Sharpe's Opinion

Is Guido as Guilty as the Lobby Hacks?

Interesting piece on Liberal Conspiracy (I don’t get to say that very often) concerning the way Guido Fawkes has acted over the Guardian’s allegations against Andy Coulson. Here’s the key passage:

Guido fell foul of his own view that the blogosphere can conquer the newspaper hack taken party political hostage. He was one of the bloggers that pretended not to have anything to do with Andy Coulson and was quick […] to spin dubious claims that Coulson was not implicated in the NotW crimes, before the even weaker attempt to seem non-partisan.

My take on this is really two things¹: first of all, I don’t think anybody (especially not Fawkes himself) ever pretends that the most widely-read blog in The UK is an unbiased news source. He wears his anti-Labour bias on his sleeve, and so this would hardly be news.

More importantly, though, and as I’ve said before, I think any near-term cosying up to the Tories you see from ‘right wing’ bloggers is as much a case of wanting to be rid of Labour than any deep or heartfelt affiliation with the Conservative Party. Just wait till David Cameron becomes Prime Minister.

1. I should probably also mention my unfashionable view that until some actual evidence against Andy Coulson surfaces, he’s in the same position as Gordon Brown was over McBride – safe. [↩]