Hutton Inquiry: BBC To Get Trashed?

[Solly]

Looks like Tony Blair has performed the great escape..two evasions in two days. And about time, the BBC is about to be criticised for its biased reporting.

Wonder how the leak got out...

[curtsibling]

The BBC will last a lot longer than Phony Tony!

[Solly]

Well that's because the BBC is an organisation and not a mortal human being. Crap point.

The BBC will have to make more changes than Blair, that's pretty likely.

[Urban Ranger]

The report is not out yet.

[Jamski]

Its been leaked to the Sun newspaper though. They say the data was not "improved" before Blair saw it.

-Jam

[MikeH]

No. There've been two leaks now and both have been different so wait and see I think. I think everyone did badly but I can't imagine the government getting off entirely even if Blair does.

[MikeH]

Actually, I take that back, I can imagine the government getting off entirely but I don't think they deserve to. I think the breaking of that story was the right thing to do and it's lucky for them that Kelly is dead.

[East Street Trader]

There is a statement due in the commons to-day. I will be surprised if Blair emerges wholly unscathed (almost whatever the actual report says). It is difficult to reconcile robust statements that you did not authorise disclosure with an acknowledged close involvement with a decision to confirm the person's name if asked. Well, without sounding like a hopelessly slippery character, anyway.

The BBC shilly shallied around so much that it cannot have expected to escape criticism.

One thing I rather hope that the report turns out to do is to start by placing the overwhelnming majority of the responsibility for much of what happened with Mr Kelly. But maybe it is unrealistic to think that likely.

[MikeH]

It's easy to place the blame with him because he can't fight back. Inquiries tend to clear governments, governments wouldn't order them if that wasn't the case.

[Jamski]

Inquiries tend to clear governments, governments wouldn't order them if that wasn't the case.

Good point. I can't remember one inquiry that didn't produce the WANTED result.

-Jam

[Drogue]

IMHO Blair should emerge unscarthed, woth regards to Kelly. If Kelly wants to have an interview with the BBC, IMHO he has accepted that what he says and who it coems from becomes public. Unless he signed a contract stating that his anonymity is the price for his interview. The BBC cannot publish such violent criticism of the Government without evidence. And if it has the evidence, then it needs to be examined. You couldn't have a court case where a key witness is only questioned by one side. If the BBC wanted to make those allegations, they should have to put Dr Kelly's name out there, since he was the source. If Dr Kelly didn't want that, then he shouldn't have given the interview, and the BBC shouldn't have released the allegations.

More importantly, I'm sickened that one suicide gets a ful enquiry of this magnitude, while the decision to go to war, that cost hundreds of lives, didn't. It is far more important to know whether the UK went to war on false pretences, whether or not it was justified and legal, and whther or not the government acted properly with regards to our soldiers and their equipment, than it is to know whether and how they leaked Dr Kelly's name.

[MikeH]

Brilliant bit of smokescreening isn't it.

[East Street Trader]

Whether or not someone can fight back is hardly a test of where responsibility lies.

Of course governments seek to whitewash things. It is also often expedient for them to take the heat out of scandles by creating delay.

And they appoint the inquisitor - sometimes blatantly picking a partizan of their own for the job.

But it does not follow that placing responsibility with persons other than the government is never right.

If you seek enquiries which always blame the government your enquiries will be just as useless as many of those we are so often afflicted with.

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Park Avenue
Well that's because the BBC is an organisation and not a mortal human being. Crap point.

The BBC will have to make more changes than Blair, that's pretty likely.

Metaphorically speaking, I meant.

The BBC can make or break Blair, and he knows it, old chap.

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by Jamski
--- the Sun ---

Yeah, then it must be true