Awwww.
The poor unions in the UK are all bent out of shape that one of their members, one Andrew Gilligan, got called on the carpet by Hutton for tilting the news, and possibly causing the death of at least one person.
Sky News reports the union leader as saying:
“Our reaction would be to immediately back him, to represent him at any subsequent hearings, and to argue with our members that they should take whatever action is necessary to protect his position.”
Reynolds has it right:
Is there any profession that’s worse at admitting mistakes and taking criticism than the journalistic profession? I don’t know, but UK journalists are responding to the Hutton Inquiry by threatening to strike if disciplinary action is taken against the feckless Andrew Gilligan, who got the story so dreadfully wrong and whose errors may have contributed to David Kelly’s suicide. Of course, to some people, this isn’t a threat but a promise — the reader who sent the link observes: “Oh God! A journalists’ strike, how will we ever notice ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^ cope?”
The boy should be fired at least.
(Update:) Thanks to Glenn, we now have the full text of the report. Impressive website, actually….
I’ve spent much of the day pouring over this series of documents. It appears to me that what Hutton is realy calling for in his report, and what the Unions are resisting, is accountability in Journalism.
Fancy that.
Tags: BitsBlog