David Fox
David Fox and Andrew Marshall
Friday 13 May 2011
While the winning of awards [● Tehran bureau chief Parisa Hafezi wins top award for media women] and the appointment of WSJ journos to the team [● Reuters taps top WSJ editor for global role] are of interest, what happened to mail – for example from former correspondents like John Fullerton [● David Fox] – and the news on the David Fox/Andrew Marshall saga [● Reuters fires bureau chief over crude remark ● Reuters editor punished for chat room remark]?
The whole incident, costing an experienced correspondent his job and giving a black mark to another, indicates another side to the evolution of the company – retrograde in my view. Alarmingly too, it suggests that either I cannot find my way any longer around The Baron, or that the site is subject to either pressure or sabotage.
John Baggaley
No pressure, no sabotage. The five most recent news headlines are displayed on the Home page and mail is deleted from that page after a while in the interest of keeping it current. Everything ever filed to The Baron, including all news and all mail, remains on the site and accessible. Older news items and mail are archived each calendar month. To find any item use ● SEARCH in the main menu or ● A-Z Index or ● Site Map in the navigation sub-menu – Editor.
The whole incident, costing an experienced correspondent his job and giving a black mark to another, indicates another side to the evolution of the company – retrograde in my view. Alarmingly too, it suggests that either I cannot find my way any longer around The Baron, or that the site is subject to either pressure or sabotage.
John Baggaley
No pressure, no sabotage. The five most recent news headlines are displayed on the Home page and mail is deleted from that page after a while in the interest of keeping it current. Everything ever filed to The Baron, including all news and all mail, remains on the site and accessible. Older news items and mail are archived each calendar month. To find any item use ● SEARCH in the main menu or ● A-Z Index or ● Site Map in the navigation sub-menu – Editor.
David Fox and Andrew Marshall
Thursday 28 April 2011
Is this true? [● Reuters fires bureau chief over crude remark ● Reuters editor punished for chat room remark] So upsetting, man! We got by our assignments in Afghanistan cracking jokes. Geez. Give these guys some slack, BARON!
Charie Villa
Charie Villa
David Fox
Wednesday 27 April 2011
In the discussion in your illustrious pages of the David Fox affair, it was stated [● John Atkinson] that a bureau chief in Asia was fired in 1996-7 for a screentop exchange with the desk in Hong Kong. I can assure readers that no one was fired over a screentop exchange with the desk or anyone else during my time as News Editor Asia from 1994 through 1998.
Rodney Pinder
Rodney Pinder
David Fox
Tuesday 19 April 2011
I was dismayed to learn of the disciplining of two experienced Reuters correspondents over remarks they made on a closed chat-line restricted to a couple of dozen colleagues, while covering a physically and emotionally draining event such as the Japanese tsunami and its nuclear aftermath, which seems to smack of US-style political correctness gone mad [● Reuters fires bureau chief over crude remark ● Reuters editor punished for chat room remark]. Whatever the two may have said, it seems inconceivable that this could add up to a sacking/official warning offence. Fox and Marshall have had their share of tough assignments. Marshall was bureau chief in Baghdad when it was at its most violent and dangerous. He was asked when he came out of Iraq by our chairman Niall FitzGerald why he was prepared to take such risks. He responded, “because it was for Reuters”. One doubts whether he would say that now. It is hard to know which is worse – the colleague(s) who shopped the two to management, or the managers who decided that it was a disciplinary matter. A sad day for the old firm.
Colin McIntyre
Colin McIntyre
David Fox
Monday 18 April 2011
I have no idea what the circumstances were in this case [● Reuters fires bureau chief over crude remark]. However I remember a similar case around 1996-7, where a bureau chief was fired for a crude screentop exchange with the desk in Hong Kong. The possible only difference was that this guy actually filed the story the desk were objecting to and trying to spike directly to the wire.
John Atkinson
John Atkinson
David Fox
Saturday 16 April 2011
Presumably The Baron will get to the bottom of this [● Reuters fires bureau chief over crude remark] and tell us what the hell is going on. Journalism was always a rough trade, and many of us have inured ourselves and our feelings with crude and brutal humour from time to time. Soldiers do it all the time. It's not tasteful, nice or respectful. But then working in dangerous places isn't nice, either.
John Fullerton
John Fullerton
