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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? 

An interesting snippet from the Press Gazette interview with Richard Ingrams, who reflects on Private Eye:

“It’s very, very different from what it used to be, I think the satirical part of it is different – it’s become a lot of little pieces as opposed to a few quite long pieces. It’s much more bang, bang, bang. There’s a lot more factual stuff than there used to be, particularly at the front of the magazine. I find I could do with less of it. I think Ian Hislop’s attitude is that the punters have to be given their money’s worth but you do feel slightly that every page is crammed with as much copy or jokes as you could get in.”

Ingrams, who is 75, ended his official involvement with Private Eye at the beginning of 2012 when he gave up as chairman, though he points out that this was always an “honorary” title after he stood down as editor in 1986. Although Ingrams appointed Hislop to replace him, he also suggests that perhaps it is time for his successor to start thinking about stepping down – “I’m a great believer in resigning”.

Guido is hearing more and more moaning about l’enfant terrible turned BBC six figure game keeper. A subject he shall return to…

Private Eye is out of date again. The week after Guido suggested Eric Joyce’s latest brush with the law was a good excuse to scrap the Commons booze subsidy, today Private Eye follows suit:

“The fisticuffs that followed outside Westminster’s own subsidised Sports and Social boozer involving Eric Joyce MP (again), might have been avoided had the participants all been paying full whack for their grog”.

Guido welcomes Lord Gnome on board his five year campaign…

Here are some of the other posts on the issue Guido has put out over the years:

• Hungry for Taxes: MPs Lunch Subsidy Now £8,823 Per Annum
• Hungry For Taxes: Lunchtime Robbery
• Each MPs’ Lunch Subsidy Costs Six Hospital Meals
• Food in Parliament is Twice as Expensive for Public as MPs
• Hungry for Taxes: Compare and Contrast Today’s Menus
• Wives, Girlfriends, Predecessors
• Speaker Ignores Parliament Booze Subsidy
• Sun Backs Guido’s Subsidy Campaign
• Parliament’s I-rasher-nal Breakfast Prices

When Guido opened this week’s issue of Private Eye it took until the first article in the first column on the first page for him to find news totally out of date and already covered to death elsewhere. Their story that the judge who ruled in Samsung’s favour against Apple in a dispute last year is, naturally, off to work for Samsung, would have been a great exclusive had it not been reported on tech blog BGR a week ago, and the entire national press the next day.

Move over to the very next column and we have “news” of Peter Rippon’s new job, seen on Guido and everywhere else two weeks ago. Go home Gnome.

It’s that time again. After Guido’s number-crunching two weeks ago, this week round Private Eye has finally decided against devoting any more column inches to this blog. There is, however, no let up in out of date news on offer in the latest offering from Lord Gnome’s organ.

This week’s Eye tells the tale of an amusing begging email sent by Paddy Ashdown to both friend and foe, asking for cash to help in the Eastleigh by-election fight. Wind back a week to the 12th, the day the email was sent, and you could have seen it in full on Guido and elsewhere. Not to mention the speedy reply from an unlikely recipient.

It’s yesterday’s news…

While Guido would like to thank Private Eye for their kind words about his new column in the Sun, he couldn’t help noticing the remarkable similarity between their excellent story about PriceWaterhouseCooper and the very same story that ran, just two months ago, on this blog.

Are the two connected?

We should be told…

Lord Gnome’s perennially outdated organ was two weeks past its sell by date last time Guido checked, now they are two months behind the times. Today’s issue reports on the hypocrisy of Ed Balls and Chuka Umunna taking on staffers from PricewaterhouseCooper. Back in December Guido first exclusively revealed the very same fact that PwC analysts were working for Balls and also in Chuka’s offices. Two months behind, to the day.

You’re either in front of Guido, or you’re Private Eye…

Shome mishtake, shurely? Over the last few weeks Guido has become increasingly irritated by Private Eye’s shameless pilfering of stories that had previously appeared on this blog. Every two weeks Guido picks up his copy of the Eye, every two weeks we see more and more of our stories recycled on their pages. So, from now on Guido will be taking out his red pen and revealing just how far behind the news Lord Gnome’s rag is. A two-week news-cycle just doesn’t cut it in the age of news streams.

Last Friday’s Eye, issue 1332, ran an interesting story about a member of the Guardian’s staff being gagged for anonymously posting comments about Alan Rusbridger. Four days earlier Guido had exclusively run the same comment in full. And what of that little nugget about new Trinity Mirror boss Simon Fox being the former chief executive of doomed HMV? MediaGuido and the Sun’s business editor were all over it ten days before…

Even more outrageous was the Eye’s claim to have “revealed” the news that Evgeny Lebedev had bought iPads for the entire Standard staff but nothing for those at the Indy. It was reported on MediaGuido in mid-December, and they even used our “downstairs” line. Meanwhile Alan Rusbridger forgetting he is editor-in-chief of both the Guardian and the Observer was reported by Guido eleven days before it appeared in the Eye.

They were once the cutting edge of political gossip, nowadays their news is two weeks past their sell-by date…

Private Eye                                  Guido Fawkes

Sir, I wonder if any of your readers have noticed the striking resemblance between this week’s front cover and our own site four day ago. Could they by any chance be related?