Isabel Oakeshott and the Public Interest
The news this week opened with a trove of Matt Hancock’s personal WhatsApp messages laid bear for public view through the Telegraph, courtesy of Isabel Oakeshott, TalkTV’s international editor. This is substantial news and claimed to be in the ‘pubic interest’ by Oakeshott, who had collaborated with Hancock in writing his memoirs.
Two things troubled me; why did she reveal the messages and why would Hancock have given her free reign over them. The second troubling point is worth starting with; Hancock it seems naively gave his treasured personal WhatsApp messages verbatim, lock stock and (smoking?) barrel to the journalist. No conditions, restrictions, strings attached? was there an NDA? it seems not. Can he be that thick? Is he that much of a political novice whereby 1000s of messages which surely he would have some guard and protection on, would warrant no extra caution? On this point I say Matt Hancock was severely ignorant, woefully naïve and completely and utterly exposed himself to be pilloried once again. So my first conclusion is he deserved it.
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Back to the first troubling point. Oakeshott collaborated and engaged it seems closely with Hancock to write his book. Did she not have any sliver of scruples about revealing 1000s of messages which she would surely have known had some self incriminating, less than flattering and troubling revelations? Did she, as a human being first not stop to think before revealing and making the deals that she did, that surely this act was significantly more than a slight betrayal of trust. That is the key word for me, trust. For this journalist it seems rubbing shoulders with politicians for too long seems to have rubbed off.
It may be old fashioned to revert back to this moral judgement, and I am no fan of Hancock (who is?) who is as slimy a politician as we all knew he was. But this saga which is far from over, shines a lucid and perhaps darker shadow on journalists in general and Oakeshott in particular — in chasing the story she has lost some slight part of her moral compass. Even though he is a slimy, self serving politician, an adulterer and breaker of trusts … the list goes on, does that mean he deserves to be betrayed?
Finally Oakeshott gave an interview to Cathy Newman on Times Radio today. She was called up on how she made the deal to sell her story and the trove of Hancock's WhatsApp messages to a rival news organisation to her own — a fair question in my opinion. Oakeshott took huge exception to this, did not answer one question and abruptly exited the interview. That’s rare for a journalist. For me what marked her exit were the last words she spoke, “That’s my business, it’s not yours” when asked further about the deal she made to sell Hancock's WhatsApp missives.
Strange for someone who has released a mass of personal information for the “public good” to insist her backdoor dealings for selling them are somehow no ones else's business but her own. Do the public not deserve to know how they came to be known, is it not in the public interest?
