seaker,
True enough - few things in life are as simple as they seem, but what I think I am hearing is that there CAN BE NO exoneration of the government.
It seems reasonable to me for the BBC, or any other news reporting organization to question the government. Lord Aston said many years ago that power tends to corrupt, and insofar as the BBC, the NY Times, or The Straits Times keep their respective governments on the up and up, all the better for us.
But with power comes responsibility, and that responsibility would also properly be applied to the BBC, NY Times, or anyone who would make “a grave allegation and attacked the integrity of the government” . It seems that over the last few years that the editorial process in several of these institutions has become lackadaisical. Look here in America at the rash of invented reporting which has come to light.
I am sure that neither of us wishes to be misled by the BBC any more than by our respective governments.
This is not to say that the newspapers should avoid investigating the powerful. Not at all – just look at what the Economist did with the French ex-Minister of Finance (I think that was his position). An excellent job! He sued the newspaper for defamation after they ran the story, they stuck to their guns, and WHAM He becomes part of a mega-million dollar settlement!
If a newspaper can be right, it can be wrong.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3437315.stm
To their credit, Messrs Dyke and Davies promptly stood down when the judgment went against their organization. I hope the BBC, which I unabashedly tout to all who will listen, will take this as an opportunity to regroup and improve.