at the Times and WashPost here). Blair has taken an exaggerated smear and turned not into an event that would take down his government, but into a criticism of the media.

This is what Clinton should have done to the media.

It's really brilliant.

[MMT]

4. Is there any chance of a groundswell of popular support for Davies?

that would prevent his resignation?

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

5. Not for him personally

(though laughably when he was appointed the Tories were making a big deal of his support for Labour & friendship with Brown)

But if Blair does decide to take on Auntie (which the Tories & several Labour MP's have been calling for today) there will be a huge backlash.

[annagull]

6. What a joke

So then it is true that Saddam could deploy WMDs in 45 minutes? Then where are these ready-to-go weapons? Even Bush's cabana boy Kay can't find them. If they try to destroy the BBC, Britians should take to the streets.

[LSdemocrat]

7. Actually, just the intelligence services are incompetent

That's basically what the report and recent findings in Iraq show.

[non sociopath skin]

10. This is truly frightening

There is an agenda here which scares me more than anything Thatcher did - the destruction of the BBC.

I am trying to find the statement which was newslashed earlier in which the Culture Secretary seemed to be flagging up just that.

Sauve qui peut.

The Skin

[xxqqqzme]

11. I guess I just fell through the

looking glass - so, do I have this right?

Davies resigns cuz the BBC reported something that turns out 2 B true??? WOW! I'm getting a headache!

in squatter's administration the bigger the lie, AND the more support U can get for it - ensures a job for life!

[BiggJawn]

14. The World Service of FoxNews? is THAT what this will come to?

That makes me want to throw up everything I've eaten in the last month...

Maybe we should beg Pooty-Poot to put the voice of Russia on more hours a day, or start listening to R. Habana, even though they plagerize GD and Justice....:7