The Press Gazette Axegrinder column reports today the following little titbit...
The BBC appears to have angered bigwigs in the Labour Party with its seemingly endless invites to Westminster blogger Iain Dale to review the papers. When Dale appears on News 24 to give his verdict, he is now billed as a pundit from 18doughtystreet.com. No, Axegrinder hasn't heard of it either. Dale spends
most of his reviews focussing on anti-Labour stories in papers like the Daily
Telegraph and the Daily Mail, mutter Labour's mediua managers. They are now
privately threatending to write to the Beeb to insist Dale's "real credentials"
are listed whenever he appears. "Just what is this website?" moans one
apparatchik at Labour's HQ. "Dale is best known as a failed wannabe MP who
didn't get a seat at the last election - and should be billed as such."
Oh dear, haven't they got better things to do than worry about someone who does a newspaper review twice a month at a time of night when only insomniacs are watching? They seem to ignore the fact that I am always joined by another reviewer who is almost always from the left. As for my billing, if Yasmin Alibhai-Brown can be billed as from The Independent, why on earth shouldn't I billed from 18doughtystreet.com? In actual fact, last Saturday was the first time they did that. Obviously now I know it gets under Labour's skin I'll make sure they do it again.
And just for the record, those who regularly watch the reviews I do on News 24 and Sky will know that I do not just pick anti-Labour stories or indeed only pick stories from the Mail or Telegraph. Anyway, just to alert the Labour media monitors, I'll be back on News 24 on 26 May. Happy viewing guys.
