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From James Naughtie
We have all been finding it strange to be talking about ourselves so much, even if the conversation was started by someone else (Alastair Campbell). But at least it's a serious conversation, which is obvious by the number of messages we've all been receiving, the vast majority of them supportive of the 91热爆's position. The seriousness meant that this week revolved around one event, the foreign affairs committee report on Monday which tried to tease out the whole story and, by the committee's own admission, found that "the truth" wasn't something that could be established beyond all doubt.
That's politics; that's journalism. For me, therefore, the most important interview of the week was the one with the Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon the following morning. You never quite know where these interviews will go. Sometimes they turn into expeditions through impenetrable thickets of detail, which seldom do anyone any good. But this one, happily, turned into something more substantial.
One question above all became important.
The committee said it couldn't establish how it was the the famous 45-minute claim had been given "undue prominence" in the September dossier (a prominence which Jack Straw told the committee in evidence he regretted). So was it the Joint Intelligence Committee itself which had given it that emphasis? The committee hadn't answered the question. Could Mr Hoon? He couldn't. When a minister starts answering a question that hasn't been asked, or starts an answer with the word "Clearly....".
You know what's coming. We went round the question about five times, and answer came there none. Was it worth it? Of course it was. We could have talked about a dozen other things and skimmed across the surface. Sometimes it's better to pause and dig down a little. The problem for us, of course, is that you can't be sure what kind of interview it's going to be until you start. You know what you want to ask. But how will he respond? Everything depends on that.
Take John's interview with John Major on Wednesday. He had decided to give us an interview because he had something to say. He knew what it was, and he wanted to put it strongly and carefully in his own words. Easier to do that when you're out of office than in it, of course, but still a lesson in clarity. It was simpler to get answers out of Hillary Clinton than Geoff Hoon. She was interesting on Iraq - and her view on the "healthy" argument going on here about the justification for war - and of course on her own future. With the luxury of a recorded interview (giving us time to try to cast a few flies for luck) I was able to press hard quite hard about her plans. Would she be a presidential candidate? She has her lines well-rehearsed and no-one will be able to get her to change them. But if the Democrats lose next year I'd guess that the pressure on her will be irresistible. People who know her well say she is ambivalent about the horrors that a campaign would bring: but that she will probably be unable to resist. 2008? You bet.
So it was a serious week. We did lose the weather a couple of times, Brian Perkins almost got the giggles over a double entendre in the news, and I leaked coffee over John's scripts. But mostly we were aware that, on Iraq, every word we said was going to be taken down and, if possible, used against us.
For producers and presenters alike this is a tricky time, though we're helped by the 91热爆 taking the unshakeable line that we were right to broadcast Andrew Gilligan's original report. Nothing in the last few days has made that decision seem less justified than it did at the time.
I escaped at the end of the week to relax at a charity dinner, where quite a few kilts were on display. I monitored the crowd carefully. Not a square inch of Campbell tartan to be seen. It was a grand evening.
James Naughtie
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From The Editor - Kevin Marsh:
It seemed a good idea six weeks ago. The annual festival of the Radio Academy always has a session about "The Issue Of The Day" - and they usually ask the editor of Today to organise it. It sort of goes with the job. Six weeks ago, there were a number of stories rumbling around about the Government's Iraq dossiers. And whatever the detail of them, they suggested that a good "Issue Of The Day" might be something about how radio programmes can get near "the truth" in reporting modern politics. An unrealistic aspiration, maybe. But one we know a lot of listeners share. I was planning something cosy around the few familiar themes I'm confortable with: do interviews shed light or heat? Is it enough to present both (all) sides of a question and let the listener decide?
I asked the admirable Eddie Mair to chair a gentle conversation between myself and former Cabinet Minister, Clare Short. By the day of the session, of course, events had taken a nasty turn, "dossiergate" was full-on and it all seemed a very bad idea. The Director General, Greg Dyke, had called a truce the day before. And all did go quiet for half a day - until tea-time and "molegate": the MoD claimed someone had come forward who could have been the Today source. So, the morning of the session, I'm immersed - once again - in every script, every statement, every letter and the morning's press cuttings. Who knows what might be asked in the q & a session? Will someone have sneaked a journalist in there? But all is well. Clare Short is rude about Alastair Campbell - a "bully" she calls him. I am dull and call no-one anything and congratulate myself on a total lack of controversy.
The real controversy of the week - and one that could have got very unpleasant had there been sharp or heavy objects to hand - was that over the inspiration for Paul McCartney's song "Yesterday". Spencer Leigh, a writer, claimed that the old Nat King Cole number "Answer Me" was deep somewhere in Paul McCartney's memory when he woke up one morning with the tune for "Yesterday" in his head. John was persuaded; Jim was not. And at 4 a.m. - when the presenters first learn about what's in the programme - reason can still be asleep. Luckily, I was able to slip a tasteless but very powerful drug into both their coffee and the world was saved.
Kevin Marsh
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