In the meantime, I offer you this diary piece from Hugh Muir:
Finally, what was it the combative Nadine Dorries MP said? "I'm frequently gobsmacked by how journalists forget to check their facts." Lord Justice Leveson would concur. But then he would probably avoid making an idiot of himself in the aftermath. On Saturday, Dorries pointed her Twitter flock towards an article by our own Jonathan Freedland. It referred to the "left's dirty secret" – the extent to which leading figures embraced the idea of eugenics: the theme of the novel Pantheon, written under Freedland's pen name, Sam Bourne. "Thanks to @j_freedland for excellent Cif article," tweeted Dorries, prompting a measure of criticism. "Usual torrent of abuse 4 linking to an abortion article re the left," she said. It's not an "abortion article", countered Freedland. "There's a difference between individual women having right to choose and desire to reduce/eliminate ranks of the 'inferior'." "Yes, but as you know," said Dorries, "abortion was the method used to eliminate the inferior." She had seen Freedland being interviewed on the BBC. "I just found it odd that in the whole interview you avoided the word entirely and yet in any other discussion re eugenics etc it's a word used often. I also didn't hear you mention Marie Stopes in your list of names, a contemporary of those you listed. Your avoidance of both led me to think that had more to do with your day job on the Guardian, as to omit both the word abortion + MS were glaring omissions." Nonsense, said Freedland. If I were worried about a Guardian backlash, I wouldn't have written the piece in the Guardian. And there was a whole paragraph about Marie Stopes. Didn't you see it? "I still haven't read all the column," admitted Dorries. "But u tweeted that it was excellent piece, linked to it + called it 'an abortion article'. Thought you'd read it," said Freedland. Oh dear, checkmate. Off sloped the member for Fact-Check West.
