I have been a lifelong fan of the BBC for the quality of their programming and the integrity of the worldwide news coverage. At key times when international news was the most important topic, I have always turned to the BBC World Service and now to internet services to give me the most thorough and in- depth coverage. For the past few months I have become concerned that they are becoming mirrors of our press in covering important issues in a very superficial and uncontroversial way.
The BBC article that covered the third anniversary of the War in Iraq has continued to support my suspicions. Titled:"Bush Upbeat on Iraq Anniversary" It is typical of their work now and it could have been written for USA today or MSNBC.
It opens with Bush White stock PR points.
US President George W Bush has given an upbeat assessment of Iraq on the third anniversary of the invasion.
The president said the strategy being implemented would lead to victory and a secure Iraq for generations to come.
He also said he was encouraged by reports that politicians were close to forming a unity government although he urged them to try harder.
Mr Bush's views differ from those of former interim PM Iyad Allawi who said Iraq was in the grip of civil war.
Mr Bush made no reference to the comments made by Mr Allawi who told the BBC that Iraq could be torn apart, although the country had not got to the point of no return.
The UK and US have repeatedly denied Iraq is facing a civil war, but Mr Allawi suggested there was no other way to describe the sectarian violence.
They go on with softball insertions of potential problems with the Bush view but returns to the talking points of the President. This is a familiar 50/50 coverage we experience with the US press that doesn't want to clearly present facts that rival WH factoids.
However, Iraqi president Jalal Talabani said the risk of civil war was currently low.
Mr Talabani said talks between political groups towards establishing a national government had made progress and so diminished the threat of civil conflict.
The BBC's Jonathan Beale says such progress is essential to President Bush if he is to turn around his falling public support.
The latest opinion polls show a further dip in Mr Bush's approval ratings to below 30%, says Jonathan Beale.
In his speech, Mr Bush also turned his thoughts to the American troops.
"On this third anniversary of the beginning of the liberation of Iraq, I think all Americans should offer thanks to the men and women who wear the uniform, and their families who support them," he said.
After carrying the honor the troops meme the BBC turns to Secretary
Rumsfeld for an accurate and hard hitting assessment.
In his assessment of the war, the Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned that leaving Iraq now would be like returning Germany to Adolf Hitler's followers after World War II.
"Turning our backs on post-war Iraq today would be the modern equivalent of handing post-war Germany back to the Nazis," Mr Rumsfeld wrote in the Washington Post.
The only real piece of news comes at the end with the critique offered by General Eaton this week in the NY Times without any original coverage by the BBC or any additional coverage in this article on the meaning of 3 years of war for the Iraqi people and their country.
In the New York Times, Mr Eaton said Mr Rumsfeld had "shown himself incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically, and is far more than anyone else responsible for what has happened to our important mission in Iraq."
My suspicions are that there has been real dumming down of the BBC news operation and that it might have been as a result of the whole embroglio with the Hutton Report.
We know that the BBC suffered terribly in the aftermath of the Hutton Report on the suicide death of Dr. Kelly, the reported involvement of Downing Street manipulating intelligence to support the invasion of Iraq and the BBC reporting of the whole sorry affair. In the wake of this report, BBC Chairman Gavyn Davies and Director General Greg Dyke resigned and the organization is the midst of a total redesign based on a White Paper published in March, 2006 under the leadership of a new Director General Mark Thompson who started in 2004. He is leading a reduction of 4,000 staff. The BBC news will lose 402 positions in the overall cut for the BBC of 139 million pounds in this transformation. Although there is to be some reinvestment in the news division it will not be on the scale of the cuts.
I don't base these observations on the reduction of the quality of the news on the one article I cite but in reading the BBC news on a daily basis for years. The Hutton Report I feel had a great deal of impact on the confidence of the BBC to investigate and report the news. In addition I see many fluff pieces worthy of MSNBC or Fox such as Men's beer belly 'days are over' which was on their front page a few days ago in the International Edition.
I write this piece more in mourning than in anything else because I feel one of the great sources of impartial news is passing on. It is like a old friend that you suddenly find out has gotten ill.