Telegraph editor is adamant he did the right thing over expenses

It was interesting to hear Will Lewis' comments yesterday on the Telegraph's exposure of MP's expenses.

The Telegraph's editor clearly believes that his paper has performed a public good by making Parliament more open and giving the electorate the chance to make a clean sweep with the old practices and denying that their publication has undermined democracy.

For my mind there have been two problems in the coverage.Firstly that there was no differentiation between claims that were accepted or rejected.Secondly that the paper has been selective in the members that it has targeted.

In particular the coverage over the first weekend which concentrated on the Labour party.

This gave the weekend papers time to mull over the implications from only one side of the political spectrum.It turned out that many Tory claims were far more outrageous than those of the Labour party.

Whatever the implications of the paper's actions,and its ramifications will be with us for many years,Lewis has set a precedent in publishing.

Fourth Estate or Political agenda?

It is quite surprising how journalism ethics seem to have been conveniently pushed aside as the public is subjected to days of information on MP's expenses.

Let's not though forget the basics.A national newspaper has paid money for information that has been obtained by illegal means

As Charlie Beckett says

Cheque-book journalism by a right wing newspaper has laid a Labour Government low and yet no-one seems to be blaming the media with any success. The charge of corruption, indifference and disdain levelled at the politicians of all colours seems to have too much resonance for anyone to worry seriously about the messenger.

Yet the implications could be far reaching.There is even some talk of a general election having to be called.

Let's just examine the Telegraph.

It could be accused of cynically exploiting the timings of its release to undermine a Labour government.Release Labour figures for the weekend papers to mull over and when the public has had enough,release the Tory ones which by all accounts are as bad.

Secondly release information that could be seen to be misleading,and without giving its victims a right to reply.How many codes of conduct does that break?

Yes there is the public interest aspect.This information will be portrayed as the fourth estate keeping our political masters under scrutiny as is its role.Yet I question whether this was done for that fact or to play a particular political agenda by the Telegraph