Posted 6:18 AM by Paul
Outside the Tent

Greg Dyke's resignation reminded me of the comment, I think it was President Truman, that it it is better to have someone inside the tent urinating out than outside urinating in. Well now that Greg Dyke has been squeezed out by a fearful BBC board of directors he has been emptying his bladder like a teenager after 12 pints of cold lager.

He has just relased a letter he sent to Tony Blair during the early stages of the Iraq War countering the Government's accusation that they had an anti-war agenda. If Dyke had still been in post, the letter would have remained private. Rather than the characature of an organisation run by crypto-pinkos it shows a group of senior managers going to extraordinary lengths to give the Government a fair crack of the whip. It also gives a snapshot of Britain during a period when it seemed that just about everybody was against the Iraq War and felt that no good would come of it. This sense of foreboding united 18 year old anarchists dressed in fairy wings carrying Blair is Sauron - Free the Shire placards with elderly men from the Shires in sensible cords and Barbours.

Below is Dyke's witty and reasoned riposte to Blair's accusations of bias. Pass it on


Dear Tony

Thank you for your letter of 19 March. I note that a similar letter was sent to Gavyn Davies, the chairman of the BBC, and a longer version was sent to our director of news, Richard Sambrook. They will also be replying.

Firstly, and I do not mean to be rude, but having faced the biggest ever public demonstration in this country and the biggest ever backbench rebellion against a sitting government by its own supporters, would you not agree that your communications advisers are not best placed to advise whether or not the BBC has got its balance right between support and dissent?

Given these circumstances they are hardly in a position to make a reasoned judgement about the BBC's impartiality.

You have been engaged in a difficult battle fighting for your particular view of the world to be accepted and quite understandably, you want that to be reported.

We, however have a different role in society. Our role in these circumstances is to try to give a balanced picture.

It is perfectly legitimate for you or your advisers to complain about particular stories - journalism is an imperfect profession - and if we make mistakes, as we inevitably do, under my leadership we will always say we were wrong and apologise.

However, for you to question the whole of the BBC's output across a wide range of radio, television and online services because you are concerned about particular which stories which don't favour your view is unfair.

I believe we have made major efforts to ensure that the issues and events surrounding Iraq have been properly reported. Let me explain how we have done that.

Some weeks ago I set up a committee which ....decided to prevent any senior editorial figures at the BBC from going on the anti-war march; it was that committee which insisted that we had to find a balanced audience for programmes like Question Time at a time when it was very hard to find supporters of the war willing to come on.

And it was that same committee when faced with a massive bias against the war among phone-in callers, decided to increase the number of phone lines so that pro-war listeners had a better chance of getting through and getting onto the programmes.

All this was done in an attempt to ensure our coverage was balanced.

That same committee has discussed on a number of occasions whether our reports from Baghdad needed to be qualified.

Until yesterday we have been of the opinion that our journalism has not been restricted in a way which required qualification as a matter of course and even yesterday, after the war started, our reporters did not have Iraqi "minders" and were free to move around the city.

At no point has their copy been checked before broadcast.

My point is that we have discussed these sorts of issues at length and made the best judgements we could. That our conclusions didn't always please Alastair is unfortunate but not our primary concern...

I can only assure you that under my leadership I will do everything in my power to defend the BBC's fairness, independence and impartiality.

My committee is now meeting on a daily basis and we discuss the reporting of the Iraq issue every morning...

I appreciate the fact that your letter was private. I, too, have no intention of making this reply public.

Best wishes

Greg Dyke