The BBC chose the wrong battle to have with our Government that the majority of people here feel are not being as straight as Brits would like.

I think that it was a case of desire to satisfy public demand to show up the spin that clouded their normally rigorous journalistic judgement.

Whether our media will win the war though, is going to be the interesting question.

You would be ill advised to trust politicians above the BBC. Remember that noone owns them which is almost unique I think. So I can live with the odd cock-up.

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Vigil, if you were my husband, I would give you poison.

Madam, if you were my wife, I would take it.

Vigil,

The voting public owns those they elect.

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Eudaimonia

Steph,

Yes, thank heavens.

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Eudaimonia

Steph,

I was in error when I suggested that the culprit was a French Finance Minister. Actually, it was Jean Peyrelevade who resigned his presidency of the French bank Crédit Lyonnais due to The Economist’s exposure of his violation of American banking law in the “Executive Life Affair”. He was, indeed, a party of a mega-million dollar settlement. Interestingly, he was a close associate of Jacques Chirac's. Another of French President Chirac’s associates, the ex-Prime Minister Alain Juppe, has just been convicted of corruption.

http://www.challenges-eco.com/artic...16/a231389.html

BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan has resigned in the wake of the criticism directed at him in the Hutton report. Mr. Gilligan conceded some of his story was wrong, and apologized for it.

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Eudaimonia

Ya know................I always say I don't get out much. In essence, what I truly mean is, I don't keep up with as much of the goings on in the world that I should in order to enlighten myself and hold sophiscated conversations with those around me. Not that I know many people in this neck of the woods that would have a clue of this thread's content!!!!.....but I digress....

And so..............I have been reading this thread from it's concept.....trying to understand the gist of the woe it seemed to want to explain. I scrolled down the pages, reading everything and digesting it all and comprehending what I could, in hopes that it would ALL make sense in the end (I don't read the newspaper....but that's another story)......till I got to the first part of Steph's contribution in her reply.......of which I highlighted above......and I started to laugh and thought to myself........."talk about choosing yours words"!!!!!

Now I'm wondering......what does this say about me? Or better yet......maybe dyke is just another misconstrued American slang like..."fag".......and, in that case............nevermind.....let the headlines speak for themselves!

Hey guys.........in my long winded way, I just wanted to say........TY for enlightenment!

I wonder if its worse being Mrs. Dyke?

The BBC is a globally venerated institution that has brought the world such classics as The Goons and Monty Pyton through to the Office which won the comedy prizes at the recent Golden Globes.

They began as a public broadcasting service and have remained so because in the UK you have to have a license for TV - it's about $275 a year (you get a $10 discount if you are blind which I've always found a rather bad joke). Anyway they are able to be completely independent and defend this to the very end even when they have governors who are known to be politically sympathetic as was the case recently. Sympathetic that is to Mr. Blair's camp which is why this battle between the two parties re-inforces the BBC's principled stand.

One reporter was recently found to have been unable to justify a part of a story that the BBC ran at six in the morning on a quality but low audience radio station. The governors backed their journalist against the government but the subsequent report into our leading expert in WMD's death found that the reporter's story was unfounded.

It is interesting why our leading guy on WMD should be talking to an investigative journalist without authorisation and unfounded is not quite the same as saying that what was alleged was untrue.

The suicide of Dr. Kelly the expert had all the hallmarks of a tragedy born out of the bullying, arrogant and self interested government that many have seen Mr. Blair's clique to be.

However unsatisfactory the findings of the enquiry, the BBC's Chairman, Chief Executive and Reporter have all resigned. I can't remember the last time a politician had this nobility - but there you go.

Oh, I don’t know. If memory serves me, Messrs Dyke, Davies and Gilligan have now joined a substantial group of people who have stepped down for one reason or another.

The list below may jog a few memories. These reasons for these resignations of politicians range from nakedly political, through health, financial, sex, and legal.

Australia:
1966: Sir Robert Menzies
1997: Senator Cheryl Kernot
2002: Pauline Hanson
England:
1963: John Profumo
1973: Lord Lambton
1972: Sir Nicholas Fairbairn
1986: Michael Heseltine
1990: Margaret Thatcher
1990: Geoffrey Howe
1993: Norman Lamont
1998: Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Mandelson
1998: Trade Paymaster General, Geoffrey Robinson
France:
1969: Charles de Gaulle
Russia:
1999: Boris Yeltsin
United States:
1973: Spiro Agnew
1974: Richard M. Nixon
1998: Newt Gingrich

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Eudaimonia

Some of the above did jump, Jseal, I grant you. But most were pushed.

How dull life would have been without the above list.

Peter Mandelson has resigned twice already, and looks like he's coming back again. I think that he's a fascinating man, charming, intelligent, articulate, acutley honed politcal skills, but he just seems to be fated to mess it up. He could be our first gay prime minister if we were another country.

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Vigil, if you were my husband, I would give you poison.

Madam, if you were my wife, I would take it.

Vigil,

Let us hope that there will be no more blood letting at the BBC over this unfortunate incident. I hate to see the BBC beat up so.

As you suggested he could be PM, Peter Mandelson is probably off-topic. At leisure though, please send me some information. I’ve not heard of him, as the US news organizations seldom identify foreigners of less stature than head of government. Tory? Labor? Liberal Democrat – oh sorry, you did say he could be PM.

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Eudaimonia

Gentlefolk,

I don’t know how many of you read The Economist, but for those who do, Bagehot has a pretty good essay on this subject. It is on page 56 of the February 7th issue, titled "St. Gregory of the Beeb".

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Eudaimonia