Fred from Derry,

Thanks for your comment.

Sentence completion questions typically come with a choice of answers and so let me offer an alternative to yours. I believe we suffered from a different kind of ED: Editorial Discretion.

You see, we did ask Alastair Campbell about Iraq. It sounded something like this: Do you regret any of the decisions either you or the Blair government made in the lead-up to war with Iraq?

Campbell said that he didn't regret any policy decisions, that, in fact, Blair would likely "go to the grave" believing Britain made the right call on Iraq and he supported that assessment. He then talked about what he did regret, which made allusion to embittered relations with the press and, in particular, the row with the BBC that led to David Kelly, an MoD official, committing suicide.

The truth is that we didn't feel there was enough context to Campbell's answer and that running it, without fuller detail, would be more confusing than instructive.

And so, not without regret, we cut it.

Ironic that the interviewer expressed surprise that the US press is not 'negative' whilst avoiding mention or Blair's position on Iraq and its relevance to his decline in popularity.

Answer: Erectile Dysfunction
Standardized Achievement Test (SAT) answer to the question, “If courage was Viagra, when your show did not mention Iraq once in your interview with Alastair Campbell in connection to the 'Hostile' journalism he faced, your show suffered from ____________.”

Fred Bates ('Phred Baits)
125 Warner Hill Road
Derry, NH 03038
fcbates@comcast.net