Herald lectures Wishart, then gets facts wrong...

Ironic, really. I warned the Herald yesterday to note that Investigate was standing strongly by its Parker story:

Dear Tim

You can't say I didn't warn you.

Fran makes a statement of fact that "there are big weaknesses in his campaigns against David Benson-Pope and David Parker, where he chose to again run with the accusations by disaffected sources without putting them to the relevant Cabinet minister first."

Seeing as Fran has never once asked me what I asked of whom, I feel comfortable calling her a hypocrite. And she has her facts wrong. If she had checked (which despite her lecturing of me on the point, she didn't) she would have discovered that we put all new information in the Benson-Pope affair to Benson-Pope before we published it. Benson-Pope chose not to answer our questions, and instead issued a news release to every media organization except us.

If Fran had bothered to read the Investigate website and the TBR.cc blogsite, as I recommended to you, she would have found that I have no legal weakness on the Parker case at all, and that Parker's magic letter does not absolve him for responsibility for filing false returns - a point this former business editor has mystifyingly overlooked.

Wrapping these things together, Fran states there are "big weaknesses" in my stories on these two ministers..I suggest that Fran and the Herald start consulting their lawyers, and start researching those genuine "big weaknesses" in those stories, because you are going to need to prove the truth of those claims in court if I don't get a retraction, and simply waiving the Crown solicitor's legal opinion won't save you, because if it is as dodgy as I and many lawyers believe, it won't stand the heat at trial.

And I did put you on notice. I look forward to your suggestion as to how we correct this.

Regards Ian Wishart

UPDATE: Latest email sent to Herald editor Tim Murphy, Sunday night by me:

PS on the Fran piece...

She got another fact wrong: “I did speak to an Adolf Finkelstein”.

Or perhaps the name was really Adolf Fiinkensein.

But possibly there’s a totally innocent Adolf Finkelstein out there somewhere now feeling hurt by being implicated in the “vast right wing conspiracy”, especially as Mr Finkelstein is an advocate for the Socialist Unity Party…who knows, but getting names right is a basic, one would think.

Cheers

Ian

Hat-tip for the name error: Dave at Big News

Comments

[Ian]

Ian.W.

IMHO. It's smacks of being very dodgy, this socalled 'magic letter' suddenly coming to light.

Looks like a faked piece of butt covering to me.

[Shane Ponting]

Actions like those of the herald don't do much to destroy the idea that the Left-Elite's influence includes that of the media......

[sagenz]

That is the funniest thing I have heard this week. accusing you of not checking with the subject and doing the same themselves.

Good luck with getting a retraction.

[Sophie]

I hope you get a retraction-well said.

[Susan Aucutt]

Methinks the maiden doth protest too much.

[Jack Yan]

Go for it, Ian—I shall be interested to hear what the Irish-owned media will say.

[AL]

My response to her comments on Sir Humphrey's etc are here:
http://www.sirhumphreys.com/node/5075

She didn't contact me either, not even one email. And most of her carefully couched hypotheticals are highly misleading.

Someone really does need to get back to basics.

[J R Will]

Ian Wishart is really scrambling to get himself out of the poo his own stupidity got him into!

[jack lambton]

has anyone actually sighted Parker's 'magic' letter? And has it been checked for authenticity? paper type in use in 1999 or whenever it was posted? Typewriter or computer generated? date checked? etc. As Parker said himself, the file copy should have been shredded years ago. Maybe it was!

[dave]

whoa Jack, are you flashing back to that CBS memo?

[sagenz]

ian
I have blogged on the post and recieved a response from Fran O'Sullivan. you may be interested

[Jack Yan]

Hey Dave, yes, every now and then … it was fun being a font nerd for a current issue than in the minutiæ of work!

[Jack Yan]

Dave, sorry, thought you were talking to me and not the other Jack (as I was involved in Memogate and wrote quite extensively on it in the print media).
   On that note: anyone want to show me the letter and I can make a comment?

[ian wishart]

Ah Jack...good to see a fellow publishing magnate still working at this hour...

[Jack Yan]

Thanks, Ian. I have concluded I have more in common with the last James Bond villain (who had permanent insomnia).