I am collecting emails about the Spectator’s hit job on the Frontline Club
If you have anything to add then please send!
Vaughan
Between Sam Kiley and James Kerchick…
From: (Sam Kiley)
Date: 11 February 2016 at 19:11:54 CET
To: (James Kerchick)
Subject: Re: Frontline club
There is no Frontline club position on assange. Vaughns opinions are his own.
I dont think the programmes are especially left wing. They have a foreign and often human rights bias but i dont think that is left or right wing just inevitable. I have run many of the events over the years and rarely am Identified as a pinko!
I am surprised that you seem to want to go after a club for journalists. Its a pleasant place where old friends meet and feel that they are among their brethren.
Those who seem keen to sneer at it baffle me. Its membership is wide and varied. Dont beat it join it.
Best
Sam
From: (James Kerchick)
Date: 11 February 2016 at 18:27:23 CET
To: (Sam Kiley)
Subject: Re: Frontline club
Hi Sam,
Sorry if my initial email came off as a bit impertinent. But yes, I am referring primarily to the Assange-boosting, and would appreciate if you can clarify whether that is an institutional position or just that of the founder.
More generally, I have spoken to some other journalists who have spent time at the Club and who complain about the programming being of a consistently left-wing, anti-US/UK/“establishment” bent. Care to comment on that?
Thanks,
Jamie
On Feb 8, 2016, at 2:09 PM, (Sam Kiley) wrote:
I think that Assange should face the music and no doubt other Frontline members agree. But we are a club founded in the memory of people who have given their lives trying to get the truth. I know this sounds pretentious. And it is perhaps. Members are generally well travelled. Good fun. Generous to competitors and kind to the upstarts we all once were. We also like to drink and it would be a foolish member who resorted to war stories, even in their cups.
So I am not sure what pretentious antics you are referring to?
Best
Sam
Sam Kiley
Foreign Affairs Editor
Sky News
On 8 Feb 2016, at 18:08, (James Kerchick) wrote:
Hi Sam,
Not sure if Toby briefed you but I’m doing a cheeky piece about Frontline and their obnoxious pretensions. If you’re free for a chat please let me know when and how to reach you.
Jamie
Between Toby Young and James Kerchick…
>On 6 Feb 2016, at 00:37, (James Kerchick) wrote:
Toby,
Not sure if read about Oliver Kamm’s publicly quitting the Frontline Club over its public endorsement of Julian Assange. I’ve long wanted to write a take-down of that place; I went there a couple times when I was living in London a decade back, as its always been a nest of the worst kind of British foreign correspondents/NGOistas and ne’er do wells: lefty types who go native and hate the UK/US/Israel; basically a bunch of little John Pilger wannabes. Yet they exude this sort of faux-sophisticate aura that masks their ulterior agenda. I’m not sure if that piece has ever been written before, but I’m sure I could do a nice gossipy one.
Best,
Jamie”
>On Feb 5, 2016, at 7:41 PM, (Toby Young) wrote:
That sounds like a good piece James. Can you turn something round by the end of next week?
Worth reading that LRB profile of Julian Assange by Andrew O’Hagan. He doesn’t emerge well, though it’s a slog to get through. Vaughan Smith, the owner of the Frontline Club, has a bit part in that story as Assange’s bitch. He put up the bail money that Assange pissed away when he “defected” to Ecuador. Yet he’s still out there spinning for him.
Did you hear Kamm on LBC taking down Craig Murray? A thing of beauty:
http://www.lbc.co.uk/outrageous-preposterous-julian-assange-friend-argues-with-opponent–124520
>On 6 Feb 2016, at 00:46 (James Kerchick) wrote:
Cool. I’ll try my best.