Quinn versus Gilligan: Specialist Hack against Mainstream?

David Quinn, a journalist and former colleague based in Manchester, posted on his blog that last night’s Dispatches by Andrew Gilligan was actually trading off a three year old story. And David should know, because he covers the Manchester property market, which was the subject of the story.

And somebody claiming to be Andrew Gilligan has responded:

The programme did not say or imply that the Manchester story had been “discovered” by Dispatches or was an exclusive. Please get your facts right before you attack other people’s.

There’s two interesting things here. Firstly, it’s revealing that mainstream TV journalism thinks that covering three year old stories is OK. And secondly, it’s very interesting that blogging is giving specialist journalists a more powerful voice when their mainstream colleagues bulldozer their way into their areas of expertise.