Fair, balanced and impartial Ian Katz will have no trouble fitting in at his new role as Newsnight editor. He is reunited with former Guardian colleague Allegra Stratton and, in Paul Mason, he has an ex-Trotskyist Workers’ Power group member as his Economics Editor. Despite being a neighbour of Boris, Katz certainly has top drawer left-wing credentials. Back in 2004, he was editor of the Guardian’s G2 magazine during their infamous ‘Operation Clark County’ plot to swing the state of Ohio in favour of John Kerry and against George W. Bush. Katz organised thousands of letters written by lefty Britons to be sent to individual voters in Ohio, imploring them to cast their ballot for Kerry. The result was uproar, a near diplomatic incident, and victory for Bush. Slate magazine explained Katz’s humiliation at the time:

“The Guardian editor responsible for the project, Ian Katz, finally wrote a piece on Oct. 21 crying uncle… Katz said he knew all along that the letter-writing project could backfire. So, did it? Almost certainly, yes. In 2000, Al Gore won Clark County by 324 votes. And since Ralph Nader received 1,347 votes, we can assume Gore’s margin would have been larger without Nader on the ballot.

On Tuesday George Bush won Clark County by 1,620 votes.”

Add to that Katz’s support for various barmy climate change schemes, including the exploding children shock campaign 10:10. Throw in his views on the ’paranoia’ and ‘complicity’ of ‘idiotic’ Israel and you start to get the picture…

Hopefully the new Guardian deputy editor will be able to stir MediaGuardian from their slumber, it took a whole twelve hours from the story breaking to get anything up on their website about the departure of Ian Katz to Newsnight. Insiders are tipping two names to MediaGuido as his replacement. Dan Roberts, the paper’s Washington Bureau Chief, is a frontrunner, rivalled by their former media man and new National News editor Dan Sabbagh.

So it looks like Dan the man for the gender-balanced Guardian. Though one possible dark horse being touted is Helen Boaden of Newsnight fame, because the Beeb-Guardian relationship wasn’t cosy enough. Developing…

A cunning move by Ian Katz, jumping from the Guardian to Newsnight. The heir apparent is the latest lefty print figure to join the Beeb. Guido reckons he will return to Kings Place eventually, as the editor of a multi-platform, video-led converged Guardian. He can bide his time while Alan Rusbridger wrings his hands for a few more years as the print figures continue to crash and the mass sackings become inevitable. Smart...

The appointment has not gone down well with everyone. BBC types and government sources are moaning to the Speccie, while a Tory source tells Guido: “At this rate Alastair Campbell will be presenting. Given the huge salaries the Guardian pay, the BBC need to disclose how much they are billing the license-fee payer for Mr Katz.” Mr Paxman was unavailable for comment…

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Well done to Private Eye for reading a story in the unpopular parts of the blogosphere, not bothering to check it, running it and subsequently discovering it was a poorly researched, lazy hatchet job with no basis in reality.

So not only second hand news, but second hand news that was wrong.

Are they even trying any more? 

Guido shares a page with Nadine in today’s Sun. In Guido’s column:

• Ed Miliband told Guido a funny over carrot sticks and hummus
• PM on Chuka: “let’s get him”
• Nigel Farage’s unbelievably “bonkers” dinner party with Labour luvvies, celebs, heirs, heiresses and a prince. Guido has the guest list.
• What Lord Strathclyde is doing for money these days
• The price of local UKIP-Tory mini-coalitions
• The bad smell around Keith Vaz

Politics for the people, just 60p…

The fact that Tory MP Stewart Jackson hasn’t even sold his house will make his battle with IPSA’s expensive legal team, Cherie Blair’s Matrix Chambers, all the more interesting. Especially since he isn’t even considering selling up. Guido is however more amused by Jackson’s claim that house prices were falling in his area, so the value of his property couldn’t possibly have increased by 20% as IPSA claim. Which is somewhat ironic given that Jackson’s wife is none other than Daily Express property hack Sarah O’Grady, known for headlines such as “House prices rocket to a three-year high”, “Biggest house price rises in a year”, “House prices surge for second month in a row” and “House prices on rise again”. And many, many more. Stewart obviously isn’t a reader…

“The Queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of Robert Maurice Jay, Esquire, Q.C., to be a Justice of the High Court with effect from 4 June 2013 on the retirement of Mr. Justice Roderick Evans. 

The Lord Chief Justice will assign Mr. Jay to the Queen’s Bench Division.”

After Leveson, the only way is up…

The Sun is the public’s number one choice, but in the last year it is still the Guardian that the BBC buys most…

Graph via @thecommentator

Speaking of awkward letters, union fat cat Red Len McCluskey has written to “all Unite MPs” and New Statesman editor Jason Cowley accusing the Staggers of “distortion”, “sensationalism” and running “untrue” statements from his interview with George Eaton in April. McCluskey reckons “George was intent on a particular story and was not leaving until he had this story” and insists he never called for Liam Byrne and other Blairites to be sacked:

Apparently Unite will now “regard all approaches from the New Statesman with deep suspicion”. Standard practice really…

UPDATE: George Eaton hits back here, in turn accusing McCluskey of “inaccuracies and innuendos”.

Things have got so bad for one disgruntled Tory voter, going only by the name ‘Martin’, that he has taken out a full page advert in today’s Times laying into Cameron and Osborne as a “desperate and expensive cry for help”:

Click to enlarge.

“I am a natural Conservative voter who has become very disillusioned with my party over the last 3 years. I realise you are both terribly important and you really cannot afford the time to actually think about us mere taxpayers and citizens, which is why you have correspondence units and a phalanx of staff to shield you from the unpleasant realities of the real world. I am rather hoping however, that you read the newspapers. That is why I chose this rather unusual mechanism for trying to remind you that there are real people out here. Call it a desperate and expensive cry for help.

… Finally, no Mr Miliband. This does not mean that you, or indeed Mr Balls, would be likely to do a better job. Your party, in the form of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, got us into this mess by exploding government spending for little positive benefit. There is no reason to suppose that you would do any better.”

Ouch.