BBC V. Gilligan:
no man is an island....but, you can be isolated by the mothership.

Gilligan left out in the cold by BBC

hahahahahahhaha. what a lying jerk....don't expect the press to go all crazy about printing his lies.

Special report: David Kelly | Special report: politics and the media

Gilligan left out in cold by BBC

Matt Wells, Richard Norton-Taylor and Vikram Dodd
Thursday September 18, 2003
The Guardian
The BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan was left isolated at the Hutton inquiry yesterday when he was forced to retract key elements of his controversial Today programme report while the corporation's head of news denounced his journalistic standards.

In tough cross-examination lasting 2 hours, Gilligan said he had made a "slip of the tongue" when he said Downing Street inserted a claim in the September dossier that Iraq could launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes, knowing it was wrong.
He also conceded it was a mistake, in one of his broadcasts, to describe the weapons expert David Kelly as an "intelligence service source". And he admitted failing to correct the Today presenter John Humphrys for making the same error.

Richard Sambrook, the BBC's director of news, said Gilligan failed to appreciate the "nuances and subtleties" of broadcast journalism, casting his reports in "primary colours" rather than shades of grey.

Both admitted it was a serious error of judgment for Gilligan to email members of the foreign affairs committee (FAC), suggesting questions they might ask of Dr Kelly and effectively outing him as the source for reports by the BBC Newsnight journalist Susan Watts. Dr Kelly's body was found three days after appearing before the FAC, apparently after taking his own life, leading to the setting up of Lord Hutton's inquiry.

Gilligan's appearance before the inquiry yesterday was his second: the investigation has moved into a more probing phase in which witnesses are cross-examined by lawyers acting for various parties.

Under questioning from Jonathan Sumption QC, for the government, Gilligan said of his email to an FAC member: "It was quite wrong to send it and I can only apologise. I did not even know for sure that David Kelly was Susan Watts' source. I was under an enormous amount of pressure at the time and I simply was not thinking straight, so I really do want to apologise for that."

And the beebs front page? nothing. total, lying, no good jerks.