Reply #6: I think the BBC is more cowed by the government than pre-Hutton

[muriel_volestrangler]

which is bad; and they do assume the state is right, if there's doubt, so they're not a perfect objective news source. But Gatenby appears to claim (his argument seems to wander, but I think this is what he's saying) is that Number 10 gave O'Toole a piece that was more conciliatory to Iran, and that O'Toole dutifully presented it under her own name without rewording it in any way; that a few hours later, Washington had severe words with Blair, saying he had to toe the line on Iran being evil, and that Blair quickly had a different piece written for the BBC website, and told the BBC to erase the old one and pretend it didn't exist. No, I don't think that the BBC website is that directly controlled by Number 10; if it were, the BBC would put out far fewer stories critical of his government. I also don't think that Washington regards the BBC website as being the precise mouthpiece of Blair either.