Belatedly catching up on an earlier post by A Change of Personnel, we also find it amazing that a successful bullying case against Andy Coulson – with a record £792,736 award for damages - has gone widely un-reported in the press.An employment tribunal heard that the former News of the World editor, and now tory leader David Cameron's head of communications, was behind contrived actions to dismiss a sports reporter. In an email in the summer of 2006 to his deputy, Coulson wrote that he wanted the reporter "out as quickly and cheaply as possible" leading to disciplinary proceedings & formal warnings which the tribunal decided were a pretext.
So why has this landmark award against someone with such a high media profile been largely ignored or downplayed? Could it be that the throwaway employment culture at NI is no different to the rest of Grub Street – but even so, since when has professional hypocrisy been an impediment to publishing something?
Admittedly, the Independent on Sunday carries an interview with the bullied employee but there is still no mention by the Beeb and Sky News on what is supposed to be “highest payout of its kind in media history” either as feature piece or hard news. Conspiracy theorists can start filling in the gaps from this point onwards.
Meanwhile, it takes one of Murdoch’s own titles to report on how Coulson is doing his job.
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