Last week, a piece of paper covered with doodles and notes was found on Tony Blair’s desk at the Davos World Economic Forum. The British press seized on the occasion and asked handwriting experts to analyze what was assumed to be Blair’s writing; they were, in the words of the Financial Times, “cock-a-hoop” at the discovery of the paper. Especially after said experts concluded that the doodles and notes revealed a man who was “not a natural leader,” an “unstable man who is feeling under enormous pressure.” He was a daydreamer “struggling to keep control of a confusing world.” And he couldn’t concentrate.
Naturally, the press gleefully revealed the conclusions to their readers. They had a story that allowed them to clean out their notebooks — to write all of the things that they thought privately but were unable to say publicly, because events hadn’t given them the opportunity. It was Al Gore’s Love Canal claim, or the Dean Scream, or Dan Quayle’s potato(e) incident transferred across the pond.
There was just one problem: As it turned out, the doodles didn’t actually come from Blair, but from Bill Gates, who was also at the forum. “We look forward with amusement to explanations by a variety of psychologists and graphologists of how various characteristics ascribed to the prime minister…equally apply to Mr. Gates,”said a Blair spokesman.
The mix-up leaves British reporters in a unique situation — they have to apologize for pushing ideas they believe to be true in a story that turned out to be false. They emptied their notebooks in the wrong place, and now, the ideas in them — which they still stand by — have been discredited along with the story they were attached to. Blair wins, the press loses, and the truth gets a little more muddled.
The media circle of life continues.
–Brian Montopoli
