Phillip Knightley: Breaking The Thalidomide Story

Phillip Knightley was a British journalist whose prolific career spanned more than 50 years. While the majority of Knightley’s career took place at the Sunday Times, he free-lanced for several publications. Knightley frequently moved around, but would write wherever he went, whether that was England, Australia, or India. Knightley was a modest man; he did not care much for attention or unnecessary appreciation. To him, the most important thing was the story. This is evident in his writing and his unwillingness to acknowledge the strong journalistic work he had done. To him, the only reward needed was the paper going to press. It was at the Sunday Times when Knightley broke the Thalidomide story. Knightley had looked at hundreds of files and did extensive pharmaceutical research to look into the drug prescribed to pregnant women for morning sickness. When the drug was found to cause birth defects in children, Knightley was at the epicenter. Knightley took the amalgamation of research done and made the connection between the drug and subsequent …show more content…
Not only did Knightley break the story, but he also presented it in a way that was extremely readable, so that the information could not be misconstrued and anyone of any kid of intellect would be able to understand the information that he was trying to portray. Knightley’s copious amount of research granted him the means to uncover the Kim Philby spy scandal. Knightley scoured KGB files to discover that Kim Philby was a double agent for the KGB, and in an effort to organize an interview with Philby, Knightly spent more than 20 years negotiating. Two months before Philly’s death, the two met to discuss his life and work as a spy. The interview went exclusively to the Sunday Times and solidified Knightley as a valuable investigative