communications, and he s now back on fleet street as deputy editor in chief of the sun. helen lewis, writer at the atlantic, first up, can you just clarify how normal is it for a journalist to move between journalism and politics like that? well, it s enormously common in one direction moving from journalism into politics if you think about the fact that, you know, david cameron s spokesman was craig oliver. you know, this is not. you know, labour had seumas milne from the guardian. you know, this is not an unusual thing at all. what s slightly more unusual in this case is moving back again so quickly. and that, i think, is the thing that makes it very hard because people are inevitably asking, hang on a minute, is the sun reporting this with one hand tied behind its back because its own hierarchy are involved in the story? and that can be very difficult as a kind of conflict of interest thing to square. but also the way through this, you know, borisjohnson is a formerjournalis
helen lewis, writer at the atlantic, first up, can you just clarify how normal is it for a journalist to move between journalism and politics like that? well, it s enormously common in one direction, moving from journalism into politics, if you think about the fact that you know, david cameron s spokesman was craig oliver. you know, this is not, you know, labour had seamus milne from the guardian. you know, this is not an unusual thing at all. what s slightly more unusual in this case is moving back again so quickly. and also and that, i think, is the thing that makes it very hard because people are inevitably asking, hang on a minute is the sun reporting this with one hand tied behind its back because its own hierarchy are involved in the story? and that can be very difficult as a kind of conflict of interest to square, but also the way through this, you know, borisjohnson is a formerjournalist himself. he has great contacts in a number of papers. there has been, you know, an enormous
a former daily mailjournalist who was working as boris johnson s director of communications, and he s now back on fleet street as deputy editor in chief of the sun. helen lewis, writer at the atlantic, first up, can you just clarify how normal is it for a journalist to move between journalism and politics like that? well, it s enormously common in one direction moving from journalism into politics if you think about the fact that, you know, david cameron s spokesman was craig oliver. you know, this is not. you know, labour had seumas milne from the guardian. you know, this is not an unusual thing at all. what s slightly more unusual in this case is moving back again so quickly. and that, i think, is the thing that makes it very hard because people are inevitably asking, hang on a minute, is the sun reporting this with one hand tied behind its back because its own hierarchy are involved in the story? and that can be very difficult as a kind
ok, well, radio four is taking a deep dive into all these issues about how to fund the bbc if the licence fee goes. the briefing room with david aaronovitch is on thursday evening at 8pm on radio four, and available via bbc sounds afterwards, for listeners now who want even more on the licence fee. but for us, today, let s zoom out of these discussions for a moment, because within all these newspaper scoops about operation red meat and parties at downing street, there are some pretty difficult questions for the media to answer. for example, one of these parties was held the night before prince philip s funeral. it was a leaving party held forjames slack a former daily mailjournalist who was working as boris johnson s director of communications, and he s now back on fleet street as deputy editor in chief of the sun. helen lewis, writer at the atlantic, first up, can you just clarify how normal is it for a journalist to move between journalism and politics like that? well, it s enorm