The Times versus the Socialist Worker

Why would a high profile columnist and broadcaster want to spend a Sunday afternoon in Manchester slagging off the Socialist Worker newspaper?
It's odd - but it's what David Aaronovitch of The Times did at a debate on art and politics in the Town Hall yesterday.
As one of four platform speakers he launched two-attacks on Socialist Worker claiming that he was taking on the orthodoxy of the art world.
As I pointed out from the floor, using your celebrity to monster a small-circulation newspaper, that has no marketing apart from sellers outside stations on a Saturday, is hardly unorthodox.
In fact, I said, it is the strong bullying the weak - an all too familiar feature of our society.
Aaronovitch responded by ridiculing me for being a current or former member of the SWP.
As it turns out I'm not and I never have been.
So I shouted this out from the floor and an exchange ensued.
After listening to what seemed like hours of pretentious twaddle I snapped.
I thought to myself: "You want performance art. Here's some." And started ranting. A personal attack based on an assumption about my politics had no place at such a high-minded event, I suggested..
I don't know why I always make such a show of myself. It must be the artist in me.
But I was comforted by a woman who came up at the end and said: "Well done. I'm a Greek Cypriot so I know exactly how you feel."
She was obviously a surrealist too.
Earlier I'd won applause from the audience for tangling with a bigwig from Liverpool University who claimed The Clash album London Calling was a great work of art because it wasn't very political.
This series of debates - part of the Manchester International Festival - is worth a look.
If I go to any more I'll try to bite my lip.
I was really riled by Aaronovitch because "make no assumptions" is the first lesson at journalism school. It is a travesty that such a bad exponent of our craft should receive so much reward from it.