THE BRITISH government has claimed its second media scalp over Iraq, with the departure of Piers Morgan from the hot seat at the fiercely anti-war Daily Mirror.
The outspoken editor’s position had become untenable when a Ministry of Defence investigation came up with convincing evidence that photos published by the Mirror purportedly showing the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers were in fact forgeries.
So Morgan had to go, just as the BBC’s Andrew Gilligan and the corporation’s top managers had had to go over the now infamous David Kelly interview.
Once again, Tony Blair’s government – with the gleeful assistance of the Mirror’s fierce tabloid rivals – pounced on an error of editorial judgement to distract attention from the real issue of Britain’s central role in a deeply unpopular – and to many unethical – war.
The BBC fell on its sword over Gilligan’s mistake in his presentation of the government’s ‘dodgy dossier’. Yet the main thrust of his report was true, and many Labour back benchers – not to mention the general public – are increasingly unhappy about the way they were dragged into war to eliminate weapons of mass destruction that have still not been found.
Either the government knew it was hyping up the intelligence (as Gilligan claimed) or the intelligence was woefully off target. Whether it’s for deception of incompetence, someone should be called to account. Yet has there been a single ministerial scalp?
Morgan was forced out because the photos were fake. Yet the issue of abuse against prisoners and civilians was not plucked out of thin air, as reports from the Red Cross and Amnesty International have proved – not to mention the notorious abuses meted out by American guards at Abu Ghraib. Even if British soldiers are innocent of the kind of abuse going on under American authority, surely the British government is guilty by association and ministers should be called to account, just as Piers Morgan has been.
Can it be right that two media organisations have accepted responsibility for mistakes they have made, but that the British government has not? Can it be right that Andrew Gilligan and Piers Morgan should be spending more time with their families, but Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon (not to mention his US counterpart Donald Rumsfeld) is still secure in his place?
For all the British government’s short-term successes against its opponents in the media, their cause will not be silenced. It will remain in the public eye because the anarchy in Iraq is deepening by the day, constantly raising questions about the wisdom of British policy in following America so blindly into war. In two specific cases, Tony Blair has succeeded in diverting blame onto the messenger. The message, however, will not go away.
