January 31, 2004

Hutton and the Beeb

The Hutton Report into Dr. David Kelly's death came out this week and was particularly scathing in its criticism of the BBC while basically saying the UK Government was pretty much blameless...

The first word I said to Carla when I saw the news was "Whitewash".

I agree with the poll which shows people trust the BBC ahead of the UK Government. OK, so the poll shows that 49% trust neither side but if I HAD to choose between the two it would be the Beeb every time as this Government seems to have defined the word 'spin'.

Given that even Bushie is now admitting doubts over the claims of WMD in Iraq surely we should be continuing to support strong independent journalism? Admittedly there should also be incredibly strong rules and guidelines in place to prevent out-and-out untruths being printed and spun but we need to take a stand now otherwise the BBC will end up as just another Government spinning machine, especially now Greg Dyke - ex Director General and Gavyn Davies - ex Chairman have both stepped down.

Thousands of BBC staff paid for an advert in the Telegraph today to show their support for Greg Dyke and Gavyn Davies. Yesterday thousands of staff walked out in protest at what has happened also.

Diamond Geezer has posted a spoof programme listing for Radio 4 in 2006. This could happen... Don't let it!

I support the Bloggerheads campaign to support the BBC and IMHO, you should too!

Posted by Garry at January 31, 2004 1:43 PM
Comments

Independant reporting, the latest casualty of the spin culture introduced by your hosts, Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell.

Amazing really how a one line mistake at 6am (poor though it may have been) led to a 700 page report criticising the bbc in every way but cunningly leaving out discussion of ANY issue that could lead to criticism of the government.

Time after time King Blair has ignored the wishes of his subjects, sorry I mean his electorate, and said "I know more about it all than you" <so shut up public>.

It will soon be time to vote this arrogant spin doctor and his nauseating bunch of puppets out of power and back into political obscurity. Let's take it!

Posted by: Keith at February 1, 2004 10:52 AM