BBC Chairman to Quit over Hutton [David Kelly Investigation]

BBC ^ | 1/28/04 | BBC Staff

[livius]

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 tell the corporation's governors of his decision when they met at 1700 GMT.

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.

Lord Hutton also said he was satisfied Dr Kelly had killed himself after being named as the suspected source of the BBC's controversial weapons dossier story. Prime Minister Tony Blair said the report showed "the allegation that I or anybody else lied to the House or deliberately misled the country by falsifying intelligence of weapons of mass destruction is itself the real lie".

"I simply ask that those that have made it and repeated it over all these months now withdraw it fully, openly and clearly," he said. [Excerpt]

[BushisTheMan]

I usually add about 5 nasty comments to the BBC every day. Needless to say, they never get published. LOL.

In fact, I've noticed the same people gets published over and over again. I think they have a different set of names for each day of the week and then put in the comments (some anti, the majority pro-BBC) that they want. They never publish real people's comments.

Anyone ever had their comments published?

[Timesink]

Schadenfreude

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[HardStarboard]

The guy I want to see in the dock over this is Andrew Gilligan - he is a screaming leftist and a hater of all that George Bush and America stand for!!

[BushisTheMan]

Bias on Iraq Topples Chairman of BBC; Blair Cleared in Suicide

NewsMax.com Wires

Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2004 LONDON ? A judge cleared Prime Minister Tony Blair's administration Wednesday of any direct involvement in the suicide of a government expert on Iraqi weapons, and criticized BBC for its reporting of the scandal that shook the British leadership.

The chairman of British Broadcasting Corp.'s board of governers resigned hours after the report was issued by appeals judge Lord Hutton, appointed by Blair to investigate the death of weapons expert David Kelly.

Hutton concluded the government did not act in a "dishonorable, underhand or duplicitous" way in revealing Kelly's identity.

Hutton said he was satisfied that nobody involved in the matter could have foreseen that Kelly would take his own life. He killed himself after being identified as the anonymous source of BBC's report accusing the government of exaggerating claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to bolster support for war.

Blair welcomed Hutton's "extraordinary, thorough, detailed and clear" report and demanded the BBC withdraw its allegation he misled the country over Iraqi weapons.

'The Real Lie'

"The allegation that I or anyone else lied to this House or deliberately misled the country by falsifying intelligence on WMD is itself the real lie," Blair said in the House of Commons. "And I simply ask that those that made it and those who have repeated it over all these months now withdraw it, fully, openly and clearly."

BBC chief executive Greg Dyke accepted that "certain key allegations" in its report were wrong, and BBC apologized. But he said the network had never accused the prime minister of lying.

Gavyn Davies, chairman of BBC's board of governors, announced his resignation, and the governors accepted it "with great reluctance and regret."

The nationally televised report by Hutton after gathering months of evidence appeared to exonerate Blair after the biggest crisis of his seven years in office. BBC's report had challenged his integrity and the case he had made for British forces to join the war in Iraq. The scandal damaged BBC's reputation.

Hutton said BBC's report that Blair's government had manipulated its intelligence in an official dossier about Iraq's weapons was unfounded. He specifically rebutted BBC's report that the government had "sexed up" the dossier to bolster its argument for the war in Iraq.

"I am satisfied that none of the persons whose decisions and actions I later describe ever contemplated that Dr. Kelly might take his own life. I'm further satisfied that none of those persons was at fault in not contemplating that Dr. Kelly might take his own life," Hutton said on national TV as he read from his 328-page decision.

"Whatever pressures and strains Dr. Kelly was subjected to by the decisions and actions taken in the weeks before his death, I am satisfied that no one realized or should have realized that those pressures and strains might lead him to take his own life," Hutton said.

'Unfounded'

In his report, BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan said a government statement that Iraqi forces could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes was based on false intelligence that officials knew was unreliable.

"Whether or not at some time in the future the report on which the 45-minute claim was based was shown to be unreliable, the allegations reported by Mr. Gilligan on 29 May 2003 that the government probably knew that the 45-minutes claim was wrong before the government decided to put it in the dossier was an allegation that was unfounded," Hutton said.

'Defective'

Hutton sharply criticized the publicly funded BBC's "defective" handling of Gilligan's story. He said editors had failed to properly check the reporter's allegations and did not properly investigate the government's complaints about his report.

The judge criticized BBC's Board of Governors for failing to fully investigate the criticism of Gilligan's report and would have probably discovered it to be unfounded if they had.

"If they had done this, they would probably have discovered that the notes did not support the allegation that the government probably knew that the 45 minutes claim was probably wrong," Hutton said.

He criticized the board "for failing to give proper and adequate consideration to whether BBC should publicly acknowledge that this very grave allegation should not have been broadcast."

The judge also said that Kelly had acted improperly by privately meeting with Gilligan and had breached rules regarding government employees contacts with the media because he hadn't been given permission from his superiors for such a meeting.

