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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (5922)	8/25/2003 8:12:17 PM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793611

Re UK Blair and Kelly. Yes, I have seen it as a lose-lose situation for a while. The USA and UK should just get the electric power back on in Iraq, hand over power and get the hell out of Dodge imho. We invaded, there were no WMD... opps, well we never liked Saddam anyway. Here is another and more caustic view.. Message 19242841

To: JohnM who wrote (5922)	8/25/2003 8:53:44 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793611

BBC news boss was ready to move Gilligan Sarah Hall, political correspondent Monday August 25, 2003 The Guardian The head of BBC news sought to appease the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, by suggesting Andrew Gilligan could be moved from the corporation's flagship Today programme, according to documents released by the Hutton inquiry. Far from unequivocally backing his reporter, Richard Sambrook, the head of news, told Mr Hoon that Gilligan was "a particular sort of journalist" and said the BBC was "thinking about an appropriate use of him". His admission - which is in stark contrast to the BBC's robust public defence of the reporter - came after Mr Hoon summoned him to the Commons, told him the defence correspondent shouldn't work on the programme, and complained: "Andrew Gilligan is essentially a tabloid journalist". The private meeting was held on July 8, two hours before the Ministry of Defence revealed that an official who was a potential source for Gilligan's contentious 45-minute strike story had come forward. Yet, in an indication of how fraught relations were with the BBC, Mr Hoon makes no mention of this, nor of the fact that the MoD was about to issue a press release that readily allowed journalists to identify David Kelly - prompting Mr Sambrook to write: "I am sorry you felt unable to be entirely frank with me." Instead, the handwritten notes by Mr Sambrook show, Mr Hoon demands an apology on the Today programme for the fact no call was made to the MoD over the 45-minute claim prior to it being broadcast; and accuses him of leaking details of Dr Kelly's identity to the Times. "The word is you told Tom Baldwin [a long-standing political correspondent on the paper]" the source was working in Iraq, he tells Sambrook. Jonathan Powell, the prime minister's chief of staff, has already told the Hutton inquiry that Sambrook was Baldwin's source for a story that the BBC was planning to back down in its row with Number 10. The documents also reveal that, while the BBC governors decided to stand by the Gillgan story, they believed Today was "naive" in not anticipating the strength of the government's response, and so should have sought a response before running the story. The programme had "moved in line with tabloid and Sunday paper journalism where contacting people who might deny a story was to be avoided. This should be examined", minutes of the crucial July 6 governors' meeting reveal. politics.guardian.co.uk