The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.
Did I say “sexed up?” I meant “faxed up.” No, “next up.” Not “sexed up.”
: The BBC’s Emily Latella — aka Andrew Gilligan — admits the Blair government didn’t “sex up” the WMD dossier; he F’ed up the story and his boss almost apologizes.
A little late, boys.
In the meantime, Kelly is dead. The government has been weakened. The BBC’s credibility has been permanently damaged.
I said the blood was on the BBC’s hands.
You are, sadly, right, Jeff: a man is dead and they have ‘dirty hands.’ And this cannot be ignored or made to evaporate. They’ll have to go on with their lives with this consciousness or maybe burden… or whatever.
The widow of the late Dr. Kelly does not seem to blame the BBC but the British government, namely the Ministry of Defence.
Just because his widow doesn’t blame the BBC doesn’t mean they don’t deserve blame. On the factual accuracy front, the BBC is clearly the weaker. On the handling of sources front, it is hard to fault what the Blair administration did.
My recollection is that Kelly violated department rules, if not the law, by giving the interview that he did. At that point, he was lucky to keep his job, and the government certainly had no duty whatsoever not to out him as the source of the story.
Now, like most employees, I’m sure he spent plenty of time bitching about his job to his wife, so I can see why she would blame the Ministry, but I just don’t see what the Ministry did that is so wrong.
The Beeb lied. Dr. Kelly died.
[couldn’t resist.] Where’s your link to Lileks on the lied-died meme?
But the fact that the BBC has no owner, no accountability, no competition — but gets a gov’t required TV fee. A system change is needed there.
The Tories are now talking about cutting the BBC down to size, halving the licence fee. Abolition would be better, in my view, but one step at a time ?