Is the BBC wrong to reconsider website ads?

The BBC's apparent U-turn over a decision to carry advertising next to news on an international website, to be launched initially in the U.S. next spring, has drawn at least one blogger's fire. "The curmudgeons have prevailed" wrote the critic who, a couple of days before, greeted the climbdown as "ridiculous". That's just one blogger, of course, versus 150 BBC staff who signed a letter of protest against the plan, arguing that it would damage the corporation's reputation for impartiality. That prompted the rethink by the BBC's journalism board, chaired by the deputy director general, Mark Byford. A number of questions here: did the BBC give it enough thought in advance and, if so, why back down now? BBC World TV runs ads, so is advertising less compromising on television than on the net? Doesn't the lone blogger have a point?