Thread: Hutton Report: Dyke Quits
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Old 29-01-2004, 23:44   #19
Scarlett
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Re: Hutton Report: Dyke Quits
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nor
You've completely missed the actual important issue. The important issue is that Gilligan said Dr Kelly told him the government PROBABLY KNEW that there was no WMD threat but were including that there was within the dossier. Thats the important issue, thats what the whole incident was about.

The fact is... Dr Kelly never told Gilligan that at all, Gilligan made it up to 'sex up' his story. But instead of Dyke actually checking out Gilligans story, he didn't and replied to the governments complaint telling them they wouldn't apologise for the story and that it was 100% accurate. Then Dyke et al actually got round to checking the facts of Gilligans interview with Dr Kelly and there was no mention of that point which Gilligan made. The BBC then subsequently removed that allegation from all stories. Yet they did not apologise when they themselves knew they were wrong, with Dyke believing it was somehow a battle about the independance of the BBCs and their journalistic integrity. If Dyke had checked the facts before dismissing the governments complaint and going on the attack none of this would have ever happened.

What made the whole thing worse than it neaded to be was Mr Campbell Writing a VERY stern letter to the BBC about the allegations.

Quote:
The Governors were right to take the view that it was their duty to protect the independence of the BBC against attacks by the Government and Mr Campbell's complaints were being expressed in exceptionally strong terms which raised very considerably the temperature of the dispute between the Government and the BBC.
they reacted in a predicatable way about this. To be fair, it then goes onto say that.

Quote:
The Government's concern about Mr Gilligan's broadcasts on 29 May was a separate issue about which specific complaints had been made by the Government. Therefore the Governors should have recognised more fully than they did that their duty to protect the independence of the BBC was not incompatible with giving proper consideration to whether there was validity in the Government's complaints, no matter how strongly worded by Mr Campbell, that the allegations against its integrity reported in Mr Gilligan's broadcasts were unfounded and the Governors failed to give this issue proper consideration.
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