Critics had accused the government and Blair of cynically exposing Kelly to massive media scrutiny, thereby contributing to his death. Kelly's body was found near his home in a rural area in July, his left wrist slashed.

Hutton said the government acted "reasonably" in confirming Kelly's identity after he told his superiors he was probably the source of Gilligan's story. Kelly, however, denied telling Gilligan the 45-minute claim was false.

The judge said the government would have been guilty of a coverup if it had tried to conceal Kelly's identity.

"The issuing of the statement was not part of a dishonorable or underhand or duplicitous strategy to leak Dr. Kelly's name covertly in order to assist the government in its battle with the BBC," Hutton said.

'Not Easy to Help'

Though largely exonerating the government's handling of the matter, Hutton said Defense Ministry officials could have given Kelly more help when they confirmed his identity to the media. But Hutton said Kelly was an intensely private man and "not easy to help."

The judge agreed with an expert witness that a loss of self esteem and feelings of despair might have contributed to Kelly's suicide.

Hutton also dismissed as inaccurate a claim by Gilligan that Alastair Campbell, then Blair's director of communications, had been responsible for allegedly hyping the intelligence dossier.

"What the report shows very clearly is the prime minister told the truth, the government told the truth, I told the truth," Campbell said. "The BBC, from the chairman and the director-general down, did not."

Hutton pored over documents, e-mails, official minutes and extracts from Campbell's personal diary, which provided insights into the interplay of politics and policies at the highest level.

Hutton's hearings, lasting most of August and September, transfixed the country, which remains deeply divided about Blair's decision to back the U.S. attack on Iraq.

The retired chief U.S. weapons inspector, David Kay, said last week that he concluded that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, which were the basis of Blair's case for war.

[Nick Danger]

Even in disgrace, this Brit at least is trying to do the honorable thing by resigning. Could you imagine the mass resignations if those at ABCNBCBSMSNBCNNPR were held to the same standard?

I was thinking the same thing. It seems to me that when something comparable happened at CNN (the Tailwind fiasco), the guys at the top circled the wagons and threw their underlings to the wolves. Not that the underlings didn't deserve to go, but the reporters and the show producer didn't get that thing onto the network all by themselves.

[bjcintennessee]

ping for later

[Mo1]

And--get this--the journalists union is threatening action--including a strike--if Gilligan is disciplined!!

Let'em strike

[cake_crumb]

HAD to stop into FR and look for this story. The Americn media isn't exactly treating this as front page news, are they? Vindication, VINDICATION! Blair didn't lie, British intelligence didn't lie, BUSH DID NOT LIE and NEITHER dod the CIA!

[cake_crumb]

The brainwashing worked. Of course, the BBC is intimating it's a whitewash and Lord Hutton is biased. I never liked PM Blair's policies, but his actions in regards to the war on terror have earned my respect. It's a darned shame he's more popular here in the United States than he is in his own country. Too many people are too concerned with pushing their agenda and winning at all costs, regardless of how many millions they may hurt in the process.

[cake_crumb]

Gilligan is a lying SOS. I don't understand why anyone would believe a word he says, let alone hire him after he lied about US troops at Saddam airport, right there ona worldwide broadcast. He said he was there and WE weren't when in fact he WASN'T there and WE WERE. He should have lost his job then, but he was pushing the anti-war agenda and to them, the end justifies the means.

[Maigrey]

Well, after Mondday Nights ratings fiasco (even with CNBC and Dennis Miller) they are still realing.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

The Truth and Liberal success are incompatible.

[syriacus]

It is way past time to ignore the massive damage that the lying left wing mediots have done

I have to agree.

Al Gore's invention, the Internet, will help illuminate the dank corners where liberal lies are heaped.

[expatpat]

At least, Matthews was sickened by Clinton's shenanigans -- so he's not bad, just misguided.

[hershey]

Ha Ha. They deserve every bit of this mess, the self satisfied twerps. Terrorists are routinely described as'insurgents', America is excoriated on a daily basis. I can't even begin to describe the lying and sly insinuation that goes on. It's sickening. I used to think NPR couldn't be topped for anti-Americanism smears. Guess what, I hadn't been listening to our pals at the BBC.

[hershey]

Ha Ha. They deserve every bit of this mess, the self satisfied twerps. Terrorists are routinely described as'insurgents', America is excoriated on a daily basis. I can't even begin to describe the lying and sly insinuation that goes on. It's sickening. I used to think NPR couldn't be topped for anti-Americanism smears. Guess what, I hadn't been listening to our pals at the BBC.

[evad]

The truth has a way of triumphing in the end..

I wish that were true..
but I 'll gladly take it when it does.

[Pubbie]

Matthews is NOT a good guy - he's a DNC hack.

If he hated Cliton so much how come he drools whenever he talks about Hillary.

Matthews is a POS

[RobbyS]

I can hardly wait to see if this is even reported in the Evening News tonight.

[MizSterious]

I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. On ABC radio around noon today, they reported only that Blair had been "partially" exonerated in the suicide of Kelly. They gave NO details whatever.