September 23, 2003
NOBODY WINS
Gerard Henderson on Gilligan and the Professor:
Gilligan is an attack journalist par excellence. On this occasion, however, he has been caught in his own (friendly) fire. Yet he has damaged the Blair Government in the process. Many Brits (falsely) believe that they were deliberately lied to over Iraq's WMD. And few Brits know that the late David Kelly himself believed that Iraq possessed WMD and supported regime change in Baghdad. It's spin, BBC-style. But it does not do democracy or journalism any good.
Speaking of local columnists, I missed this on the weekend: Emma Tom is leaving The Australian.
Posted by Tim Blair at September 23, 2003 02:20 PMBon voyage. Apart from the rare column by her poking fun at mullets and moccasins (and how difficult is it to get a laugh out of that?! Brian Mannix, call your office!), Em Atom should never have been given a column in the first place.
Posted by: Uncle Milk at September 23, 2003 at 04:45 PMWell, I'm sure Greg Sheridan will fill her shoes nicely.
Posted by: gaz at September 23, 2003 at 04:50 PMSpeak for yourself, Kate - I liked Emma. She had occasional flashes of wit, and she never stuck to any one political line, unlike Philip. She was a one off.
Posted by: TimT at September 23, 2003 at 06:04 PMKate is on the right track: from Henderson, journos are dogs and come in a variety of breeds.Woof woof.
Posted by: d at September 23, 2003 at 06:34 PMWhere's Emma off to then? Did she jump of was she pushed? I heard she was getting a fair bit of dough for not a lot of work.
Posted by: Freddy at September 23, 2003 at 10:15 PMWhere's Emma off to then? Did she jump or was she pushed? I heard she was getting a fair bit of dough for not a lot of work.
Posted by: Freddy at September 23, 2003 at 10:18 PMMany Brits (falsely) believe that they were deliberately lied to over Iraq's WMD.
As Twain said (and I'm sure Gilligan is well aware), 'a lie can make it half way around the world before the truth gets its boots on.'
Posted by: Lawrence at September 24, 2003 at 07:46 AMWell, I for one am going to miss the lovely Emma and her wonderful way of cutting through crap and giving society's unrecognised a go (all you blokes who wear frocks who read this site would have been happy with her last contribution).
Go Emma (no, I mean don't); you rock.
Posted by: Darlene Taylor at September 24, 2003 at 10:16 AM