Sorry Iain Dale but I think your reasoning stinks

Iain Dale has defended his publishing of Lord Ashcroft's book with #pigggate in it. Here is Iain Dale's explanation:

'I don’t like being censored. And this goes to the crux of the matter: whether the ‘Pig-gate’ story – the anecdote in Call Me Dave that caused such a global sensation that it almost broke the Internet – should have been printed at all. I am still in no doubt that it was right to keep it in the book. Whether it would have made the credibility threshold for a newspaper is a side issue. It is in a book, not a newspaper. When I first read it in the manuscript, I certainly noticed it was only single-sourced – but the authors were entirely upfront about that. Contrary to much of the sloppy reporting of the story, it was never presented as fact.  I was comfortable with the way it was written up and, more to the point, so were the lawyers.

What would the reaction have been had I insisted it were taken out?  Had anyone found out, I’d have been accused of censoring something and protecting my so-called ‘Tory mates’. You’d think from the reaction that Lord Ashcroft and Isabel Oakeshott, aided and abetted by me, had accused the Prime Minister of murder (or something). It is no more than a tale of student high jinks – and the authors leave readers to judge for themselves whether or not it happened.'

Let's take that apart a little:
'Whether it would have made the credibility threshold for a newspaper is a side issue.'
Maybe  Mr Dale should have considered making that clear in the book because without doing so the press and media have not had to make that point.

'Contrary to much of the sloppy reporting of the story, it was never presented as fact.'
Oh that's OK then because the media picked up on that.

 '... the authors leave readers to judge for themselves whether or not it happened.'
But the left wing media and 'commedians' have been given a stick with which to beat the Prime Minister.

Odd choices Mr Dale, odd choices.