Abstract

Whitewashing Blair

The author comments on charges made by the British media that Lord Hutton's report exonerating the government of Tony Blair in the death of weapons expert David Kelly was a whitewash. Lord Hutton's finding that the government had not "sexed up" its dossier on Iraqi weapons, and that the BBC had been wrong to suggest otherwise, gave a huge boost to a government that only a day earlier had come within five votes of losing on a major parliamentary showdown despite a 161-seat majority. By the end of the week both the director general of the BBC and the chairman of its board of governors had resigned. How could Hutton disregard so much of the evidence his inquiry uncovered? That there were errors in reporter Andrew Gilligan's initial story is beyond question. Nor did BBC management help by refusing to issue a speedy correction. But to focus on such matters while ignoring the fact that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction--the Blair government's sole justification for going to war in defiance of the United Nations--have been shown to be nonexistent takes a special talent. Perhaps the most surprising--and revealing--aspect of the Hutton report is that it was a surprise at all. In the long, shameful history of British cover-ups, few men have come as well prepared to wield the whitewasher's brush. But if Hutton's conclusions were foregone, the response has been more interesting. The British media (with the sole, significant, exception of the Murdoch press, whose owner is the BBC's main competitor) were remarkably quick to consign Hutton to history's dustbin. If the backlash against Hutton signals a split between the government and the political class, the public is firmly on the side of the latter.