“I’ve been retired seven years and I’m very happy not working” says Nick Davies as he returns to work on a podcast about a very old Fleet Street topic: phone hacking. Davies – a blast from Guido’s past – is indeed peddling a series of turgid articles in liberal doorstop Prospect magazine, covering every dash and comma of reheated claims about the Murdoch empire. Is the Guardian pension scheme not generous enough…
Interviewed and edited by his erstwhile former editor, Alan Rusbridger, Davies explains in the first episode:
“We have to be quote ‘fair and accurate’… otherwise we could be sued for libel… We are at the stage of allegation and untested evidence. And where the Murdoch company is concerned that’s still waiting for judgement… with Murdoch, it’s untested evidence”.
Rusbridger continues separately:
“The usual legal disclaimer… this is all based on documents that have come out during assorted court cases… and they are allegations. It’s just important to say that… this is a situation where Nick is reporting… what one side says about them”.
So much for the ‘balanced analysis’ Prospect boasts in its marketing copy. It’s an unusual leap out of retirement for Davies, who says of himself in his own website bio: “He was last seen somewhere between a meditation retreat in northern Thailand and an inner city suburb of Medellin, Colombia.” Lovely this time of year…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”