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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: maceng2 who wrote (109247)	8/1/2003 4:55:07 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 281500

Have you noticed any improvement in reporting accuracy by the BBC after these recent events? Every time I read a passing comment about, "A BBC reporter asked a question" it is still the same "we are right, and the world is wrong" attitude. I think you would have to clean the place out with a firehose to do much good. The real solution is to take away their subsidy, but I am sure that will never happen.

To: maceng2 who wrote (109247)	8/1/2003 1:26:49 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

I've heard the BBC talk to only two kinds of Iraqi: those who are frustrated by lack of progress and feel the Americans have broken their promises; and those who just hate the Americans and want them to leave.

To: maceng2 who wrote (109247)	8/2/2003 11:00:07 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

It just keeps getting worse and worse for the BBC, PB. From the "Financial Times" Fresh evidence suggests clear conflict By Jean Eaglesham and Bob Sherwood Published: August 1 2003 Lord Hutton revealed fresh evidence on Friday that suggests a clear conflict between accounts given by Andrew Gilligan, the BBC Today reporter, and by David Kelly, his main source. The judge's examination of the two men's contradictory accounts of their meeting on May 22 at a London hotel will form a central element of his inquiry. Discussions between the two in a central London hotel led to a Today programme story on May 29 by Mr Gilligan. He reported that "one of the senior officials in charge of drawing up the [government's] September dossier" on the threat posed by Iraq had told him that Downing Street had "ordered it to be sexed-up". Lord Hutton on Friday revealed that Mr Kelly - the official referred to by Mr Gilligan - told his Ministry of Defence line manager that the story bore little relation to the information he gave to the reporter. Mr Kelly wrote to his MoD boss after Mr Gilligan had given evidence to the foreign affairs select committee for the first time. In a letter sent on June 30, the weapons expert said he had met Mr Gilligan to "privately discuss his Iraq experiences and definitely not to discuss the dossier". The letter claimed Mr Kelly did "not even consider that I was the source" of the Today story until a friend pointed out that comments by the source on Iraq's chemical and biological capacity were the sort of remarks he would make. While Mr Gilligan's account of the meeting "in small part" matched his own recollection, its "overall character" was "quite different", Mr Kelly claimed. His letter said he could "only conclude one of three things" - Mr Gilligan had "considerably embellished" what he had been told, or had met other people who "truly were intimately associated" with the dossier, or had "assembled comments from both multiple direct and indirect sources". If correct, this conclusion could prove very damaging for the BBC. But the Hutton inquiry will need to test the veracity and consistency of Mr Kelly as a witness. There may be question marks over this. For example, Mr Kelly told the foreign affairs select committee that he was "pretty sure" he had not talked to Gavin Hewitt, the BBC reporter with whom he had in fact spoken. Mr Kelly also told the MPs that he did "not recognise" the comments attributed to a source - now known to be Mr Kelly - in a report broadcast on BBC Newsnight. news.ft.com