They have had a go at each other online and now two rival bloggers will face each other for the first time in the Daily Politics studio.
The Battle of the Blogs will see Guido Fawkes and Derek Draper go up against each other on our Thursday 26 March programme.It may be fun, but I wonder if this sort of presentation of blogging will do much for its reputation with the wider public.
Guido Fawkes (aka Paul Staines) and Draper do have one thing in common: both have been taken apart on Newsnight by a senior political journalist.
Staines' encounter with Michael White is well known, but I have fond memories of Draper being taken apart by a headmasterly Anthony Howard too.
I can't find a video of it, but it is described in this 1998 article from the Independent:
One of the most stinging rebukes delivered to Draper did not come from the Left, but from the respected Labour biographer and former New Statesman editor, Anthony Howard. He appeared on Newsnight, wearing black tie, to impose the full weight of his Gaitskellite moral authority on the delinquent whom he called "a pipsqueak" and an "unwise young man".
I didn't know that.
ReplyDeleteThe Beeb want it to be a clean fight and are insisting on Queensbury Rules.
But Emily's chipped in and said that Labour are being treated unfairly and wants the Thornberry rules
ReplyDeleteAnthony Howard's death has been announced today and I find myself remembering watching this very interview. Draper was taken apart in a master class of an interview. It was painful to watch the trumped up new labour upstart shredded live on Newsnight.
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