"For the past five years my blog has squarely blamed lobby journalists for failing democracy. Though the fourth estate may not have a formal constitutional role, its task is real. Journalists are to there to “speak truth unto power”, not trade favours for tittle tattle, not report spin as truth. From the start of this era of spin the lobby pack have been willing accomplices. It is hard to name journalists who can hold their heads high. There are only a handful of political reporters who can do so - victims of Mr Brown's war room such as Martin Bright, hounded off the New Statesman for failing to yield sufficiently to Downing Street.
Cowardice and cronyism run right through the lobby, who are fearful of being taken off the teat of prepackaged stories served to them. That is not journalism; that is copytaking. The many stories filed this week that reveal just how horrible Mr Brown's cabal have been are of mere historical interest. They would have been brave if they had been written before McPoison was toppled. They knew - and wrote nothing of it. They knew - and went along with it. Their revelatory articles of the past few days are merely confessions of previous personal professional cowardice.
It is not as if it was a secret. As an outsider, my blog, which is devoured daily by the lobby, has been campaigning for them to get some backbone and stand up to the spin machine. That has at times been met with a ferocious counter-attack. It is all right for you, they would tell me, you don't have to file copy to a deadline or worry about the mortgage. They forget that 50,000 readers every day can be demanding; no sub-editor corrects my copy; no editor proffers counsel; no shadowy backer pays for my bandwith. My advertisers want readers, who in turn want news and gossip. "
Do read the whole piece and, like me, read Guido Fawkes every day.
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