Flat Earth News: An Award-winning Reporter Exposes Falsehood, Distortion and Propaganda in the Global Media (2008) by Nick Davies

Author:Nick Davies
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2008-11-16T23:00:00+00:00

Downing Street could not have known it at the time but, as a result of the death of Gilligan’s source, Dr David Kelly, subsequent official inquiries by Lord Hutton and Lord Butler published material which revealed that that was simply not true.

This material included, for example, two messages to the head of the Joint Intelligence Committee: an email from the Downing Street chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, successfully asking for the removal of a sentence which suggested that Iraq would use chemical and biological weapons only if it was attacked; and a memo from Alastair Campbell himself which successfully produced a line saying that the Iraqi military ‘are able’ to deploy chemical and biological weapons within forty-five minutes of an order to do so, whereas the original draft from the intelligence agencies had said only that they ‘may be able’ to do so.

(In the classic two-step dance between PR and churnalism, this subtle distortion was converted into brazen falsehood: ‘45 Minutes from Attack’ in the Evening Standard, ‘Brits 45 minutes from Doom’ in the Sun.)

Downing Street’s manipulation of the media over Gilligan’s story went much further than this original lie. The evidence suggests that Alastair Campbell used it as a decoy to distract attention from a highly embarrassing story, which was emerging slowly in May and June 2003, that the long-debated Iraqi weapons of mass destruction did not exist. The decoy strategy began to unfold on 25 June, when Campbell was called to give evidence to the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs. There were three key moves.

First, giving his evidence to the committee, Campbell reserved his best sound bites for an outspoken attack on Gilligan’s story, stabbing his finger in the air and demanding an apology:

‘Until the BBC acknowledges that that is a lie, I will keep banging on.’

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