Spin doctor defiant amid adversity
The BBC has indicated it will sue Tony Blair’s Director of Communications Alastair Campbell if he sticks by allegations that journalist Andrew Gilligan spun the story that Downign Street ‘sexed up’ a dossier on Iraq’s capacity for weapons of mass destrcution within 45-minutes.
BBC Director General Greg Dyke will also stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the defence correspondent in preparing legal action against Labour MP Phil Woolas who claimed he misled a Foreign Affairs committee inquiry.
The BBC has taken umbrage at No 10’s increasingly bullying and intimadating attitude toward its reporting of the unpopular US-led war against Iraq.
An insider at the corporation said the feelign among the rank and file was that they were “pretty fed up” with the assault.
Alastair Campbell appeared before an influential select committe to answer questions over the Iraq dossier’s contents. The “dodgy dossier,” which came earlier, was plagiarised from an American student’s PhD thesis written 10-years ago. It was the basis on which the Government made the case for war.
Thus far no firm evidence has been found on Iraq’s capacity for chemical, bilogical, and nuclear weapons.
Mr. Campbell is demanding an apology from the BBC and an admission that Mr. Gilligan’s story was wrong. Those chosing to back his interpretation of events, namerly Ben Bradshaw and Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, claimed BBC guidelines had been infringed.
But senior politicians are thought to be pressing the PM to sack the man as his position is increasingly perceived as assailable and damaging to the government.
Chancellor Gordon Brown, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Home Secretary David Blunkett are beleived to be making the case for Campbell’s exit.
