Greg
January 29th, 2004, 06:12 PM
One only wishes the US media would be as proper. . .and oh, to all of you who were cheering Andrew Gilligan and the BBC for what amounts to irresponsible journalism and lies of the kind that prompted a scientist to commit suicide--what do you have to say now?
Second BBC Exec Resigns Over Iraq Story
By BETH GARDINER
The Associated Press
Thursday, January 29, 2004; 6:22 PM
LONDON - A second top official of the BBC stepped down Thursday as the badly rattled broadcaster struggled to respond to harsh criticism from a judge who repudiated its report that the government "sexed up" intelligence on Iraq. The BBC apologized for errors it made in the story, which was at the center of a furious, monthslong battle with the government.
Greg Dyke, the BBC's chief executive, resigned after an emergency meeting of the board of governors. Board chairman Gavyn Davies quit Wednesday, hours after the judge, Lord Hutton, announced his findings.
The BBC, whose extensive news and entertainment programming gives it a uniquely powerful place in British life, was shaken by Hutton's assessment Wednesday that its report was "unfounded" and its editorial procedures were "defective."
The senior appeals judge led an inquiry into the suicide in July of David Kelly, a government weapons adviser who was the source of BBC radio correspondent Andrew Gilligan's report that the government exaggerated evidence on Iraqi weapons and included a claim they knew was probably false in a September 2002 dossier summing up intelligence for the public.
Hutton almost completely exonerated the government, saying it had neither mistreated Kelly nor knowingly "sexed up" the dossier and calling the Gilligan report's claims "unfounded."
He said the allegations were "very grave" and faulted BBC editors for failing to review what Gilligan was going to say before he went on the air with the first, and strongest, version of his story.
The reporter broadcast that version without a script, answering an anchor's questions extemporaneously. The BBC later faulted him for "loose use of language."
Richard Ryder, appointed as a temporary replacement for Davies, noted that Hutton had "highlighted serious defects in the corporation's processes and procedures."
"On behalf of the BBC, I have no hesitation in apologizing unreservedly for our errors and to the individuals whose reputations were affected by them," he said, adding that the broadcaster began putting reforms in place before the judge's ruling.
Prime Minister Tony Blair accepted the BBC's apology - which he had long demanded - and said it was time for all involved in the bitter row to move on.
"This for me has always been a very simple matter of an accusation that was a very serious one that was made," he said. "It has now been withdrawn, that is all I ever wanted."
Second BBC Exec Resigns Over Iraq Story
By BETH GARDINER
The Associated Press
Thursday, January 29, 2004; 6:22 PM
LONDON - A second top official of the BBC stepped down Thursday as the badly rattled broadcaster struggled to respond to harsh criticism from a judge who repudiated its report that the government "sexed up" intelligence on Iraq. The BBC apologized for errors it made in the story, which was at the center of a furious, monthslong battle with the government.
Greg Dyke, the BBC's chief executive, resigned after an emergency meeting of the board of governors. Board chairman Gavyn Davies quit Wednesday, hours after the judge, Lord Hutton, announced his findings.
The BBC, whose extensive news and entertainment programming gives it a uniquely powerful place in British life, was shaken by Hutton's assessment Wednesday that its report was "unfounded" and its editorial procedures were "defective."
The senior appeals judge led an inquiry into the suicide in July of David Kelly, a government weapons adviser who was the source of BBC radio correspondent Andrew Gilligan's report that the government exaggerated evidence on Iraqi weapons and included a claim they knew was probably false in a September 2002 dossier summing up intelligence for the public.
Hutton almost completely exonerated the government, saying it had neither mistreated Kelly nor knowingly "sexed up" the dossier and calling the Gilligan report's claims "unfounded."
He said the allegations were "very grave" and faulted BBC editors for failing to review what Gilligan was going to say before he went on the air with the first, and strongest, version of his story.
The reporter broadcast that version without a script, answering an anchor's questions extemporaneously. The BBC later faulted him for "loose use of language."
Richard Ryder, appointed as a temporary replacement for Davies, noted that Hutton had "highlighted serious defects in the corporation's processes and procedures."
"On behalf of the BBC, I have no hesitation in apologizing unreservedly for our errors and to the individuals whose reputations were affected by them," he said, adding that the broadcaster began putting reforms in place before the judge's ruling.
Prime Minister Tony Blair accepted the BBC's apology - which he had long demanded - and said it was time for all involved in the bitter row to move on.
"This for me has always been a very simple matter of an accusation that was a very serious one that was made," he said. "It has now been withdrawn, that is all I ever wanted."