"Adam? BBC London and the BBC News Channel both wondered if you'd go on and talk about MPs' expenses scandal this morning. There's a fee for the News Channel."
*ponders work planned for today, none of which is particularly urgent.*
"Um, no, I can't be bothered."
"Ok."
The going rate for hacks willing to go on the BBC and complain about MPs taking money for nothing from the public purse? £75...
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This anecdote ranks up there with Peter Cook turning down Frostie's invitation to hobnob with Prince Andrew and Fergie because he already had plans...to watch television that evening.
So, any chance you could give us your side of the Tim Ireland/Glen Jenvey saga? Tim seems to come across as a bit obsessive but ultimately right, whereas you come across as no more committed to impartial or indeed morally acceptable journalism than the people you lampoon in the Eye.
I think I should make clear this isnt Tim Ireland by the way, just someone who read his blog and was disappointed to see a writer at one of my favourite magazines seemingly acting like such a git.
£75 quid ? the things an MP would do for that!
(PS Is TIm Ireland still blogging?)
Is Tim Ireland that blogger whose always cross and keeps falling out with people?
£75 is risible when the BBC interviewer is being paid £92,000 per annum.
Notice how the BBC doesn't call itself Aunty anymore? It seems to have shed that cuddly persona and become something more authoritarian.
Indeed he is. You can read his take on it here:
http://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2009/05/ian_hislop.asp
Now it's pretty massive, but worth reading. Tim Ireland is indeed belligerent and obsessive but appears to be, as I said above, right to tackle the things he does.
Adam, would you care to answer any of the criticisms he levels at you? Is he lying about any of it? It's just that your role in the whole affair seems a bit shitty to say the least...
Anonymous,
Happy to – since the letter you refer to was addressed to Ian Hislop, I didn’t think it was right for me to make any comment on it until he’d replied, and I understand he now has.
A few facts:
1. I didn’t write the Private Eye article that Tim Ireland is so upset about.
2. I did, however, email him as soon as I found out he’d been involved in it, apologising for any confusion and telling him the Eye would be sending him a standard freelance payment, which I assume is why he’s attached my name to it.
3. I’d never heard of him prior to that day, and I don’t follow his blog.
4. I’ve never claimed he’s “stolen” stories from the Eye. I’ve gone back and checked the relevant entry on this blog for 13 March. You can too, if you like.
5. I know Ian Dale because I worked for him in the café at Politico’s bookshop for about six months in, from memory, 1998. I like him, though I haven’t seen him in years. I’ve never met Paul Staines; I’ve never even heard of any of the other people mentioned in that letter (apart from the newspaper editors and Patrick Mercer, and I had to look him up).
6. I compared Tim Ireland’s behaviour on someone else’s blog to that of a “nutter on the bus”; he responded with a 12-page letter sent to my boss demanding that I be disciplined, calling me a cunt, implying I was involved in some sort of bizarre conspiracy against him and saying he wanted to shove things up my bottom. Since he also published it on the internet, anyone who wants to can draw their own conclusion from this.
I’m afraid I’m not going to enter into any correspondence with him, or anyone else, about this, because I don’t want to sustain or extend this nonsense any further. If you, or anyone else, want to carry on calling me shitty or a git, you can do, but I’ll probably delete it if you do it here.
Yours,
Adam Macqueen
Adam,
I was describing how your role in the whole farrago appeared to an impartial reader (which I hope I am) according to Tim Ireland's account, hence the use of qualifying words. Your side of the story certainly makes sense, so apols for offence caused etc.
As I said up there, Ireland certainly doesn't help himself. At the same time, I feel all his points on Jenvey, on sock-puppeting and slurs from anonymous contributors etc on Staines and Dale's blogs stand. To my mind it kind of matters, this, because the likes of Guido and Dale - certainly the former - are important in terms of how they can set the media agenda these days. So I don't think you were entirely fair in describing him as the 'nutter on the bus' in the light of what was going on at the time, but whatever.
Otherwise, keep up the good work and I won't be cancelling my subscription.
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