Steve Bunce has no ownership of the site. It is owned by Longcount (domain name and hosting plan) and was worked on by himself, Paddy, Gasman and Doug. The MySQL database backups have full logs of contributor IDs matched against IP addresses.
And that's the point that she hasn't addressed in any of her responses so far. She clearly infers that the Website is the work of Buncey himself, which it clearly isn't. I felt like joining those Guardian responses myself at one point, but it was obvious she had no intention of retracting or apologising. By the way, if any Guardian readers have made it over here to read this, please feel free to go **** yourselves:hi:
I'd rather have the delectable young lady in your avatar do it! I am aware of how smug and middle class The Guardian is, however the only other paper with liberalish views simular to my own is the Independent which is earnest and boring.
LOL. I really think you lot are taking this too seriously. Dare I say, reacting in the melodramatic manner aluded to in her article?
Padraig Hoare here, the fella who got the testimonies for the site from both Bertie Ahern and David Blunkett. Now, I may be missing my funny bone, or may be a bit too sensitive, but since I've been getting calls from people today asking if I made up the whole thing about our esteemed politicians, I don't think you'd blame me for feeling my reputation has been impugned. In permanent form, in writing, on a website read by many. I have been onto the Fianna Fáil press office this evening, and the very nice lady that I dealt with first day not only recalled Bertie Ahern's endorsement, but has produced the email sent from his office, with his signature. I have the original email from David Blunkett, sent from his parliamentary assistant, endorsing the campaign. I may be an unenlightened, oafish and boorish Neanderthal compared with the wonderfully magniloquent Guardian commentators, but I know what's right. Marina Hyde may be brilliant, and magnificently articulate and witty, and charming and luvvy and much more, but it's rather disappointing she didn't even care to check simple facts before submitting this article to her editors. I won't say anymore because its now in the hands of people who deal with things like this for a living.
good man podge. dan-b...this isnt being taken seriously enough more like...stuff like that can seriously damage steve's reputation, and he is trying to get back on our screens right now, he also works for the bbc...it could be very damaging for him to be called a cheat/fraud/liar, which is EXACTLY what that article was saying, albeit between the lines. Now that it has been shown that steve didnt run the site, that he didnt get any quotes himself, and we have heard from podge..then a withdrawal and public apology on the blog that posted it is proper order...no less.
I think it's fair to say The Guardian ain't taking the complaints too seriously... They linked the article in 'The Fiver'