The head of BBC radio news has accused former Today editor Rod Liddle of playing to the gallery over the issue of whether he was forced to sack author Frederick Forsyth from the show for being too rightwing.
Stephen Mitchell denied Liddle's claim that BBC management ordered him to drop Forsyth as a contributor to the flagship Radio 4 breakfast news show.
"My recollection of events preceding the end of the Today programme essays by Frederick Forsyth and Will Self differs from that of Rod Liddle," Mr Mitchell said in a letter in today's Guardian.
"At no time did anyone in the BBC 'hector' me about the columns, nor complain about the politics of either Forsyth or Self.
"They were both stimulating in a way for a time, but time passes and so do contributors for good editorial reasons... and so do editors," he added.
"I felt the format and contributors were becoming tired and the slot needed refreshing. I talked to Radio 4 and found it shared my opinion, so I asked Rod to find new contributors or change the format," Mr Mitchell said.
"He failed to find anyone new so we opted for the second course of action and, instead of essays, he commissioned the current 'diary' slot that runs on Today every Saturday."
Mr Mitchell was responding to a claim by Liddle in the Sunday Telegraph that BBC managers had forced him to sack Forsyth because they were unhappy with the author's rightwing views.
Liddle said: "It seemed to me it was Freddy's sentiments, his politics - rather than his writing style - which so annoyed."
He described the episode as the "one supremely shameful episode in my tenure as editor" of Today.
Liddle was forced to resign in September after he wrote in a column in the Guardian that the Countryside Alliance march had reminded some people why they voted Labour in 1997.
