When the BBC - or any media outlet for that matter - reports something 'embarrassing' about the DUP, there is an immediate reaction from a section of unionism; a reaction which can be summed up as, 'why don't you spend more time investigating what the IRA and their Sinn Féin supporters have been doing, rather than always picking on unionists?'
On Wednesday morning, hours after the Spotlight programme, I was stopped by a person in a supermarket on the Cregagh Road: "Do you know something, Mr Kane, the way the BBC follow Paisley around the world you'd think he was an international terrorist rather than just a tube who likes beaches and sunshine.''
But what is the media supposed to do about Paisley when there is a legitimate public interest story about him? He was on the front page of the three local papers on Wednesday and probably the subject of countless water-cooler conversations around Northern Ireland and along the corridors of Westminster.
He has a huge profile because he deliberately courts the media and is always good value when it comes to a comment or feisty press release. He enjoys the spotlight. He enjoys discomfiting people when asking questions on parliamentary committees. He was practically swaggering when he was on the stage addressing a Brexit rally in London a few weeks ago: "We are red, we are white, we are dynamite."
He has the Paisley name: the brand, if you like. He is one of the 10 DUP MPs propping up the Conservative government. He has been mixing with the big beasts of the ERG in the House of Commons. He is photographed with key figures connected to Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party. His vote - even if he was suspended by the DUP - matters to both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt. The London media know who he is and are interested in him. He has survived one recall attempt and this latest instalment of the Maldives saga raises questions about whether he could be faced with another attempt. Put bluntly, Ian Paisley is regarded as a 'character' and political characters will always be catnip for the media and the public.
And therein lies a problem for the DUP. Read this section of Arlene Foster's speech to the DUP's annual conference last November: "I know I speak for many when I say that over the course of the last twelve months there have been a number of other areas where our behaviour in our ranks has not matched the standards expected of people holding public office. So we must ensure there is no repeat of such behaviour and that those high standards we aspire to ourselves and that others rightly require of us are applicable at every level within this party."
That section of the speech was supposed to close the door on a number of embarrassments, including Paisley's suspension from the Commons after failing to register all-expenses-paid holidays in Sri Lanka, followed by a recall petition.
A couple of weeks after that speech BBC Spotlight broadcast their first programme about Paisley and the Maldives. Just over six months later they have returned to the story with more allegations about visits which hadn't been declared in the register of members' interests. The DUP responded with a statement after the original programme saying, 'party officers will want to consider these very serious matters.' Six months on and it's not entirely clear how, exactly, Mr Paisley was disciplined by the party. The officers may have concluded that even if they deselected him he would still win the next election: so chose to sit it out and hope his nose remained clean.
But what do they do now if the allegations are true? They can't keep playing the 'he-is-a-Paisley-and-always-going-to-carry-the-vote-so-why-risk-losing-one-of-our-seats' card. To do so is to send the message that they view him as untouchable; and in sending that message they are sending the accompanying message that someone called Paisley is always going to be bigger than the party. I understood and predicted that he would easily win a recall petition which looked like it had been demanded by Sinn Féin. But in a general election, where he ran as an independent, I think a DUP candidate could beat him.
