Caught in the Crossfire

Finally got round to listening to the Arnolfini Journalism 2007, by Andrew Gilligan, and it is a good listen and well worth the effort. Sample quote;

Over the question of Iraq, the most serious question you could possible imagine, the coming of our troops to war against a country that had offered no provocation to us; nearly all the democratic institutions that were supposed to protect us, failed. The civil service in the person of John Scarlet of the joint intelligence committee became Alistair Campbell's co-conspirator. Parliament, in the form of the Foreign Affairs Committee became more concerned with humiliating David Kelly than getting to the bottom of the dossier business and the Judiciary, in the form of Lord Hutton, well I just don't know what happened to Lord Hutton. Not only did the institutions fail; they have failed to acknowledge that their failures and they continue to present that all is well.

Another point he raises is what he calls 'anti-jounralists' or PR people, whos job is to obfuscate and manipulate the news agenda. Link to the MP3 is here.

(PS, on the subject of Iraq & David Kelly - also check out the lecture on the death of David Kelly by the Lib Dem MP Norman Baker)