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Katty Kay, Calibrating Britney for the Beeb
On this afternoon, with less than 90 minutes to airtime, the war shakes up her carefully crafted lineup. An anchor on BBC's British cable channel is holding up copies of the Guardian and the Sun, which are reporting that Prime Minister Tony Blair plans to pull about half his soldiers from Iraq in the coming months. Kay has a new lead story, and scrambles to arrange an interview with a correspondent in London.
The Beeb has confirmed the pullout through unnamed British sources, but shortly before airtime Kay rewrites her "cue," or introduction, to tout a last-minute confirmation that one of her reporters obtained from the White House.
  The BBC anchor understands both Beltway politics and animosity toward America. (By Andrea Bruce -- The Washington Post) |
She cautions that the Somalia report should not slip too deep into the broadcast. Kay considers Africa "massively undercovered" in the United States and feels a personal connection to the continent because her first job, as a BBC radio reporter in 1990, was in Zimbabwe.
Kay has always been something of a nomad. As the daughter of a British diplomat and a mother who specialized in archaeology, she spent her childhood in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Bahrain, Algeria, Morocco and Peru. She studied modern languages at Oxford.
After stints for the BBC in London and Tokyo, Kay moved to Washington in 1996, later jumping to the Times of London bureau here before returning to the BBC. This is the longest she has lived in one place, which marks her as an "oddball" in her family. Kay's parents live in Cyprus, and she has one brother in Hong Kong, another in Nairobi, and a sister in Qatar.
Kay has appeared on such programs as "Today," "Meet the Press" and the "Chris Matthews Show." She is married to a BBC veteran, and their three older children (they also have a 1-year-old) attend public school in Georgetown. Kay says they sound very American -- "It's almost as if they're speaking a foreign language" -- when they're with their friends.
Compared with the pacing of U.S. newscasts, Kay's program has an unhurried feel. Her interview with Tehran correspondent Frances Harrison, who says Iranians have been "brainwashed by the state media," underscores the value of reporters who live in the countries they cover. And where else would you learn that the U.S. State Department has reiterated its call for democracy in Fiji?
The broadcast is put together with what Kay's producer and cubicle mate, Paul Werdel, calls "smoke and mirrors," with Werdel doing everything from scanning the wires to booking guests to feeding taped pieces to London, where the broadcast originates. Kay applies her own makeup before slipping into the studio.
"Although Katty is one of the most glamorous anchors in the Western world, when you look at us, we don't look glitzy," says Justin Webb, the bureau's chief radio correspondent and Kay's principal substitute. "There is a yearning among a lot of Americans, of both political persuasions, who are just sick of glitz."
Some politicians are taking note. Kay has interviewed the likes of Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, Howard Dean and Trent Lott, but has had little luck with Bush administration officials. When she asked White House adviser Karl Rove for a sit-down during the 2004 campaign, he declined on the grounds that "there are no votes in Wales."
As the Spears episode made clear, "BBC World" doesn't deal exclusively with global policy issues. Kay has chatted up Angelina Jolie, George Clooney and Mia Farrow, and considers the culture here a subject of international fascination. "For all the anti-Americanism around the world, people have this love of Americana," Kay says.
But just as she begins to sound like an honorary Washingtonian with perfect diction, there are reminders that Kay sees our culture through foreign eyes. When State Department official Karen Hughes told women in Saudi Arabia that it was a shame they weren't allowed to drive, Kay instantly saw the problem: "Saying it to a group of Saudi women is going to come across as patronizing. For me, it was no surprise they were upset that an American diplomat was telling them how to live their lives."
Despite her comfortable perch here, Kay doesn't expect to stay in the United States for another decade. "I like trying new things," she says. "You only have one life."
Clearing His Name
More than three years ago, Vanity Fair ran a piece by an English professor at Vassar who said his linguistic analysis pointed to a "disturbing" suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks: Steven Hatfill.
Now Vanity Fair, Reader's Digest (which reprinted the piece) and the professor, Donald Foster, have settled a lawsuit by Hatfill, a biological weapons specialist whom the FBI deemed a "person of interest" early in the probe. Neither Vanity Fair nor Foster "intended to imply" that Hatfield was behind the attacks, and they "retract any such implication," the magazine says in a statement. The parties agreed not to disclose further details. This month, a federal judge dismissed a Hatfill defamation suit against New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.
Missing Detail
After last week's spat between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the New York Times quoted Chris Lehane -- "a Democratic consultant who made his name with a tough campaign style" -- as saying the Obama camp's response "fundamentally undermined their long-term message." Perhaps the paper might have mentioned that Lehane had worked in the White House -- the Clinton White House.
