Gilligone

Well, they hired him so that the Today programme could set the news agenda. By that yardstick he should be due for a fat bonus, though there is the minor issue of collateral damage to his chairman and chief exec ...

Greg Dyke - don't set up as a fortune-teller. On January 5 it was 'there are no fall guys, and we'll only accept criticism we agree with'. Today the Shepherd's Bush skies are thick with falling guys.

At such a time magnanimity rather than gloating is in order. Tee hee.

UPDATE - Last Night's BBC News has a wonderful diary of Jan 28, following BBC news from the early expectation - 'This report may lead the government to consider the wisdom of blazing a trail first and then looking back on the wreckage'

through the dawning realisation that the BBC, not Blair, would be where the wreckage was - 'We have just heard Lord Hutton say Andrew Gilligan's allegation that the government knew the 45 minute claim in its dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was "unfounded". It is not good news and you can not rule out the possibility of BBC resignations'

and on to the realisation of the full horror - 'Gavin Hewitt reports: "The BBC has never suffered criticism like today. Lord Hutton attacked its editorial values, its management, and its journalism". Hewitt says that the BBC's managers never anticipated this'.