I'm on a mailing list for request for comment on COVID-19 stuff and there's near-constant requests from right-wing media asking for them about interrogating the recent errors in government communications. The left-liberal media is near-exclusively not interested.

Now, I obviously will not engage with the right-wing media for numerous reasons, even if they have picked up on work I have done, and they obviously have their own reasons for seeking out this comment. But I think there is a wider story than the obvious here.

There have been huge failings of government policy and of communication. Illiberal policies, and policies that disproportionately affect working class people, have been justified on the basis of absolutely terrible use of data. Yet the left-liberal media is not interested.

So we've got a situation - yet again - where the debate is polarised and largely driven by the fact that mass media organisations have a story to sell and aren't very interested in any contrary view. I dunno about you, but this reminds me of something else in the last few years.

I think it is fair to say that this did not go particularly well. If the govt inappropriately pushes policies that are incredibly illiberal and have abysmal consequences for working people, their target audience are overwhelmingly not going to read about it. I think this is bad.

(Apart from @owenhatherley who has repeatedly asked me to write for Tribune but which I have repeatedly bottled doing because striking the right tone on this is v difficult, so that's I guess partly on me.)

Another thing to throw in here is that I was actually recently asked by one left-liberal media outlet to debunk a story about inappropriate use of data - one that was entirely correct - that I had in fact written myself.

People telling me to engage with the right-wing media: no, I will not do this. There are no shortages of people saying what I would say, and if I am going to speak to the media then it will be to use it for what I want to say, rather than being made use of dishonestly.

I completely appreciate people who make other judgements and I don't think it's easy. But I will not do this.