I sent the following complaint to Channel 4 News tonight:

“On Channel 4 News tonight Matt Frei claimed that there was not going to be a debate on Trident at this week’s Labour Party Conference because Jeremy Corbyn “shied away from it, apparently. The unions backed him up.” No evidence was presented for this claim, and the rest of the report seemed to demonstrate the opposite of both those statements. For one thing, on arrival at the Conference Corbyn is interviewed showing no signs of “shying away”, and he clearly expects a debate and wants it. He says:

“There will be a debate on Trident, of that I’m sure. Conference will come to pass a decision, possibly they’ll refer this to elsewhere – to be quite honest, at this very moment I don’t know.”

But Matt Frei was determined to present him as “shying away” from a debate at Conference and says, “The unions backed him up.” However, Gary Gibbon, momentarily singing from another hymn sheet, blamed the vote against a debate on two unions with members in the defence industry: they “wouldn’t back Jeremy Corbyn”. That, presumably, is the Jeremy Corbyn who wanted a debate not the mythical “shying away” figure conjured up by Matt Frei. Gary Gibbon, however, seems to have been given Matt Frei’s hymn sheet in the end and declared of Corbyn: “He’s avoided a bloody fight here he really didn’t want” – presumably “avoided” is slightly more polite than “shied away”.

Perhaps this might be explained by the rough-and-tumble of journalists trying to piece together a complicated story which has to be edited to fit the very short Sunday-night edition of the programme. Unfortunately for such a generous explanation, Matt Frei, in the comfort of the studio, pursued his theme in his interview with Lisa Nandy, still without producing evidence for his claims. He stated as fact that Corbyn had “shut down” the debate on Trident. He then went further, saying that “shutting down the debate on Trident … was surely doing what Labour used to do, which was trying to control things from the top.”

It’s difficult not to conclude that the aim of Channel 4 News in this report was to set up Jeremy Corbyn as a fixer of the old school and a hypocrite. If Corbyn ever became those things you would have a duty to report it. But don’t cynically assume it from the start and doctor the evidence.”

They promise to reply. I’ll let you know.