Thursday, December 06, 2007
New Sunday Times Pol Ed is Revealed
I'm not sure if this has appeared anywhere else or not, so apologies if I am behind the times, but the new political editor of the Sunday Times, succeeding David Cracknell, is none other than Jonathan Oliver, who up till now has been Simon Walters' deputy on the Mail on Sunday. Jonathan is a story getter of the first order. He was the one who broke the Labour donations scandal. He also incurred the wrath of his lobby colleagues when he stood up at a press conference with Tony Blair the day after the death of David Kelly and asked: "Prime Minister, do you have blood on your hands?" His more sensitive colleagues thought he had gone too far.
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13 comments:
He had gone too far, and while we are on the subject….
Norman Baker announced a decision to step down from the shadow cabinet ‘establish the truth behind the death of Dr David Kelly‘. . His theory was that the Iraqi civil service were over here in collusion with ours to bump off the boffin. As it`s publicists mention “ A sure fire hit “. Fancy….,,..
The Strange Death of David Kelly came out this month .Family members have expressed their displeasure at the publication. The husband of Kelly's sister Sarah said "It is just raking over old bones ... I can't speak for the whole family, but I've read it all [Baker's theories], every word, and I don't believe it . Richard Norton Taylor said ….
“There is no evidence supporting the many theories that Kelly was murdered and plenty of evidence supporting the conclusion that he was driven to suicide. .”
Recently Baker claimed that evidence showing David Kelly's death was not a suicide had been wiped from his hard drive,. This wasn’t mentioned until his stupid book began to make him a laughing stock .What is it that drove him to chase a wild goose so assiduously
Could it be the £50,000 he was paid and the additional amounts for the Mail’s serialisation netting god knows what.? No sign of giving it to charity I see , despite his noble intentions and sizeable salary, not a penny for our soldiers for example about whom he was supposedly concerned .
It was on mediaguardian.co.uk earlier.
It's about time the Sunday Times started getting some really good political scoops. Can anyone remember their last?
Jonathan Oliver is a credible journalist, what distinguishes him is his lack of "false respect" for charlatans such as Mr Blair etc. He asked a very obvious question following Dr Kelly's death, the shame was on the (sensitive..) others who didn't follow up with equally challenging questions.
The memory of our visibly excited then Prime Minister initially discussing the tragic shooting of Mr Jean Charles de Menzies will stay with me for ever, the reason that Labour have (over) stayed in power is the abject failure of the media to challenge their mendacity and abuse of power and process.
I hope Jonathan Oliver continues to dig (in Scotland as well please...).
You can't say he doesn't deserve it, following Donorgate.
In my view Jonathan Oliver played a blinder over Kelly. He asked the question everyone secretly wanted to ask but didn't dare. I think the resentment of some of the older hands probably stemmed from the fact that he was relatively new in the Lobby at the time, and that his taking the lead in the questioning like that was seen as a bit pushy.
Perhaps he could pose the "Blair" question to Brown and Hoon et al over defence funding and deaths arising eg Nimrod etc
JH
Do you think that the Times and Sunday Times are moving in on the Tory voters now that the Daily telegraph does so much government propaganda in its comment section ?
good for J-Lo.
Thank God it wasn't one of the Three Labour Stooges from The Times.
(Philip Webster, Tim Hames and Tom Baldwin)
Newmania - I've no views on Norman Baker's motives, and all I know about Dr Kelly's death is what I read in the newspapers but - one thing I had never read until Norman Baker's book was that Dr Kelly's fingerprints were NOT on the knife he allegedly used to commit suicide with. There weren't any fingerprints on the knife, apparently. Thames Valley Police confirmed it after Norman Baker said it.
Will CCHQ/Richard Hardyment continue to feed him stories?
All very curious. Isn't David Cracknell the one who left for a job with Jon Mendelsohn's old PR outfit after the paper brought in Marie Woolf from the Independent on Sunday over his head?
Not sure the Sunday Times is up for printing Tory HQ handouts in the same way as the Mail on Sunday,time will tell....
The problem he will find with the Sunday Times is that, for all anybody says, he tends to write stories that are true. The Sunday Times does not know what the word means.
Clearly Blair was totally responsible for Dr Kelly's death. Oliver is 100 per cent right to say he had blood on his hands. Bloody good hack, I say!
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