Today I and most other hacks in town got a warning from IPSO, the press watchdog.
A celebrity couple is upset about pictures of their new home, feeling them to be a burglar’s guide.
The rules are such that we aren’t even supposed to name the couple or say they’ve complained. On this occasion, I think they’ve got a point.
But IPSO complaints should be used sparingly. Too often they come on the back of a vague rumour that appeared in a diary column.
Blimey, thinks everyone on Fleet Street, we didn’t think that was true until we got the IPSO warning. Let’s get stuck in.
The only IPSO complaint I received personally came on the back of a minor error and a foolish flak.
The flak could have had the correction his client merited had he just asked politely. Instead, he went into full bully mode and I dug my heels in.
He got his correction, sort of. But somehow or other, a bunch of other hacks got interested in the story.
And the very thing he didn’t want to see repeated appeared in three other major newspapers.
I might say that taught him a lesson. In truth, I think he couldn’t figure out what had happened to him.