ITV censured over Blair's religion

Yesterday's decision to censure ITV over its reporting of comments made by the Prime Minister on the Parkinson show has incurred comment by Adrian Moncke.

According to Guardian Media:

"The package, which was carried on the 6.30pm and 10.30pm bulletins on March 3 last year, reported that Mr Blair had told Michael Parkinson on his chat show that his belief in God played an "important part" in deciding to go to war and that he prayed over the decision and before embarking on military action.
The complainants maintained that Mr Blair had said no such thing, and that ITV News had failed to show "proper regard" for due accuracy in its reporting."

Adrian claims that

ITV took a view on Blair's exchange with Parkinson and - without exactly mis-representing it - they 'over-represented' it, failing to produce anyone in their reporting to defend a position they had created by amplification.

Reading the transcript of the interview,the news bulletin does undoubtedly mis represent what was said in the Parky interview

“Tony Blair says his belief in God played a part in deciding to go to war in Iraq. The Prime Minister tells ITV1 he prayed over the difficult decision. Tonight the startling insight into how Mr Blair’s faith influenced Britain’s part in ousting Saddam. So was it holy war?”

But as Monck points out,perhaps it was a case of over representation?