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as the mythology suggest. i think that the one that rightly gets a lot of coverage and still gets a lot of debate relates to to iraq. and i think as bothjon and adam know, ifelt that was me taking a very, very strong stance against one piece of reporting by one journalist, who i will go to my grave saying was and is a liar and who coincidentally works for boris johnson. so i think that on the broader point, yes, adam is right, that we were more robust, but the reason for that goes back to the point i made earlier, the media ecosystem, a lot of it is still set by the written press, which is still very right wing rules. can i cut in quickly? if you can, jon, then i want to bring nosheen in. but sure. let me just quickly say that, look, i was a political correspondent for ten years. you know, two or three of those two of those years when alastair campbell was press secretary to the prime minister. and obviously the period when tony blair was in opposition and there was a certain obsession about spin doctors beating up the media. and i kind of thought it was all lunacy.
about stories nearly as much as the mythology suggest. i think that the one that rightly gets a lot of coverage and still gets a lot of debate relates to to iraq. and i think as bothjon and adam know, i felt that was me taking a very, very strong stance against one piece of reporting by one journalist, who i will go to my grave saying was and is a liar and who coincidentally works for borisjohnson. so i think that on the broader point, yes, adam is right, that we were more robust, but the reason for that goes back to the point i made earlier, the media ecosystem, a lot of it is still set by the written press, which is still very right wing rules. can i come quickly? if you can, jon, then i want to bring the sheen in. but sure. let me just quickly say that, look, i was a political correspondent for ten years. you know, two or three of those two of those years when alastair campbell was press secretary to the prime minister. and obviously the period when
about stories nearly as much as the mythology suggests. i think that the one that rightly gets a lot of coverage and still gets a lot of debate relates to to iraq. and i think as bothjon and adam know, i felt that was me taking a very, very strong stance against one piece of reporting by one journalist, who i will go to my grave saying was and is a liar and who coincidentally works for borisjohnson. so i think that on the broader point, yes, adam is right, that we were more robust, but the reason for that goes back to the point i made earlier, the media ecosystem, a lot of it is still set by the written press, which is still very right wing. can i come quickly? if you can, jon, then i want to bring other in. but sure. let me just quickly say that, look, i was a political correspondent for ten years. you know, two or three of those two of those years when alastair campbell was press secretary to the prime minister.
but this was a very long time ago. so that was a while ago. but alastair, you also tried to exert pressure on the bbc on a daily basis. did you ever feel that it was trying to appease you, to use the verb that emily maitlis chose in her speech? no, on the contrary. i think that, you know, i don't think i complained about stories nearly as much as the mythology suggest. i think that the one that rightly gets a lot of coverage and still gets a lot of debate relates to to iraq. and i think as bothjon and adam know, i felt that was me taking a very, very strong stance against one piece of reporting by one journalist, who i will go to my grave saying was and is a liar and who coincidentally works for borisjohnson. so i think that on the broader point, yes, adam is right, that we were more robust, but the reason for that goes back to the point i made earlier, the media ecosystem, a lot of it is still set by the written press, which is still very right wing rules. can i come quickly?
would make a political debate between the party leaders more difficult. and so there was interference. and i complained about it, because i thought it was you know, i think there should be a very strict line between the b and the c. ie i'm a broadcaster, i'm not part of the corporation. right. and myjob is not to write a script that assists something, but this was a very long time ago. so that was a while ago. but alastair, you also tried to exert pressure on the bbc on a daily basis. did you ever feel that it was trying to appease you, to use the verb that emily maitlis chose in her speech? no, on the contrary. i think that, you know, i don't think i complained about stories nearly as much as the mythology suggest. i think that the one that rightly gets a lot of coverage and still gets a lot of debate relates to to iraq. and i think as bothjon and adam know, i felt that was me taking a very, very strong stance against one piece of reporting by one journalist, who i will go to my grave saying