Thursday, January 29, 2004
Another one bites the dust!
BBC Director General Greg Dyke resigns. This is good news, but I wonder how far it will go to break down the BBC's insular culture. During the Iraq war, the BBC seemed to be bending over backwards to give credence to Iraqi reports (particularly from the Information Minister) and managed to report that US troops were nowhere near Baghdad when they were on its outskirts. An internal email at the BBC directed its employees not to refer to Saddam as a dictator out of a need for neutrality. Oddly though, they consistently refer to Augusto Pinochet as a dictator. No tyrants on the left, I guess.
Dyke has richly earned this. His unwillingness to reexamine Andrew Gilligan's reporting is what put the BBC on this course.
BBC Director General Greg Dyke resigns. This is good news, but I wonder how far it will go to break down the BBC's insular culture. During the Iraq war, the BBC seemed to be bending over backwards to give credence to Iraqi reports (particularly from the Information Minister) and managed to report that US troops were nowhere near Baghdad when they were on its outskirts. An internal email at the BBC directed its employees not to refer to Saddam as a dictator out of a need for neutrality. Oddly though, they consistently refer to Augusto Pinochet as a dictator. No tyrants on the left, I guess.
Dyke has richly earned this. His unwillingness to reexamine Andrew Gilligan's reporting is what put the BBC on this course.
