An axed columnist says her “sacking” by a Sunday newspaper after showing solidarity with a colleague “exposes the influence of corporate interests in our media.”
As previously reported by HTFP, Angela Haggerty, left, was told her column in Glasgow’s Sunday Herald had been terminated after having voiced support for sportswriter Graham Spiers.
The Sunday Herald’s sister daily The Herald apologised to Rangers FC last week after Graham questioned whether the football club was doing enough to tackle offensive chanting among its supporters and claiming an un-named club director had praised a sectarian chant.
The Herald maintained it had “no option” but to apologise to the club, saying Graham’s assertions could not have been defended in court.
Angela then waded into the row on social media, offering “solidarity” with Graham on Twitter, and was later informed by Herald & Times Group editor-in-chief Magnus Llewellin that her column had been terminated.
Now she has written about her departure from the Newsquest-owned group in a strongly-worded piece for online magazine Bella Caledonia.
She wrote: “I’m saddened that what could have been a great relationship with the Herald has ended this way.”
“In terms of the Rangers situation, I hope this incident will be an eye-opener for those unaware of the influence of Glasgow football clubs and those connected to them on the media in Scotland. This is a serious problem, and it should be examined further.”
She added: “When I see a colleague of my trade being subjected to the same abuse I’ve experienced – and I know how much pressure that can bring on a person – I won’t hesitate in showing support and condemning those online taking part in it.
“The decision to sack me must have been rapid. I was given no opportunity to state my case. When I finally spoke to Magnus Llewellin, it was simply to inform me of the reasons behind the decision, it wasn’t really a discussion.
“He informed me that ‘representatives of Rangers Football Club’ had brought my tweets to the attention of the Herald, and that, to cut a long story short, the paper was under so much legal pressure that he felt he had no option but to let me go.
“He also informed me that Neil MacKay, editor of the Sunday Herald, had fought strongly to stop it happening, but in the end he was overruled.
“You have to ask who the winner out of this is. In this episode, it’s Rangers Football Club, but on a wider level it exposes the influence of corporate interests in our media. In the current financial landscape, that influence is ever more prominent.”
“The bigger picture here is far more important. The Herald threw two journalists under the bus whichever way you look at it, and that decision will have consequences both in terms of reader trust and what vested interests now think they may be able to get away with.”
Magnus had declined to respond to Angela’s piece or comment further on the case.
Previously he told HTFP: “The issue we had was whether we could defend the contentious statement in court and the advice given was that we could not. That left us with no other option other than to apologise.”
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What were the Herald’s management supposed to do?
They had a journalist who made an allegation of bigotry against an unnamed individual. An allegation that, on legal advice, could not be defended in court.
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Corporate interests influencing the media? Who would have thought it!
Welcome to the real murky world of hacking young lady.
It ain’t right, but it has been happening since the year dot and always will.
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Redcarder. A somewhat patronising response. It hasn’t happened since year dot that I know of. I was a relative late starter (2007) but even then our editor in chief had pushed stories through at the extent of big advertising contracts, he lost thousands becasue he knew the paper’s credibility was more important in the long view.
I never, nor did I ever meet a fellow journalist, who’d had a story pulled in case it damaged a commercial relationship. These days it’s shameless. Newspaper groups are actually hiring teams of people who are expected to straddle both journalism and commercial writing.
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Sadly the bigotry and misogyny of a sub-section of supporters of Rangers football club have cast a stain on the free press that is supposed to champion free speech. Angela was treated badly by the Herald and shame on them for cowering to the mob.
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How obliging for fans of Rangers Football Club to approach The Herald in this way!
How dare a woman with an Irish surname have an opinion in the West of Scotland!
No good deed goes unpunished!
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Redcarder: you are wrong. It has not been happening since the year – dot, anyway, as blatantly as is happening now where advertising interests are put before reporting and/or commentating. I’ve upset more than a few people in my 50 years as a hack but the papers I worked on always put editorial and the readers’ interest first and that was done by by the editor – not some grovelling apology from some executive for what was supposed to be comment.
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I doubt Rangers have any money to fight yet another court battle. But what has happened is the Rangers Supporters Trust have used this apology – not condoned by Spiers despite what the Herald says – to produce a bile-filled statement calling Spiers a liar. His reputation is now tarnished thanks to the Herald’s incompetence in publishing a piece it apparently couldn’t/wouldn’t back up, and he is now open to this kind of crap by fans of this club.
Apparently the piece went online without being checked due to and ‘editorial error’ – Quelle surprise – otherwise known as ‘we sacked all the subs syndrome’. This seems to be the norm nowadays in newsrooms.
The Herald had already flung up a piece about a court case regarding Dave King v Sport Direct that was completely wrong, saying he’d been cleared of contempt of court at a hearing when he wasn’t. The judge had only decided not to jail him as requested by SD.
He was subsequently cleared of it weeks later. The inaccurate piece by a ‘content editor’ (forget her name) was later amended in the print edition with someone else’s byline on it the next day.
That’s what happens when you get rid of your experienced subs. Hell mend them. We saw it coming and they didn’t listen.
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What a joke the main stream Scottish press are scared they have seen what happened in Liverpool with wrong reporting and now when the truth is in front of them they are running for the hills Angela tells the truth fired phill writes a book telling the truth so much so that a national paper buys it to tell the world what has happened and low and behold the boys from govan and beyond say print it and we will never buy a sun again parks will never ad again we desist from buying your paper again 1st. The sun now the most iconic paper in Scotland the Glasgow herald a paper a good Scotsman loved the crossword would be turning in his grave if thought that freedom of speech had been eradicated from the people because you thought you cold not stand up in court and support yor staff good night and I. Wil never have your publications darken my doorstep
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The knee jerk reaction to this- of some corporation bullying the free press doesn’t hold water. On further examination it is clear that Mr Spiers has an agenda to besmirch anything and anyone connected to Rangers FC. His opinion sells and sells very well. As for Miss Haggerty, her antipathy towards RFC and its supporters is belligerent as it distasteful. She regularly blogs with a jaundiced eye, offering nothing but invective towards a large portion of the Scottish population. Mr Spiers was caught out in a falsehood that he couldn’t back up, Miss Haggerty jumped on a bandwagon of her liking and both disgraced their employers. A free press is not a free reign to print lies with impunity
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