Level | Item |
Ref No | OHP/107 |
Title | David Fairhall |
Date | November 2002-March 2003 |
Extent | 4 minidiscs, 4 cds, 1 file, 13 AIFF files (2.35 GB) |
Creator Name | Fairhall; David Kier; journalist |
Description | Interview with David Fairhall, journalist for the Guardian. Conducted by Leslie Plommer and Richard Norton-Taylor between November 2002- March 2003. Also includes a data sheet containing biographical details about the subject and information about the recording. Summary contents of interview (with rough timings):
Disc 1 - recorded 27 November 2002, with Richard Norton-Taylor Track 1 00.55 Read economics at LSE then National Service in the Navy as a Russian interpreter. 00.55 After the Navy he got a job at LSE studying Soviet shipping 01.58 After his first book on Russian shipping decided to try journalism -wrote to all the nationals 02.43 Went to the Guardian in Manchester in 1960 to work on the industrial staff 04.58 Covered Francis Chichester's voyage across the Atlantic - first newspaper sponsorship of that kind 04.58 Innovative technology used for radioing back from the yacht 04.58 Talks of the cover-up of the Vinland map discovery 07.00 Discusses quirks of Alastair Hetherington 08.28 Early 1960s becomes shipping correspondent and moves to London 09.13 Takes over as aviation and transport correspondent 09.13 Took on defence In 1965, when Clare Hollingworth left
10.50 Hollingworth role in the outing of Philby as a spy 14.33 Assesses the importance of aviation as a story 14.33 Jet propulsion developmnent, Concorde, Jumbo development 16.30 In the mid-60s arranges Guardian's very first opinion poll - on Concorde, would people tolerate it flying over land 16.30 Can't remember poll result but the Guardian then got into the habit of doing polls 18.44 Development of Concorde and the first flights of other aircraft
20.55 As shipping corr went on first voyages - and last ones 21.45 Covers maiden voyage of QE2 filed by ship to shore radio telephone 23.22 Talks of covering wars - his first for Guardian was Vietnam
Track 2 00.10 Discusses covering the Yom Kippur war; the war of attrition 00.10 In the middle of terrorist attacks in Tel Aviv, Israeli censorship and how to get round it
Track 3 00.10 Discussion of terrorist attacks in the 1980s 03.54 More discussion of terrorists attacks with the start of the suicide bombings
Track 4 00.01 The original design of nuclear power stations and US submarine power reactors 07.16 Chernobyl 1986 Russia's system was primitive, poorly maintained and they were careless 07.16 Talks of the explosion and plotting from Britain, where the cloud would go 09.14 Visits Chernobyl on the 6th anniversary - emotionally the most significant story he wrote
Track 5 Test
Disc 2 Track 1 (with Richard Norton Taylor) 00.01 Nuclear power 00.50 Greenham Common issue 05.45 Importance of Greenham as a staging post to the end of the Cold War 06.20 Best scoop was before the protests when he worked out where the cruise missile would be 08.36 Sarah Tisdall leak 09.00 Greenham protesters didn't succeed but their protest was very important
10.24 The Friday night the leaked Tisdall document arrived in the office 12.26 Lessons from the Tisdall case - nobody knew who had sent the document 12.26 Lawyers gave bad advice. Now one knows what to do - copy documents and then destroy them
Track 2 00.44 Nato, its success but wonders whether it was necessary 04.06 Discusses conventional defences 07.00 The Wall comes down, some said that Nato was finished - disagreed 09.00 How the Brits ran Nato
10.29 Whether Nato has a future 12.00 Nato's pros and cons 16.00 Military success in Bosnia
21.00 Praises the British military - no other army exercises the same degree of restraint
Track 3 - recorded 10 March 2003 00.00 Recorded just before the US/Brit invasion of Iraq 01.03 Previous Gulf war in the run-up to the present conflict 03.30 How he covered the war, based in Saudi 04.15 The US launched the war, their prowess and the capabilities of the Iraqi army 06.30 How the war could have been fought 08.00 Analyses the horrendous complications that followed - Kurds, Basra. 09.54 The lesson the US took from that war was their air power was successful 09.54 US went on to apply it successfully in Bosnia, less so in Kosovo, then again in Afghanistan
11.00 Against this perception of air power supremacy - discovery that US technology didn't work 13.27 Wrote a story saying that the US Star Wars programme wouldn't work 15.45 How the Guardian covered the first Gulf War 16.53 Important not to dismiss contact with the military but also have to have other perspectives 19.42 Discusses the Army's superior intelligence to the Navy and Air Force
22.15 Talks about how the Guardian deployed its correspondents to cover the war
30.00 Very different for coverage of Falklands war - no sat phones, journos crippled by the military 30.00 Communication difficulties in war
Disc 3: Track 1 01.02 How in his time the Guardian the paper has been transformed 01.37 It was a small eccentric, distinguished paper 01.37 Explains how it has changed 03.00 How he had to expand their briefs to keep the paper alive 04.40 Talks of how graphics, which he was keen on, were brought onto the paper 06.00 Guardian finally began to make money 07.50 His role was to explain complicated issues so the reader was not taken by surprise
10.00 Found writing difficult and maybe should have switched to TV which he found easy 11.00 Falling out with the new news editor - it was time for him to go 12.00 Doesn't like all the celebrity coverage today, but feels the heart of the Guardian is still there
*
Disc 4: Track 1 00.37 First Gulf War 04.40 Cod War with Iceland and how he covered it and then travelled home on a trawler
Track 2 00.01 Returned to Iceland when there was a chance a communist government would be elected 05.44 Role of submarines, the vehicle for the nuclear deterrent
10.42 At the end of his time there were a series of incident of subs catching trawlers 10.42 Describes travelling in a sub and the dislocation of sound and placement 14.36 Finishes with discussion of Trident, the extreme ultimate force of the Navy
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Access Status | Open |
Access Conditions | Access to recording via GNM Digital Repository |
Format | Electronic record |
CD recording |
Printed document |
Minidisc recording |
Copyright | Guardian News & Media Ltd and David Fairhall |
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