As so often happens, who broke the story first is fiercely contested.  Guido doesn’t have a dog in this fight, but for the record, since the Staggers is trying to cite Guido as evidence to back up its claim that it broke the news, here is the timeline:

• Unnoticed by Guido when it happened was Andy Sparrow’s PMQs live-blog, which had this at 11:57:
  

  11.57 am: Hot news: We’ve just heard that Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt are going to make some kind of statement about Brown’s leadership after PMQs. That’s all I know at the moment.

• The first Guido knew was when someone shouted out across the newsroom after Andy Sparrow’s Tweet came up on the Guy News Tweetdeck screen, that was time-stamped at 12:01.
• The Guardian’s website also had a teaser headline at 12:15.
• The New Statesman at 12:17 publishes what it calls an “Exclusive“ that “A letter is being circulated among Labour MPs this afternoon calling for a secret ballot on Gordon Brown’s leadership. According to one MP who would like Brown to leave office, the letter is being co-ordinated by a number of rebels, including the former cabinet ministers Charles Clarke, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon.”

So there you have it. The Guardian was first, though in the augmented reality of the Staggers “It was the NS wot got it“.  In reality, you snooze, you lose, it ain’t news.

Sparrow told Guido that “it would be nice to take the credit myself, but actually Patrick Wintour obtained the information.” Incidentally, Guido understands that ITN’s Channel 4 News has changed policy on breaking news.  Whereas it restricted scoops to the 7 p.m. broadcast they now put it up as soon as they can on the website and tweet the link.  A cultural change for a mainstream media source.  Steve Hilton getting nicked was tweeted last night by Cathy Newman in advance of telly viewers being told.

It almost goes without saying that Guido tries to be first.  If not first, fast.  When inevitably occasionally wrong, not for long.  We no longer have news cycles, we have news streams…

Beyond parody :

At least he is a Christian…

Guido was somewhat surprised to hear high praise coming from his old sparring partner Tom Watson of all people. During the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee last week, Watson was quick to praise this blog and push an argument often put forward here: that diary editors are thieving magpies. The academic expert being grilled, Paul Bradshaw, Lecturer in Journalism, Birmingham City University even agreed:

O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his bearded face. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself.  He loved Big Blogger.

Watson 2009, after Orwell 1948, as Smith in “1984″

Robert H. Heath wrote…

“I’m not suggesting that news gathering is inexpensive. Or that bloggers will replace reporters. But many in the industry seem to be tripping over the fallacy that if something is expensive to produce, there must be a profit-making market for that product. If that were true, there would be a vibrant market for diamond-encrusted buggy whips.”

Brillo just took the mick out of Sir Michael on the Daily Politics over him telling us on Monday of a hung parliament “It’s not going to happen” and then on Tuesday saying it “is on the cards”.

Sir Michael’s face was a pouting picture…

The Sun’s desertion of Labour and spirited onslaught on Gordon Brown, is clearly inspiring the Mirror to become ever more shrill in their attacks on Cameron.  Which promises to be quite good fun to watch.

The attack today is a little bit bizarre. The Mirror has an expose of Cameron being photographed in the Garden of Remembrance yesterday. They’re outraged that, shock horror, he posed for a photographer.  Terrible.

On a different page a Guido co-conspirator, MisterE, has spotted the appearance of this obviously non-exploitative picture.

Could they be related?

Guardianistas and the unpopular parts of the blogosphere are raging about the Sun’s full on assault on Brown and all things Labour. When Labour delegates were ripping up copies of The Sun on prime time TV what did they expect the response would be? There is a logical inconsistency about their rage; on the one hand they said the Sun wasn’t important and on the other hand they froth about it almost continuously.  That they keep on repeating the mantra that it isn’t really important tells you it is really hurting and they fear it.  The Mirror is an avowedly Labour supporting paper whereas The Sun is the biggest swing-vote paper, and it has swung decisively to the Tories.  That is why Bad Al Campbell and the rest of the Labour spin operation are bleeding so badly over the Sun’s shift…

This morning’s reporting of Brown’s conversation with Mrs Janes was a good news story, news is after all what people don’t want you to hear, the rest is spin.  The left is now in full on “Murdoch is evil” mode, Fox and the Sun will be characterised as liars.  They will take presenters like Glenn Beck and columnists like the great Kelvin MacKenzie and make out that this is biased news – it isn’t, it is opinionated infotainment.  Audiences like that, it is provocative and entertaining, Jon Stewart and Polly Toynbee do the same thing from the other side.

Murdoch does not have a monopoly on bias, the BBC and the Mirror are not exactly objective – though only the BBC pretends to impartiality.  Look at the Mirror and every day you see made up news, not just opinionated comment.  If you think the Currant Bun is tough on Gordon here is a selection of recent Mirror headlines resulting from a site-search for “Cameron”:

In the week we celebrate the Fall of the Wall (more in this coming week’s Guidogram) the covers of our political weeklies are worth comparing.  The Speccie reveals and condemns Soviet agents at the highest levels of the Labour Party.  The New Statesman glories in a cover with a flattering (old) picture of the communist tyrant Fidel Castro.  On the inside is a feature on his allegedly ‘popular’ variant of socialism.  So popular is Castro’s socialism that he has turned the island into a prison, locked up dangerous poets, not held an election in half a century and jailed dissident democrats.  No mention in the article of the people who to attempt to flee to Miami on floats made out of car tyres or the level of destitution to which the country has been reduced.  Perhaps Castro is popular in the same way that the Staggers is ‘popular’.   Up to date ABC circulation figures are no longer available, but the suspicion is that since they have got rid of the adult political reporters the weekly circulation has gone below 20,000 – less than the daily readership of this blog.  Online data  since the beginning of the year shows the relative downward trend:

Perhaps if it was more in the real world politically – the latest claim is that the Chief Rabbi of Poland is a Tory stooge – the downward trend of the Staggers might be arrested.  Perhaps they are hoping, vainly in Guido’s view, that a change of government will boost circulation…

The Financial Times has just announced a year-on-year circulation fall of more than 14% in the UK.   The paper now sells more copies overseas than in the UK – which may explain its fanatically europhile stance. Whereas the core UK readership is from the eurosceptic City and business community, the overseas readership is euo-establishment.  Increasingly commuters to the Square Mile are turning to City AM if they are casual consumers of financial news or, if they are need-to-know types, the revamped and strengthened Wall Street Journal.

Allister Heath, the editor of City AM, is a free-marketeer and the paper reflects the values of the readership which toils in the capitalist heart of the economy. The paper is prospering.

Two refugees from the Labourgraph, Patience Wheatcroft and Iain Martin,* have been drafted into the Wall Street Journal in London to strengthen the European edition. They don’t insult their readers, decry their investment banking and hedge fund employers or call for socialist solutions to our economic problems. Murdoch has consequently propelled the WSJ into becoming what is now the single biggest selling newspaper in America and also the only growing newspaper in America. As the FT’s circulation shrinks further perhaps it will decide not to support the Labour Party for a fifth general election in a row.   Yes, the Pink ‘Un even backed Neil Kinnock to the huge annoyance of the readership.

Guido still reads the excellent FT Alphaville blog, but if he wants to read left-wing prognostications on the economy, he’ll buy Tribune…

*Iain Martin has started mocking the lefties at the FT.

Perhaps Clegg could get Legg to look into Liz Barker’s home address?  The Baroness seems to be suffering from amnesia…