A sign that the blogosphere is starting to have an influence after pro Labour journalists have a go at Guido Fawkes

Dizzy has an interesting report highlighting that a number of left wing blogs, but more importantly, a number of journalists have run an rather inaccurate story today claiming that Paul Staines (aka Guido) has sent an e-mail which states clearly he is working hand in glove with the Tory party.

The background to the story is that Paul Staines has probably done as much as everyone else put together to highlight what Peter Hain has been up to and he has, as a result been the toast of anti Labour bloggers and conversely come in for much criticism and derision from Labour bloggers.

So what has stirred up today's story ? Well an e-mail appears to have been sent to some leading bloggers and journalists with an attachment or footer that states that Guido is a Tory. However, those with the technical nous can see very easily that the e-mail had been altered and journalists should do a lot more than simply check the "sender" to find the true origin of an e-mail. It appears the e-mail footer at the bootom claiming to be from the Tory Party was added after Guido sent the e-mail.

he question then is who is it from ? Guido admits it was his e-mail, but the footer at the bottom of it was added after it was sent by him. So why haven't the journalists noticed this ? It appears to me that those pro Labour journalists who were quick to run the story were desperate to make a link between Paul Staines and the Tories that the truth of the matter was no longer of any interest to them. The journalists in question do not appears to have bothered doing their background checks to check the authenticity of the e-mails. Shoddy journalism.

Note - This posting has been altered to take in to account my initial mis-understanding of the situation. Thanks to Mark Pack for clarifying matters.