Wordblog

Mostly stories write themselves but sometimes there is a real choice between two different angles. The question then for the reporter and editor is whether to run with the pack or do something different.

The tale of David Cameron and Ali Miraj, the man who had hoped to be a Tory PM provides a good example. Most have followed a similar line to the Telegraph:

David Cameron ’smears’ Conservative critic
David Cameron’s summer leadership crisis intensified today when he was accused of "smearing" a Conservative activist who had spoken out against his leadership style.

The Sun has taken a different line:

Cam’s critic ‘wanted peerage’
TORY leader David Cameron hit back at his critics yesterday — and accused one of demanding a peerage to stay silent.

I listened to both Cameron and Miraj interviewed on the BBC World at One yesterday (listen again). The story is that the two men met to discuss a critical article that Miraj had written but not published. During this meeting Miraj, who had failed to get a nomination for a safe seat in the Commons, asked for a peerage. In the BBC interview Miraj brushed aside the suggestion that this was attempted blackmail.

It is Cameron’s revelation of the request for a peerage which is being described as a "smear". That is the line the lobby pack, already scenting Cameron’s blood after he went to Africa to talk about poverty rather than be photographed in wellington boots on the banks of the flooded Thames, has followed.

Not a pretty sight.