on media


The modern spectacle of sudden downfall


Raymond Snoddy looks at three high-profile resignations T


here have been three serious, controversial journalistic departures in recent weeks. Two were well deserved;


one was more problematic. All three were testimony to a trend


that the roof can fall in immediately on almost anyone who writes or says the unexpected, the ill-advised, the poorly considered or the downright nasty. The first of the three, who thoroughly deserved his fate, was Roy Greenslade who, after retirement, held an honorary visiting professorship at City, University of London, where he had been a journalism professor with an interest in journalistic ethics. He trashed his reputation and undermined a lifetime’s work by admitting, for no pressing reason, in the Journalism Quarterly Review, that he had long supported the Provisional IRA and its bombing campaign. He had maintained his beliefs,


including the delusion that civilian IRA casualties had been accidental, to this day and across senior editorial posts at The Sunday Times and The Guardian, not to mention as editor of the Daily Mirror at the height of the Troubles. His reason for obscuring his true beliefs was that he could not be honest because he was about to get a mortgage and did not want to lose his job. Greenslade resigned from City,


although the university noticeably said that for freedom of expression reasons it had not sought his resignation. It matters little. Greenslade’s


reputation is now in permanent tatters, except in the very specialist quarters where it is believed blowing up children – and indeed journalists – was justifiable for the greater cause.


The case of Piers Morgan, another former editor of the Daily Mirror, is very different. He departed the prime presenter slot at ITV’s Good Morning Britain because he hugely overstated allegations in his attack on Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex. Morgan said of her CBS interview that


you could not believe a word she said. There were indeed problems with her comments that her son Archie had not become a prince and that the family had not had full security protection because of underlying racism. This does not seem to be correct. Archie can become a prince only when his grandfather becomes monarch and only ‘working’ members of the royal family are entitled to full protection, and in this country not the US. Morgan went much further, questioning her comments about mental health problems and suicidal thoughts, something he could not possibly have known. He was gone with a record 57,121


complaints to communications regulator Ofcom, although another multimillion-pound TV contract may not be far away. The third, much more serious and significant case involves someone most people outside the newspaper industry will not have heard of. Ian Murray, a former regional


newspaper editor, was until last month chief executive of the Society of Editors (SoE). The society was set up to fight for press freedom and Murray came out fighting in defence of the UK media after the TV attack by the duke and duchess. He was undone by two short


sentences and by what he didn’t say.


“ ”


Murray went for an unequivocal


statement that the UK media ‘is not bigoted’ and made it worse by adding that although some questioning was ‘awkward and embarrassing’, the press ‘is most certainly not racist’. The SoE should have defended itself


against the precise allegation that the attacks on Meghan had been racially motivated and avoided generalisations. Crucially, there was no mention of


how much needed to be done, not least in making newsrooms more diverse. Perhaps the worst thing Murray got wrong was a lack of awareness of just how fast individual injustices can, with the help of social media, trigger international movements that chanage public attitudes at speed. It happened with MeToo, Black Lives


Matter and now the way the Sarah Everard murder has led to a wider debate about the safety of women. Murray’s position became untenable


when TV presenter Charlene White pulled out of presenting the SoE’s National Press Awards ceremony – now indefinitely postponed – and nominees started withdrawing their entries. As Murray departed, the society’s


He was gone with a record 57,121 complaints, although another multimillion-pound TV contract may not be far away


‘statement of clarification’ seemed too little, too late. “We will reflect on the reaction our


statement prompted and work towards being part of the solution,” it said. The SoE must indeed reflect, regroup and reorganise on more diverse lines. It would be a tragedy if the society


were to fall apart because of an ill-advised press release and the deeper failings this revealed. Never has there been a greater need for a body that fights unambiguously for press freedom, which is under threat everywhere.


theJournalist | 19


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28