Comments on: Gilligan Dispatches three year old story for Channel 4

By: Liberal Democrat Voice » Questions raised over Labour’s election financing in Manchester

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:56:39 +0000

[...] There’s an interesting online discussion about the piece here, including some exchanges with Andrew Gilligan himself. [...]

By: David Ottewell

David Ottewell — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 15:03:05 +0000

Just seen this. I wanted to clarify that the story originated in the Manchester Evening News before being picked up by the BBC and others. It’s been regularly reheated in the nationals ever since.

Funnily enough, we put it on p2. Must have been a great news day…

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/129/129202_labour_facing_quiz_over_5000_donation.html

By: David

David — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 18:16:12 +0000

I don’t agree with your claim that “the ‘finding’ we took to Tony Travers was not the Manchester case”. In your final edit, the “findings” taken to Travers do relate specifically to Ask’s donation to the Manchester Labour Party. The programme is edited like this: the facts of the Ask donation are explained, then there is an interview with Simon Ashley about the Ask case, then the sentence “We took our findings…” is heard on the voiceover, before Tony Travers speaks, apparently about this specific case. We then return to a statement from Ask defending its conduct. There’s no other way of interpreting it: the segment on Ask was presented as a new finding. Watch the programme via the link on the post if you don’t believe me – it’s about 26 minutes in. (And you may well have discovered other new stuff – and good luck to you – but that’s not what I was blogging about.)

By: Andrew Gilligan

Andrew Gilligan — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 10:24:48 +0000

Another correction to your facts is needed, I’m afraid. Not that impressive for a professional journalist. This time you are deliberately quoting selectively from the show in order to bolster your argument. The “finding” we took to Tony Travers was not the Manchester case, our discovery – which WAS found by the programme – that there have been nine such recent cases where property developers have donated money to local parties just before those same developers made a planning application. You also forgot to mention that the programme featured two more of these nine cases, which have not been reported elsewhere.

By: One Man & His Blog

One Man & His Blog — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:29:54 +0000

Quinn versus Gilligan: Specialist Hack against Mainstream?…

David Quinn, a journalist based in Manchester, posted on his blog that last night’s Dispatches by Andrew Gilligan was actually trading off a three year old story. And David should know, because he covers the Manchester property market, which was……

By: David

David — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:39:05 +0000

It might not have said it, but it certainly implied it with the phrase “our findings”. As in: “We took our findings to Tony Travers.” I’d suggest this phrase implies an exclusive or investigation of some sort and, arguably, distorts the fact that this is very old news.

By: Andrew Gilligan

Andrew Gilligan — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 11:20:50 +0000

The programme did not say or imply that the Manchester story had been “discovered” by Dispatches or was an exclusive. Please get your facts right before you attack other people’s.

By: Anon

Anon — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 08:28:17 +0000

So they were cleared of wrongdoing, and therefore nothing untoward took place? As if. The entire system is corrupt from top to bottom.