No doubt Guido Fawkes’s piece on tonight’s Newsnight will attract much interest. I’ve been critical of Guido in the past, but he does have a point about ‘press release news’. I’ve seen this up close, and it’s true: some of the most respected hacks reduced to transcribing Alastair Campbell’s words at a briefing. Hardly journalism. But I’d take Guido/Paul’s point about politicians failing to offer themselves up for interview a little more seriously if he put his own name (or indeed, face) on his own material. Hiding in the shadows isn’t any different to hiding behind a written statement.
Incidentally – I found it quite amusing to see ‘<managingEditor>delete-paulds</managingEditor>’ in the source code for the Guido Fawkes site’s RSS feed. There goes the anonymity, Paul mate.