The claim by BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan that the British government "sexed up" intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capability was branded "unfounded" yesterday in Lord Hutton's report.
The defence correspondent received the full wrath of the law lord as he criticised almost every aspect of his reporting.
Lord Hutton said the "uncertainties" surrounding Mr Gilligan's evidence to the inquiry meant it was impossible to know what Dr Kelly actually said to the BBC journalist.
This was only made worse by the fact that the reporter had two different sets of notes detailing his meeting with the government scientist on May 22nd last year.
Lord Hutton also highlighted Mr Gilligan's own admission that he had made errors in his 6.07a.m. May 29th broadcast on Radio 4's Today programme.
The law lord was particularly unimpressed with the reporter's claim that the government knowingly inserted incorrect information into the September 24th dossier.
Lord Hutton said: "The allegation . . . that the government probably knew that the 45-minute claim was wrong before the government decided to put it in the dossier was an allegation which was unfounded."
He also condemned Mr Gilligan's claim that the 45-minute point was only included at a later drafting stage of the dossier because it came from a single source.
"I am further satisfied that Dr Kelly did not say to Mr Gilligan that the reason why the 45-minute claim was not included in the original draft of the dossier was because it only came from one source and the intelligence agencies did not really believe it was necessarily true," Lord Hutton said.
"The reality was that the 45-minute claim was based on an intelligence report which the Secret Intelligence Service believed to be reliable."
He stated: "In addition, the reason why the 45-minute claim was not inserted in the first draft of the dossier was because the intelligence on which it was based was not received by the SIS [the Secret Intelligence Service\] in London until August 29th, 2002."
Lord Hutton criticised Mr Gilligan's use of the term "sexing up" - a term which, he complained, lacked "clarity" in regards to the dossier.
"I consider that the allegation was unfounded as it would have been understood by those who heard the broadcasts to mean that the dossier had been embellished with intelligence known or believed to be false or unreliable, which was not the case," he said.
Summing up, Lord Hutton spoke of the vital role of the media in a democratic society, but added: "False accusations of fact impugning the integrity of others, including politicians, should not be made by the media."
And his parting shot to Mr Gilligan was to refer to his claims as "very grave allegations" which had worked their way through the "defective" BBC editorial system without being vetted.