Another dubious ‘scoop’ for British journalism

The nature of the modern newspaper scoop is again under the spotlight. The Scottish Press Awards 'scoop of the year' gong has been given to Gerri Peev, a reporter on the Edinburgh-based Scotsman, who wrote up a comment her interviewee clearly asked to be off the record. As a result of Peev ignoring the request, Samantha Power (above right), a high-flying member of Barack Obama's election team, had to resign last year.

The news of Peev's award follows the equally dubious 'scoop of the year' prizes won by the Mail on Sunday reporter Miles Goslett. As reported here yesterday, Goslett's two awards - at the British Press Awards and at the London Press Club Awards - were gained for simply reporting remarks made on public radio, namely Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross's lewd phone messages to actor Andrew Sachs.

As the long-time investigative journalist Nick Davies told The First Post yesterday: "A good scoop has to involve two things - one, the story is exclusive, and, two, the story was difficult to get hold of. The Ross/Brand story fails on both counts."

The Scotsman's 'scoop' is equally contentious. Irish-born Samantha Power was in Britain in March 2008 to publicise her new book, Chasing the Flame, about the UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello who was killed in the 2003 bomb attack on the UN mission in Baghdad. Peev was one of several journalists offered an interview by Power's publishers.

In the course of their meeting on March 6, Peev asked Power some questions about her other role, as a foreign affairs advisor to presidential hopeful Barack Obama. At the time, Hillary Clinton was still running against Obama for the Democratic nomination and had just that week beaten Obama in the Ohio primary.

In the course of her answer, 37-year-old Power said this: "We fucked up in Ohio. In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio's the only place they can win... She is a monster, too - that is off the record - she is stooping to anything...".

The chance to speak off the record is a time-honoured tradition in British journalism. But Peev ignored Power's request for the "monster" comment to be treated as off the record and included it in her article.

The comment reached the States where it was considered over the top - two senior Democrats are not expected to insult each other publicly, even if they are chasing the same job - and Power resigned from the Obama team.

In November 2008, Power was invited back into the Obama fold and, having "buried the hatchet" with Hillary Clinton, actually helped the former First Lady prepare for her Senate confirmation as Secretary of State. She has since been appointed by the President to the National Security Council.

Obama originally took on Power - like him, a graduate of Harvard Law School - because of her expertise in genocide. She won a Pulitzer-prize for her 2005 book, America and the Age of Genocide. Which is a nice irony. As reported yesterday, the latest Pultizers for journalism were awarded in New York earlier this month. The prize-winning reports tended to involve rather more 'digging' than listening to Radio 2 on a Saturday evening, or ignoring an interview subject's 'off the record' request.

Gerri Peev told The First Post today that it was Power who volunteered to talk about the election campaign and that she stood by her decision to publish the comment, given that Power had requested the retraction only after making the 'monster' comment.