The Toronto Star 01/28/04:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON (CP) - Any doubts about Tony Blair's integrity in joining the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq were dismissed today by the findings of a public inquiry, which concluded the BBC inaccurately reported that Britain's prime minister exaggerated the case for war.
Blair's government was also cleared of behaving in an underhanded manner towards weapons expert David Kelly, the source for the BBC report whose suicide last summer led to the inquiry by Lord Hutton, a senior appeals court judge. The chairman of the British Broadcasting Corp.'s board of governers resigned hours after the report was issued.
I watched CBC's The National last night, completely baffled as to why they'd devote 15 minutes to a "documentary" (the scare quotes are entirely appropriate) about the upcoming release of the Hutton report that went on and on about the perfidous Blair Government and its duplicitous Defence and Intelligence agencies and the poor henpecked BBC, yadda yadda yadda.
I've only been following the story superficially since last year, but even I could have told the CBC that this was going to blow up in its face, as it indeed did when Hutton more-or-less completely exonerated Blair and Co. and put the blame squarely on the BBC.
It says something -- I'm not sure what, but something -- that I care more for the integrity of the CBC than the CBC apparently does.
The next time you're not sure about something, CBC, give me a call.
Or maybe you should make that call when you are sure about something.