More editorial page fiction from the Seattle Times

For reasons which I cannot fathom, the Seattle Times editorial page gives Floyd McKay a weekly soapbox. Here is yesterday's column, which like many of McKay's other efforts, is more fiction than fact:

When we were in Britain in August, there was a huge furor over Blair's government "outing" a weapons expert who told the BBC that Blair's office "sexed up" weapons data in order to justify the war in Iraq.

The scientist, Dr. David Kelly, talked to a BBC reporter on condition that his name not be used. The story was a factor in British public opinion turning against Blair.

Blair's office soon discovered Kelly was the source and promptly leaked his name to pro-government reporters. Kelly was outed, despite a long tradition in the British government of allowing high-level officials to talk on background to the press without having their names disclosed.

Tragically for all involved, the outing was such a shock to Kelly that he committed suicide.

This is an interesting novelization of what actually transpired. In fact, the BBC reporter in question, Andrew Gilligan, admitted the following in his testimony to the investigating commission:

Gilligan said he had made a "slip of the tongue" when he said Downing Street inserted a claim in the September dossier that Iraq could launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes, knowing it was wrong.

He also conceded it was a mistake, in one of his broadcasts, to describe the weapons expert David Kelly as an "intelligence service source". And he admitted failing to correct the Today presenter John Humphrys for making the same error.

Richard Sambrook, the BBC's director of news, said Gilligan failed to appreciate the "nuances and subtleties" of broadcast journalism, casting his reports in "primary colours" rather than shades of grey.

Both admitted it was a serious error of judgment for Gilligan to email members of the foreign affairs committee (FAC), suggesting questions they might ask of Dr Kelly and effectively outing him as the source for reports by the BBC Newsnight journalist Susan Watts. Dr Kelly's body was found three days after appearing before the FAC, apparently after taking his own life, leading to the setting up of Lord Hutton's inquiry.

In other words it was the BBC's Gilligan who "sexed up" the story and outed his own source. You wouldn't know any of this from Floyd McKay's summary.

McKay teaches journalism at Western Washington University. Perhaps he should to transfer to the English Department's Creative Writing Program

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at November 27, 2003 10:38 AM