The BBC - whose side are they on, anyway?

From The Telegraph and via Melanie Phillips.

Politicians reacted in disbelief to the revelation that for over two hours yesterday, the BBC News website carried a request for people in Iraq to report on troop movements. The request was removed from the website after it sparked furious protests that the corporation was endangering the lives of British servicemen and women. But according to accounts last night, a story on a major operation by US and Iraqi troops against al-Qa’eda somewhere north of Baghdad contained an extraordinary request for information about the movement of troops. Last night the BBC confirmed the wording of the request was: ‘Are you in Iraq? Have you seen any troop movements? If you have any information you would like to share with the BBC, you can do so using the form below.’ The BBC confirmed last night that this form of words had appeared on the website from ‘late morning’ until early afternoon. ‘It was down by 2pm,’ The Daily Telegraph was told.

Bring back Pathe News. I'd much rather listen to the plummy tones of Cholmondley-Warner jauntily telling us how Tommy has given Abdul a bloody nose in Afghanistan than the funereal Huw Edwards droning about the unending misery and relentless danger for our boys and the locals while claiming that the Taliban are "resurgent".