14 votes

The Guardian is trying to intimidate Eoin Higgins into retracting his coverage of transphobia in their newsroom

4 comments

  1. [4]
    mtset
    Link
    Some context: Eoin Higgins wrote two articles about the Guardian's editorial decisions and how many employees felt they were transphobic. Now:

    Some context: Eoin Higgins wrote two articles about the Guardian's editorial decisions and how many employees felt they were transphobic. Now:

    The Guardian’s Director of Editorial Legal Services Gill Phillips just contacted me this morning to demand a retraction. That’s not going to happen. I stand by my reporting.

    6 votes
    1. [3]
      cfabbro
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      Also, for some additional background: Hundreds Of Staff At The Guardian Have Signed A Letter To The Editor Criticising Its "Transphobic Content" So good luck trying to prove defamation here, when...

      Also, for some additional background:
      Hundreds Of Staff At The Guardian Have Signed A Letter To The Editor Criticising Its "Transphobic Content"

      Hundreds of staff and contractors at the Guardian have signed a strongly worded letter to the editor in protest of the newspaper’s “pattern of publishing transphobic content”.

      The letter, which was sent to Katharine Viner on Friday night, has 338 signatories from across multiple departments at the title, and in every region — from senior editorial staff in the UK, the US, and Australia to employees in the commercial, digital, and technical departments.

      It has been passed to BuzzFeed News on the understanding that the individual names would not be published. Among the signatories are household names with international reputations and long-standing tenures at both the Guardian and its sister Sunday title, the Observer.

      The letter, which was organised over the last few days in response to a column by Suzanne Moore that has been widely criticised as anti-trans, said the staff were "deeply distressed" by the resignation of a transgender member of staff who said they'd received anti-trans comments from "influential editorial staff" and who criticised the publication of the Moore's column at the editorial morning conference.

      The column was “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” the trans employee said, following a series of pieces that pitted trans people against women and against women’s rights. One leader article — the publicly stated position of the newspaper — claimed that trans rights are in “collision” with women’s rights.

      The letter points out that this was the third trans staff member to resign over alleged anti-trans bias.

      Earlier on Friday, Viner, along with chief executive Annette Thomas, emailed all staff defending its decision to publish pieces that “never shy away from difficult or divisive subjects” and pledging to represent “a wide range of view on many topics”.

      The editor and CEO then castigated staff for publicly criticising the work of coworkers: “It is never acceptable to attack colleagues whose views you do not agree with, whether in meetings, on email, publicly or on social media.

      So good luck trying to prove defamation here, when several hundred of your own staff have also previously voiced similar concerns about transphobia being a serious problem within your organization.

      8 votes
      1. [2]
        cfabbro
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        And, holy shit, just to add some extra irony to this situation... Turns out, Gill Phillips, the Guardian lawyer demanding the retractions and accusing Eoin of defamation, recently published an...

        And, holy shit, just to add some extra irony to this situation... Turns out, Gill Phillips, the Guardian lawyer demanding the retractions and accusing Eoin of defamation, recently published an article about how the rich and powerful use libel laws in the UK to strong-arm journalists into silence.

        ‘The rich don’t always fight fair’: Guardian lawyers, libel and lawsuits by Gill Phillips

        The rich, the famous and the powerful don’t like criticism and don’t like having their dirty laundry aired in public. They can be well-resourced, and will spend heavily on expensive lawyers. They don’t always tell the truth, or fight fair.

        Pot, meet kettle!

        11 votes
        1. mtset
          Link Parent
          Oh my gods, these people really have no shame. Thanks for linking this!

          Oh my gods, these people really have no shame. Thanks for linking this!

          8 votes