Interesting.
There is still a culture of personal responsibility here in the UK (unlike the US, unfortunately). About a fortnight ago, the Daily Mirror (one of the capitol's major newspapers) published photos of British troops abusing a prisoner on their front page. This was the day after the first pictures of American GIs abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib were published.
It turns out that they were faked (this is not to say that abuses haven't happened, just that the troopers haven't been stupid enough to provide photographic evidence). Conclusive proof came out yesterday morning and by evening the board of directors of the paper had sacked the paper's editor, Piers Morgan.
He has been quite a figure of celebrity this last couple of weeks, going so far as to insist that even if the photos were faked, they "represented" what had actually happened in British-controlled prisons in Iraq and that he would not step down. There had been numerous calls for him to do so in the event that they were proved to be fake.
My point is that there has been an expectation that he would step down in the event that the paper had been hoaxed (as they appear to have been; they didn't create the photos themselves, they merely bought them). I don't think I'm wrong in suggesting that that would be a highly unusual action for an American editor.
Then again to contradict myself, didn't the editor of the NY Times get the sack when one of his writers was proved to have fabricated stories over an extended period of time?
Posted by artandscience at May 15, 2004 11:08 AMPersonally I would have preferred it if Piers Morgan had "Fell on his Sword" as that would have been the honourable thing to do. But it sounds like there was a bloody great fight and he was sacked and removed from the building...childish and petulant. There's having the courage of your convictions but that was just being plain spoilt.
Pretty disgusting really. In any walk of life there should be a sense of honour and responsibility. If you make a call, and it's wrong - you're the only one to blame. As a PM you know what I'm talking about Stefan.
Surprised on your comments about the US. So what would happen over there? I know Rumsfeld has survived a bit of a hoo-hah, but that's not the norm surely? Do they not normally resign/get removed then get the book/movie deal? ;)
Posted by: Gary at May 15, 2004 09:51 AMRarely in the US would an editor resign or be removed. The paper would be likely to bury the apology on a back page (or the equivalent). This has happened too many times to be recounted.
The NY Times was a bit of an exception, because like the Washington Post and the Christian Science Monitor it has (had) a sterling reputation for the quality of its reporting.
IMHO, there is very little attention paid these days to truth in reporting and quite a bit is reported as fact that is later shown to be inaccurate/untrue.
Posted by: stefan at May 15, 2004 11:44 AMHmm, think I heard about the NYT thing...did that not involve a young reporter who was reporting on the Washington Sniper case, but never actually went to Washington? Theres a new movie "Shattered Glass" that covers the same thing as well.
I never read anything I believe in papers. You'll have noticed the different slants from your time in the UK. I watch the BBC in the hope of getting a balanced report (supposed to be neutral) and on a Saturday and Sunday I buy four papers which pretty much cover the political spectrum. From that I've got enough 'opinion' to make up my mind. Having 30+ RSS feeds also helps :)
Posted by: Gary at May 15, 2004 12:48 PMWhat I like about the UK papers is that their slant on issues is pretty obvious. Unlike US papers where the I've found it to be much less obvious. This may be because papers which aren't in major US markets (like LA, SF, Chicago, NY, Miami, or Dallas) don't do a lot of original reporting of international or even national news. (They pick up a lot of wire service reportage and that leads to a sameness of viewpoint.) But in the major markets, it is a little clearer.
I much prefer London's papers. I pick up a different one almost daily to get a different viewpoint. So far I like the quality of writing in the Independent, but the Guardian is my current favorite. I also read the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, and Times.
Posted by: stefan at May 17, 2004 11:42 AM