Tim Blair

"I took this as an attack on the integrity of the BBC and the impartiality of the BBC,"
said Davies, who heads the corporation's board of governors."

Yeah? And what's your point?

Perceptive, ain't he?

Gavyn Davies and Greg Dyke (the Director General) were both appointed because they were FOTAC's (Friends of Tony and Cherie). They were both known Labour Party supporters and their appointments were criticised at the time by the Conservative Party.

For the most part Davies and Dyke have served their masters well, particularly in their coverage of the 2001 General Election and the 2003 Local Elections. For Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell to now act shocked that the BBC is willing to distort the news to further a left wing agenda is ridiculous because that is why the chose Davies and Dyke in the first place.

Would it be "inappropriate”, “excessive”, “extraordinary”, and “unprecedented” to speculate as to why the BBC is attacking the integrity of Andrew Gilligan?

Wow. What a moron.

If the British have any respect for themselves whatsoever, they'll privatize this silly BBClub and make it sink or swim on its own. If the BBC thinks a few of their victims calling their bullshit are "excessive," I can't wait to see them react when they feel the market force of millions of people changing the channel!

Tim, I like your idea of attacking the integrity and impartiality of the BBC through interpretive dance so I've taken the time to choreograph one for you.

Randall - Thank you so much for the picture. You made me lol and the end of a long tedious day of reviewing and summarizing a federal privacy law.

I'm sorry . . . Randal, not Randall.

I wonder what an interpretive dance by Michael Moore would look like. You know, attacking, Bush, America, oil, etc.

Is there a theatre big enough, and with enough structural support? (in the old days, that sort of spectacle would be in the Coluseum, but today...?)

Maybe they should get the ex-Iraqi Information Minister to defend the credibility of the BBC.

“But Davies said that Campbell in particular appeared unable to distinguish between the BBC reporting someone else's claims, and making them itself.”

Gavyn Davies seems incapable of making the connection between BBC reporter Gilligan’s reporting, & BBC’s responsibility for it. Gavyn Davies seems denser than Howell Raines. Why does he still have a job? Why is he not laughed out of public life? Gavyn Davies is, at this moment, the world’s leading news media asshole.

It’s a shame that Blair appoints people like this. Blair is a Laborite with some deep sanity but, in regard to some issues, too little too late.

Why do we keep having to hear the phrase "sexed-up"

this dossier has nothing to do with sex at all. What an effort to make a boring political stouch sound exciting

Hi TIm, great to see you defending the Blair Labor government.

I look forward to you championing their policies for a fairer and more equitable distibution of wealth in Britain, and their attempts to grant greater access and equity to all citizens, no matter what their class.

Go for it Tim, the left needs you.

thanks, Billy

BBC is stealing from the Clinton playbook. Whenever the Clinton were in trouble, they would attack their critics with the words “inappropriate”, “excessive”, “extraordinary”, and “unprecedented.”

Makes sense to me, the media is the highest court in the land and we all know you should not criticise the courts, no matter how stupidly or politically they behave.

Boycott Crufts? But Lacey has been invited for the next year's show!

Billy Bloggs,

That was a wicked comment, utterly at odds with the prevailing ethos on this site - so I'm damn glad to see it here.

I hope even young Timmy gets occasionally embarassed by the prevailing "Four legs good, two legs bad' mentality of his posters.

And with all this talk about the credibility and basis of the BBC and ABC, could someone actually point me to a mainstream news source that is purely objective and without agendas. Aside from Google News.

Why FoxNews of course! Straight down the center. Tard.

EftP,

The problem isn't that the A/B/CBC is biased; the problem is that its bias is taxpayer-funded. A right-wing A/B/CBC would be just as bad, if less annoying to many people here.

For example, take the Guardian. Please. It's a frequent target for ridicule around here because it provides a platform for statist loons like George Monbiot, but no-one claims that it should be shut down. That's because it's sustained by the freely made choices of subscribers, newsstand purchasers, and advertisers.

For anyone interested in freedom it should only take a moment's reflection to see that, once one has justified all the costs and extolled all the benefits, having the government present the news is inherently a very bad idea.

Don't be ridiculous, Tim. Everybody knows gangsters weight their corpses to sink.