The letter had an immediate impact. Campbell had been invited earlier to appear Friday on Channel Four’s evening news program with host Jon Snow. Campbell had turned down the request, and instead gone to Wimbledon to watch the tennis championship matches. But when he got the BBC response, he changed his mind.

First Campbell put out a statement from his office. It said that Sambrook’s response “confirms that the BBC broadcast a story that was hugely damaging to the integrity of the government and the prime minister without knowing that story to be true and without any effort to check whether the story was true or not.” He alleged that the “lie” was “broadcast many times on many BBC outlets.” The original story, he declared, was “outrageous. So is Mr. Sambrook’s reply... I do not want 12 pages of weasel words, sophistry and a defense of unethical journalism. Far better would be a 12-word apology.” He continued:

If the BBC are now saying that their journalism is based upon the principle that they can report what any source says, then BBC standards are now debased beyond belief. It means the BBC can broadcast anything and take responsibility for nothing... Their reputation is being undermined by its institutional failure ever to admit it is wrong.

Then Campbell headed for the Channel Four broadcast facility. He arrived after the 7 p.m. news program had started. The first Snow knew he had an on-air guest was a message in his earpiece, informing him that Campbell was in the building. ^[46] During the interview, Campbell made the argument that the BBC had changed the rules of journalism. He said:

They now say you can say anything you want on the television because somebody said it to you. It doesn’t matter if it’s true. It doesn’t matter if you check it. It doesn’t matter if it’s corroborated. You can say it. ^[47]

Moving to a more personal level, Campbell added that, “a lot of journalists see their mission to discredit politicians in the political process.” At the same time, he clarified that “I have never met Andrew Gilligan. I don’t have a vendetta against him.

I do believe that anybody with an interest in good, decent journalism, of which there is a huge amount in this country, should understand that when allegations are made, when lies are broadcast, when as that letter shows, there is not a shred of evidence to substantiate the allegations, they should apologize and then we can move on.