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Leading political blogger Iain Dale denounced the significance of political reporting in its traditional sense, on the day that saw the House of Lords quizzing political journalists about their relationship with the government.

Taking part in a debate at City University last night, entitled 'Political campaigners and reporters: partners in democracy or rats in a sack?' Dale instead emphasised the journalistic clout of new media.

"Political parties cannot control the new media because it's full of such disparate elements," he said. 

Traditional reporting has led to an 'incestous' relationship between reporters and politicians, he said.

"Reporters obviously need politicians as sources for stories," he explained.

"There are all sorts of scandals over the recent years that people in the Westminster village knew were happening, and yet they chose to conceal that from the rest of the British public. 

Political journalistic 'cartels' have been broken up by bloggers like Guido Fawkes,  Dale said, pointing out that Guido has no political affiliation, and does not obey the traditional rules.

"He [Guido] will recall some of these stories that journalists either won't or can't, for whatever reason.  There are several examples of things that have appeared in recent years, stories that would have broken had blogs existed at the time," Dale said.
   
The newspaper editors' focus on outrage and scandal has led to a neglect of political content, and blogs are increasingly covering areas that are ignored by the mainstream press, he said.

"Parliamentary pages have disappeared from newspapers, but they are now reappearing on newsletters, and blog sites will have a trawl through Hansard and get the stories that political reporters now don't report." 

"They are also holding the mainstream media to account in a way they haven't before.  And [journalists] hate, they absolutely hate, that there are people out there who are actually interested enough to check their facts are right. 

"It's the first time in years journalists are under scrutiny in the same way they put politicians under scrutiny. And I think that's a thoroughly good thing."

Dale, himself a former parliamentary candidate, sees technology as a very important tool for political campaigning.

"You have the incumbent MP with all the advantages and its very difficult, even in marginal seats, for a candidate to get heard," he said. 

"They are constantly having to innovate and come up with new ways to get themselves known among their electorate.  And that's where the new media can come in and they can set up their own blog site, and they can say what they want without the filter of the local media."

The BBC's political reporter Nick Robinson; human rights activist Peter Tatchell; Joy Johnson, former press secretary to Ken Livingstone; and David Hill, former press secretary to Tony Blair, also took part in the debate.

Nick Robinson's regret that he did not report critically enough on the UK government's handling of the Iraq War, is reported on the Journalism.co.uk Editors' Blog.

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events | blogging | city university | politcs | iain dale | political journalism |

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