Crikey has followed up its Paddy Manning story today with more damning quotes from Fairfax journalists:
Several Fairfax staffers told Crikey management should have disciplined Manning — with, say, a first and final warning — but that firing him was a step too far. “Fairfax has made a f-cking mess of the whole thing and made the guy a martyr,” an AFR journalist said this morning.
“The sad thing is he’s right and instead of self-reflection they just sack him,” said one SMH scribe. And anotherHerald reporter: “It was a total over-reaction. They could easily have taken the higher path and just ignored it, or written a reply or any number of thick-skinned, mature options.”
…A reporter at The Fin told Crikey many at the paper, including in the Canberra bureau, were “really pissed” when they read Manning’s article because it “sledges everyone in the paper”. But the source added: “All the things he said about the business stories were right.
“Business journalists should be pro-market. Now we’re a paper that’s in bed with business; what we should be is pro-market. That’s what Brett [Clegg, AFR Group CEO] doesn’t get.”
QED.
