Why you should never trust a journalist.

There has, quite rightly, been criticism of New Statesman Deputy Editor, George Eaton for his hatchet job on conservative philosopher, Roger Scruton.

The 75-year-old Roger Scruton gave his candor and trust to George Eaton because he is deputy editor of the New Statesman. Eaton used those civilized and liberal instincts against Scruton, dishonestly edited his remarks in order to smear Scruton as fearful and bigoted toward Chinese people in order to drum up a mini-Twitter outrage, and got him fired from an honorary position, in which he was advising the government on how to build more beautiful housing.

This is seen as an example of today's politics filled as it is with what Scruton called "this store of malice" but I've a feeling that, for all the criticism of Eaton, he have merely behaved as many journalists have always behaved. What Eaton got was a scalp and it doesn't matter how disingenuous he was or how he cherry picked phrases and twisted words, he brought the man down. And the plaudits he'll get from fellow journalists are like the 'expert pundit' in a football commentary applauding the professional foul, the bad behaviour is excused because it was justified by the game.

So my advice to every budding politician is never, not under any circumstances, trust a journalist. It doesn't matter how many drinks they buy you, how often they write or say nice things about you, if they've a chance to kill your career they will. I learned this the hard way...

When I was hauled, for the second time, before the Standards Board for England, I made the mistake of trusting a Yorkshire Post journalist. I was there because I'd been loud and rude to a Labour councillor. For some reason the officious investigators down in London decided this was a really bad thing so they'd have a tribunal - including paying thousands of pounds to ship a barrister up from London. There's me, in bits and pieces supported only by my wife, facing the Standards Board's investigating officer, a London solicitor and a barrister. This barrister read out, in the manner of these creatures, the bad words I was accused of saying - "didn't you say (lots of swear words)" to which I replied, "I don't remember my words, I was loud and rude".

The journalist promised me after they'd found me guilty but let me walk, that he'd fairly put my side of the story. He didn't, he just wrote down all the rude words and the editor plonked an unpleasant headline on the top.

Another time, I went to the leaving do for Olwyn Vasey who had been the Telegraph & Argus City Hall reporter. Most at the do were journalists and, at one point, the head of news at the paper stood up and said the sort of thing you'd expect - well done folks, you've been great, some super stories. Only then this journalist - not appreciating that I was there - talked about the highlight of the news year for them was getting me sacked (long story and I won't bore you with the details excpet to say I'd done nothing worthy of sacking). Think about this for a moment, celebrating forcing someone out of their job because it gets you a great front page.

I could give you other examples - journalists who made stuff up because they hadn't seen what someone else said they'd seen, stories created by getting a couple of friends to castigate someone on Twitter then reporting the outrage. I'm not saying journalists are any nastier than the rest of us, just that they are not your friend. So treat everything you say to them as on the record, always behave professionally, stick to facts, and remember that they are judged by the story - for some, as George Eaton shows, this doesn't make for decency or trustworthiness.

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