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A day after he quit as BBC director-general, Dyke, who'd
said his resignation should draw the line under the Kelly
affair as far as the rest of the BBC top management were concerned,
fired his first salvo.
Speaking on BBC radio and GMTV television, Dyke said he did
not accept all of Lord Brian Hutton's report into the death
of weapons expert David Kelly, saying it was lacking in balance
and tainted with errors.
"I would be very interested to see what other law lords
looking at Hutton thought of it. There are points of law in
there in which he is quite clearly wrong," Dyke said.
Dyke said he agreed with the departing BBC chairman, Gavyn
Davies, that one could not "choose the referee"
and had to accept his decision, but quipped: "The government
did choose the referee."
Dyke also blasted prime minister Tony Blair's former spokesperson
and chief spinmaster Alastair Campbell, calling him "remarkably
ungracious" for the tenor of his comments in a series
of interviews that he gave yesterday. A clearly gloating Campbell
stated he had always told the truth and that he had been vindicated
by Hutton.
Vindicated by Hutton maybe, but certainly but not so by the
British public. A YouGov poll in the Daily Telegraph found
that 56 per cent of Britons believed Hutton's report was a
"whitewash", and that 67 per cent trusted BBC journalists
compared with 31 per cent who trusted Blair's government.
The public response to the whole sorry affair as well as
the outpouring of spontaneous support that came from across
the rank and file of the BBC might well explain the combative
stance that Dyke has taken the "morning after typhoon
Hutton" left the Beeb desperately trying to find its
bearings again. Dyke's resignation triggered walkouts and
demonstrations by hundreds of BBC staff around Britain.
A comment made last night by John Tusa, the former head of
BBC World Service, and reported in The Guardian is
relevant in this context. Tusa has been quoted as saying he
believed the government's satisfaction with resignations at
the top of the BBC could backfire.
Tusa noted that Dyke had offered an apology on Wednesday
when the Hutton report came out, but that he had backtracked
on Thursday, questioning the governors' decision to offer
an unreserved apology for the way the corporation handled
the Kelly affair.
"If I were the government, I would say this is an argument
which is not going to go away, because the two most dangerous
men involved are out there and they have got an argument to
make," Tusa was quoted by The Guardian as telling
BBC2's Newsnight.
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