It's like Iraq all over again

Remember when the news media failed to investigate the reasons given for going to war in Iraq? That waste of blood and treasure which started ten years ago this week?

LibDem activist Stephen Tall has a post up on Liberal Democrat Voice which tells me that nothing has been learned by the news media. That instead of doing their job and investigating Very Important issues they're fixated instead on the Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Humpty Dumpty politics of Westminster.

Tall writes that:

I had an odd experience on Friday. I was doing a round of media interviews – 3 for TV, 3 for radio – previewing the Lib Dem conference. I’d been called by researchers in advance to ‘get my take’ on the key issues. Each time, I said there was a big issue on which the party leadership could expect to be defeated and which would see activists from across the broad spectrum of the Lib Dems united: opposition to secret courts. This received an “Uh-hum” response which I took for baffled boredom. And as expected, each interview in turn dwelt instead on Vicky Pryce and Chris Huhne and the allegations against Lord Rennard.

Which is even worse because Tall also writes that they missed out on the sort of argument they appear to thrive on:

If they’d asked me about secret courts, however, I’d have had no hesitation in letting the party leadership have it with both barrels.

The LibDem leadership is backing the government's bill and saying FU both to party policy and the very basis of classic liberalism. Last week only seven of their MPs 'rebelled'.

Unfortunately Tall then descends onto a 'woe is us' plea for the meeja to not be so focused on LibDem travails, assuming that the problem is a recent one.

Well no, this sort of attitude to political reporting is not recent, and it is not just exclusive to Westminster. It got us into a disastrous war, remember?

• Observer Editorial against the secret courts bill