The BBC Reveals Source, Loses Credibility
The BBC has had a rough few days. Over the weekend, a coroner decided that David Kelly, a British Iraqi arms specialist, committed suicide. Dr. Kelly had recently testified before the Commons foreign affairs select committee about whether the British government exaggerated claims about Iraq’s weapons in order to strengthen a case for war. The BBC has been facing charges from Tony Blair’s government that it is incorrectly reporting whether the government exaggerated claims. The BBC claims to have had a government source. This weekend, the BBC said that Dr. Kelly was that source.
It appears that the Ministry of Defense had been working hard to try to confirm the BBC’s source since early July (timeline). The BBC kept saying that it wouldn’t reveal its source because of journalistic principals, but with the developments over the weekend, it named Dr. Kelly after consulting with his family (Statement from the BBC about revealing the source.)
Now, many people are questioning whether the BBC properly alluded to this source. On May 29th, the BBC first reported that the British government may have inaccurately reported the status of weapons in Iraq. Journalist Andrew Gilligan identified the anonymous source as a “senior British official.” Some people say that Dr. Kelly was not a senior British official and shouldn’t have been identified as being as lofty a person within the British government. BBC journalists claim they identified him properly and that some reports of how they identified him have been mistated.
