Credit where credit's due

Will Green, my successor-but-one as political editor of The Journal, scored a notable exclusive by persuading Minister for the North-East and Labour Chief Whip Nick Brown to go on the record with his thoughts about Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley.

The story, in which Brown effectively told Ashley to get out of Toon, was followed up over the weekend by several national newspapers.

But as Will reveals on his blog, while the Mirror's version of the story duly credited The Journal with the original scoop, the Daily Telegraph's version failed to include such a hat-tip.

Strange, that, given that the entire regional press has spent the summer busily hat-tipping the Telegraph over its MPs' expenses revelations.

Coulsongate

Or should that be The Wages of Spin? Thanks to cartoonist Slob for this take on the potential political ramifications of the alleged News of the World phone hacking affair - it was originally posted on my political blog but I thought it merited another outing here.

Meanwhile regional editors have been having their say on the Guardian claims, with the Northern Echo's Peter Barron calling for a new police investigation.