Reporters Should Have 'Margin for Error' - Gilligan

PA News ^ | 01/29/2004 | Andrew Woodcock

[BushisTheMan]

BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan made a final plea for understanding in a late submission to Lord Hutton's inquiry.

Reporters should be given 'a margin for error' when dealing with matters of clear public interest, particularly on political issues, he argued.

He insisted he had never accused the Government of lying and told the law lord that, while there were errors in his May 29 report for Radio 4's Today programme, it "accurately reported the burden of what Dr Kelly had told him".

The 42-page statement was released by Lord Hutton along with submissions from the BBC, the Government, and the Kelly family made following the completion of the main period of inquiry hearings on September 25.

In the October 8 document, Mr Gilligan's solicitor Paul Jones said the journalist accepted that some words or phrases in his reports may have been inaccurate, but urged Lord Hutton not to focus too narrowly on them, but to view the reports in context.

The inquiry hearings had given 'unwarranted' emphasis to the comment in Gilligan's unscripted 6.07am report for Today that the Government 'probably knew' its claim Iraqi WMD could be used within 45 minutes was wrong, said the submission.

"Particular words and phrases should not be picked out from a transcript for detailed forensic examination that distorts the effect of the words at the time."

While the scientist had never actually used these words to Gilligan, the comment "accurately reported the burden of what Dr Kelly had told him".

The Government itself had made no complaint about this particular allegation until long after the broadcast, when it focused attention on it in a way which was not 'proportionate' to its significance in the overall broadcast, the submission said.

In the event, Lord Hutton focused precisely on the allegation in the report, making the damning judgment that it was 'unfounded'.

In his October 8 submission, Mr Gilligan insisted that much of David Kelly's evidence to parliamentary committees, and his comments to other journalists, stood up the main claims in his report, he said.

Mr Gilligan was not the only journalist to raise questions about the Government's handling of intelligence on Iraq, which was a matter of 'incontestable' public interest.

Reporters had the task of acting as the 'eyes and ears' of the general public to investigate how the Government had handled intelligence, said Gilligan's document.

The law did not require 'a standard of perfection' from reporters, it argued. "There has to be a latitude " a margin for error.

And it added: "It is important to have in mind that in the context of political reporting, it can be right to report matters, even if it later turns out that they are untrue."

By Andrew Woodcock, Political Correspondent, PA News

[BushisTheMan]

At first I wanted to post under "Humor" for the stupid remarks that Gilligan made.

But I'll just post this without my usual disgust for Gilligan's reporting.

[Old Sarge]

This is just too ridiculous for comment

[Dog]

Check out this Gilligan comment.

[mewzilla]

Wow.

[ambrose]

Reporters ShouldN'T Have 'Margin for Error' - Skipper

[NeonKnight]

So Gilligan was doing exactly what he was accusing the government of doing...lying. But it's OK for him to do it. He is a liberal journalist.

[Maigrey]

Yea, sure. The journalists should be given a margin of error, but the same standard can't be held for politicians? Horse Hockey!

That's what the corrections column is for!

[Aeronaut]

The law did not require 'a standard of perfection' from reporters, it argued. "There has to be a latitude " a margin for error.

Tell all your NPR type friends flat out: "THE BBC LIED!" Tell them over and over again. Use this to prove it.

[billorites]

Gilligan!

[billorites]

I hate that my local New Hampshire NPR station broadcasts BBC nonsense.

[Revolting cat!]

Send him back to the island!

[Aeronaut]

I am going to make a bumper sticker that says "THE BBC LIED!"

[Revolting cat!]

Tomorrow's headline today:

Gilligan Demands a Mulligan!

[Ichneumon]

I hate that my local New Hampshire NPR station broadcasts BBC nonsense.

The online version of the BBC once reported, in a straight news article, that "one in three American schoolchildren bring a gun to school". I lambasted them for it in an email, and they removed it and posted a "correction". But you have to wonder just what sort of monkeys they have on their staff to allow something that ridiculous to get into their "news" articles in the first place.

[freeangel]

If he wants to write fiction all well and good--but he must realize the difference between truthful reporting and fiction. And there should be no "gimees" for reporters.

[driftless]

Too many Brits and Euros are ready and eager to believe the worst about Americans thanks to their incredibly leftist-biased news media like the Beeb. When my English-born fiancee came to America, she thought the first armed cop she saw was going to shoot her. Certainly we Americans have our weaknesses, but I believe a lot of the anti-American sentiment is an attempt by many Euros to cover up their own inferiority complexes. However don't discount the terrible leftist bias of their "betters" in the media. From the stuff I've read in Brit rags other than the Telegraph, Gilligan is probably just the average Brit journalist in his political views. Socialism is a tough disease to conquer.

[scouse]

Reporters should be given 'a margin for error' when dealing with matters of clear public interest, particularly on political issues, he argued.

Even if it does drive a man to commit suiucide?

[PhilDragoo]

While the scientist had never actually used these words to Gilligan

Andrew Gilligan = Jayson Blair

Banana slug excreta journalism

[Col Freeper]

Hmmm, has that picture been "sexed up", ya think?