I reckon I blew my chances of a column on The Times yesterday evening at the Editorial Intelligence Bloggertariat v Commentariat event. The first three speakers (Anne Spackman, Comment Editor of The Times, Martin Bright and Mick Fealty) had all been a bit matey so I decided to liven it up a bit. I knew the final speaker, David Aaronovitch would want something to get his teeth into, so I thought I'd oblige. Here's a rough account of how I opened...
 

The fact that the Twitter hashtag for this event is #eiblogger and not #ei comment rather indicates the organisers believe bloggers are winning. John Lloyd started by saying that he newspapers are dying because of blogs. They are not. They are dying because they have no strategy. They have poured millions of pounds into their online efforts without the faintest idea of the endgame. John Lloyd also says he hates blogs. Sometime I hate newspapers. Indeed I hate newspapers who delight in killing blogs. Last week The Times killed a blog for no other reason than it could. There was no journalistic reason to expose Night Jack's identity, and because The Times did that the rest of us are denied the opportunity to read a blog which shone a light into a world few of us know about. If The Times is so against anonymity perhaps it will tell us who its anonymous sources are when it writes that "a source close to the Prime Minister told The Times". But of course, this is the same newspaper that thinks unmasking a blogger is a big deal and yet turned down the opportunity to publish the MP expenses details...

Aaronovitch kept muttering insults all the way through that, I gather, yet strangely didn't argue with any of it in his own speech. Clearly he couldn't be bothered to answer the points raised by a mere blogger. He seemed far more bothered by the fact that Guido's commenters call him a ****. On this performance it was easy to see why. He flailed about all over the place informing us that columnists were all seeing, all knowing sages who we were damned lucky to have the opportunity to read. In the next breath he admitted to using blogs as research for his columns. He seemed particularly upset by my appearances on the TV talking about the Labour Party. "He knows nothing about the Labour Party and he's always wrong," he moaned. Was it me or Aaronovitch who predicted Hazel Blears' resignation before the Euro elections? Just askin'.

He ended by basically thumbing his nose at Mick and myself and telling us that he could interview somebody we would never ever get to interview. Er, wow. Thanks for that insight, Dave. After I had left, he apparently decided to slag me off to all and sundry. This is how one conversation went...
 

Aaronovitch: That Iain Dale is a complete idiot.
Neil Stewart: Er, David, let me introduce you to Shane Greer. He works for Iain Dale....
Aaronovitch: Er...


I've always rather liked David Aaronovitch, but last night he showed himself up. He did it in a vaguely entertaining way, but he demonstrated he just doesn't get new media or understand its potential. That's fine. Let him continue writing his crafted prose, and I'll continue what I do.

PS EI have filmed the event. I will post the links when they are up and you can make your own mind up about who came out of this with their dignity intact.

UPDATE: Mark Reckons has a comprehensive account of the debate HERE. Alex Smith of LabourList was none to impressed by DA HERE.

UPDATE: The Podcast of the event is now online HERE. My speech is about 30% of the way in and David A follows me.