Sunday 3 February 2008

Cudlipp, Campbell and credibility

If you spend a large part of your career lying, do you forfeit the right to be taken seriously, even when you are right? In the Independent on Sunday, Vincent Graff discusses the various criticisms levelled at the press by Alastair Campbell in the Hugh Cudlipp Lecture last week, concluding that this Campbell might be calling the kettle black, but has a point.

Having looked in some detail at the way Campbell and his mates sexed up the Iraq dossier and then lied about it, driving a man to his death and doing no end of damage to the BBC, I instinctively feel that Campbell is saying these things to promote his own agenda. If he really believes the case he is making, he should realise that it would be better made by someone with some credibility.

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