The sideshow [Hutton Report and its aftermath] has allowed the British Government to ignore ongoing revelations in Washington about those fictitious WMD. And it has allowed our Government to do the same.

Moreover, the many enemies of public broadcasting are sharpening their knives to make a meal of the ABC. Any chook-like sounds you hear in the background aren't a consequence of birds being slaughtered in Asia but the crowing of Richard Alston, who still hopes to slaughter the ABC. The old rooster has returned to the fray, clearly yearning for a world wherein broadcasts are subjected to something approaching wartime censorship.

The organisation's competitors are calling for the Beeb to be sent to the scrapyards, for it to be dismembered and/or privatised. It won't happen there -- and can't happen here -- because of a small problem. Overwhelming public support for the principles -- and the practice -- of public broadcasting. In its analysis, its findings and its recommendations, the Hutton report is inept. Either extraordinarily naive about the way media operates in a democracy or a piece of deliberate malevolence. Either way, a clear majority of the British public isn't buying it and there's a growing backlash.

Phillip Adams
The Australian 3feb04