Crick, Michael

[marky]

Name: Michael Crick
BBC Position: Political Editor and Reporter (1992 - )

"He joined the Labour party at 15 and wrote a book about Militant, the Trotskyist faction of the Labour party, soon after graduating with a first in PPE from New College, Oxford.

Until the age of 30, he had every intention of becoming a Labour MP, but when the opportunity to become the candidate for a safe-ish seat presented itself, he agonised briefly, then decided not to take it. It clashed with another opportunity that had come up: to be Channel 4's Washington correspondent.

He has no regrets about the decision and admits that he probably has had at least as much political influence in the media as he would have had as a backbencher. And anyway, he did become disillusioned with Labour, and with politicians generally, although he says he doesn't buy Jeremy Paxman's line that, when interviewing a politician, you should be thinking, 'why is this lying bastard lying to me?'" Telegraph