BBC reminded: You are a state-run media

The Hutton report did not go at all like anticipated in my earlier post. Lord Hutton decided that the issue of the government's interpretation of intelligence about Iraq was beyond the scope of his inquiry. Instead, he concentrated on this issue of whether anyone was culpable in the death of Dr. Kelly. His report astounded me. He exonerated Tony Blair and his former spin Doctor Alastair Campbell saying that they had not behaved in a "dishonorable, underhanded or duplicitous manner" in revealing Dr. Kelly's identity to the media. Instead, Lord Hutton slammed the BBC for its behavior in reporting Kelly's comments in the first place.

Lord Hutton's report

• said that reporter Andrew Gillagan made a 'grave allegation' when he reported that the dossier that Tony Blair used to motivated the war had been 'sexed up' by the government.
• condemned the BBC for allowing its reporter to say government knew that its '45-minutes' claim was unfounded (The 45-minutes claim was a point that was added to the Iraq dossier which stated that Iraq had the means to deploy a chemical weapon attack within 45-minutes of an order by Sadam Hussien. It was added after Alastair Campbell had read an initial draft of the document which was provided by intelligence services, which did not contain the claim).
• declared that because it had failed to censor its reporter's allegations against the government, the BBC editorial system was 'defective'.

BBC chairman Gavyn Davies has resigned. His parting words could be interpreted as a parting jab towards the Prime Minister's stacking the House of Lords and various judicial panels with his own friends and supporters:

I've been brought up to believe that you cannot choose your own referee and that the referee's decision is final. There is an honourable tradition in British public life that those charged with authority at the top of an organisation should accept responsibility for what happens in that organisation.

BBC director general Greg Dyke has also quit, apologizing "unreservedly" for any errors in the David Kelly affair. The 11 remaining BBC governors have been considering whether they should follow Mr Davies and quit. Reporter Andrew Gilligan will likely tender his resignation soon.

The irony is, of course, that there is no evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, as was claimed in the government's dossier.

This is a sad day for free-thinking journalism.