'"The rise of the internet has posed a new challenge to politicians," thundered Andrew Pierce in the Daily Mail after William Hague was forced to deny innuendo about his sharing a hootel room with a 25 year-old male aide."
"It is unregulated and bloggers know they are safe from injunction or libel writ. Many hide behind anonymity including Guido Fawkes - who has fuelled the latest smears and who does not even have the courage to write under his own name, Paul Staines."
Quite rich, given that the Mail's newsdesk had been in constant telephone contact with Staines thrpughout the week, following up every item he published on the topic - one story, on 25 August, appearing under the brave byline of "Daily Mail reporter".
Staines himself got the room-share story from a journalist on a national paper who had witnessed the breakfast behaviour of the pair at a Birmingham hotel during the election campaign, and tried (and failed) to get a story about it into their own pages. Needless to say, the paper in question enthusiastically followed up the "internet rumours" after Staines published them.'
Private Eye, No. 1271, 17-30 September 2010.
Very interesting, though for the record Fagburn believes The Daily Mail was the first to publish the whispers about William Hague and Chris Myers.
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