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CNN Live At Daybreak
Euro Edition: Morning Papers
Aired January 29, 2004 - 05:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time now, though, to check on what's making headlines overseas in this morning's 'Euro Edition.' Hala Gorani -- Hala Gorani live in London.
I was so excited, I couldn't say your name correctly. Good morning -- Hala.
HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well, I think you could probably guess what's on the front pages of U.K. papers this morning, and that is Blair, Hutton and the BBC. Now you may remember, of course, that yesterday the Hutton inquiry, that was leading an investigation into the suicide of a leading British scientist, came out with its report. Lord Hutton blaming the BBC almost for everything that went wrong in this whole affair and pretty much letting the government and the Ministry of Defense off the hook.
Now here is what the papers are leading with. "The Guardian," left leaning broad sheet, crisis cuts through the BBC analysis. And some of the papers saying this might all be very bad for investigative journalism, because it's going to lead some media institution into checking what their journalists write and to making sure that they do not offend anybody, just in case they might get blamed for coming out with controversial statements.
Here you go, a split screen, as we call it in TV, I don't know what they call it in the written press, split page, BBC in crisis, Blair in clear, according to "The Daily Telegraph," a right leaning broad sheet.
Blizzard of blame chills BBC. This is "The Times" of London. It snowed yesterday in London. This is right next to our bureau, actually, the BBC headquarters on Portland Place. So there you go, linking the weather with probably the atmosphere at the BBC where the Chairman of the Board of Governors, Gavin Davis, resigned as a result of that Lord Hutton report inquiry.
This is "The Mail," the most scathing attack on the government. Justice, they write, question mark, and there you have the grave of the scientist David Christopher Kelly who died last July as a result of his slashing his left wrist. And here you can see the "Daily Mail" saying Hutton does us a great disservice, he failed to set his story in the context of the BBC's huge virtues and laborer's sore (ph) vices. Quite an attack there.
Here I just -- and I know you have a lot of news there out of the Middle East, so I'm going to keep it brief. And this is, in terms of the way it was set up, probably one of my favorite front pages, simply because it's original in the way they organized the front page. Whitewash, the Hutton report. And as you can see there, "The Independent," left leaning broad sheet, basically implying, as many others have in the press this morning I have to say, Carol, that this report was a whitewash and that indeed it was not laying the blame evenly on all the parties involved.
So that's a quick look at what's happening.
COSTELLO: So we're probably...
GORANI: I'm sorry, here's one last one. I know you'll like this one. I knew I had one more...
COSTELLO: Well I'm sure everyone who loves Tony Blair will like that one.
I'm just -- I'm kind of interested...
GORANI: Yes.
COSTELLO: ... about the BBC and the hit it's taken in all of this and what the viewers in Britain think about that and if they are still watching?
GORANI: Well, let me tell you, I don't have any official polls or any of the results of any official surveys because this all happened 24 hours ago. But I was listening to talk radio this morning, BBC talk radio, and many of the listeners were calling in and saying you know what, I don't believe the Hutton report.
In other words, this highly distinguished senior judge, who for four months has been investigating the suicide of this scientist, came out with this report blaming the BBC and exonerating, in effect, the government. Well, they are -- he is not as widely believed, perhaps, as you would expect a senior judge, a senior independent judge in his position to be.
And I do believe that the feeling in the U.K. right now is one of skepticism with regards to the report and perhaps also one of skepticism with regards to the government because this is going way beyond the question of who is responsible for the death of this scientist. And it is going at the heart of why the U.K. joined the United States into this war against Iraq.
COSTELLO: Fascinating.
GORANI: So this -- the debate will not go away.
Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: No, no, I don't think it's over yet.
Hala Gorani live from London this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 29, 2004 - 05:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time now, though, to check on what's making headlines overseas in this morning's 'Euro Edition.' Hala Gorani -- Hala Gorani live in London.
I was so excited, I couldn't say your name correctly. Good morning -- Hala.
HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well, I think you could probably guess what's on the front pages of U.K. papers this morning, and that is Blair, Hutton and the BBC. Now you may remember, of course, that yesterday the Hutton inquiry, that was leading an investigation into the suicide of a leading British scientist, came out with its report. Lord Hutton blaming the BBC almost for everything that went wrong in this whole affair and pretty much letting the government and the Ministry of Defense off the hook.
Now here is what the papers are leading with. "The Guardian," left leaning broad sheet, crisis cuts through the BBC analysis. And some of the papers saying this might all be very bad for investigative journalism, because it's going to lead some media institution into checking what their journalists write and to making sure that they do not offend anybody, just in case they might get blamed for coming out with controversial statements.
Here you go, a split screen, as we call it in TV, I don't know what they call it in the written press, split page, BBC in crisis, Blair in clear, according to "The Daily Telegraph," a right leaning broad sheet.
Blizzard of blame chills BBC. This is "The Times" of London. It snowed yesterday in London. This is right next to our bureau, actually, the BBC headquarters on Portland Place. So there you go, linking the weather with probably the atmosphere at the BBC where the Chairman of the Board of Governors, Gavin Davis, resigned as a result of that Lord Hutton report inquiry.
This is "The Mail," the most scathing attack on the government. Justice, they write, question mark, and there you have the grave of the scientist David Christopher Kelly who died last July as a result of his slashing his left wrist. And here you can see the "Daily Mail" saying Hutton does us a great disservice, he failed to set his story in the context of the BBC's huge virtues and laborer's sore (ph) vices. Quite an attack there.
Here I just -- and I know you have a lot of news there out of the Middle East, so I'm going to keep it brief. And this is, in terms of the way it was set up, probably one of my favorite front pages, simply because it's original in the way they organized the front page. Whitewash, the Hutton report. And as you can see there, "The Independent," left leaning broad sheet, basically implying, as many others have in the press this morning I have to say, Carol, that this report was a whitewash and that indeed it was not laying the blame evenly on all the parties involved.
So that's a quick look at what's happening.
COSTELLO: So we're probably...
GORANI: I'm sorry, here's one last one. I know you'll like this one. I knew I had one more...
COSTELLO: Well I'm sure everyone who loves Tony Blair will like that one.
I'm just -- I'm kind of interested...
GORANI: Yes.
COSTELLO: ... about the BBC and the hit it's taken in all of this and what the viewers in Britain think about that and if they are still watching?
GORANI: Well, let me tell you, I don't have any official polls or any of the results of any official surveys because this all happened 24 hours ago. But I was listening to talk radio this morning, BBC talk radio, and many of the listeners were calling in and saying you know what, I don't believe the Hutton report.
In other words, this highly distinguished senior judge, who for four months has been investigating the suicide of this scientist, came out with this report blaming the BBC and exonerating, in effect, the government. Well, they are -- he is not as widely believed, perhaps, as you would expect a senior judge, a senior independent judge in his position to be.
And I do believe that the feeling in the U.K. right now is one of skepticism with regards to the report and perhaps also one of skepticism with regards to the government because this is going way beyond the question of who is responsible for the death of this scientist. And it is going at the heart of why the U.K. joined the United States into this war against Iraq.
COSTELLO: Fascinating.
GORANI: So this -- the debate will not go away.
Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: No, no, I don't think it's over yet.
Hala Gorani live from London this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
