The Telegraph Saga Progresses

After I posted the link to my communications with The Telegraph on my Twitter and Facebook I had some brilliant feedback from you guys so thank you!

 

After reading all your comments I decided to e-mail them back to convey my dissatisfaction with how my complaint had been dealt with –

 

Dear Ms McAree

 

Thank you for your response to my comments of 24^thApril.

 

I feel that some of the points made in my letter have not been addressed, however I will accept that I am not likely to receive a succinct response to these.

 

I am more concerned by your‎ assertion that having experienced mental illness I am "inevitably sensitive". I would be "inevitably sensitive" to any kind of discriminatory language directed to any group of people. I wonder had I not disclosed my personal experience of mental illness whether this excuse would still have been used?

 

Whilst I appreciate that the title of any article serves to draw the reader in (I in fact studied journalism so am aware of the conventions) I still believe that this could have been achieved without the use of the "happy pills" terminology. Perhaps a little more thought could be given to this in the future and it not be assumed that your readership require taglines such as this to grant their attention.

 

I would also like to draw your attention to the e-mail trail between yourself and Laura Donnelly included at the end of your mail. I resent your introduction of yourself as "it's my job to deal with complaints and take abuse from strangers", this was an unnecessary and incredibly unprofessional comment to make regarding a letter that was not abusive, unless of course pointing out perceived faults in an article now constitutes abuse.

 

Regrettably due to these comments I would like to take the matter further. Please could you provide me with the contact details of your superior/s so that I might make a formal complaint.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Jennifer Richardson

 

 

I then received the below e-mail later on yesterday –

 

Jennifer hi

Many thanks for your response.

As regards the main topics of your complaint, it seems to me that we are unlikely to reach agreement: newspapers are always driven by time and space deadlines, and cannot possibly explore all the angles of any given story that might be important to the various constituencies of experience and opinion. Headlines are, by necessity, unsatisfactory vehicles for careful, balanced exploration of a sensitive topic. 

I'm sorry you see my comments as offensive; I am, as I said, very sympathetic to your points and was anxious not to dismiss your complaint unfairly. And as you so rightly point out, my correspondence 'below the line' should not have been included in my email. I apologise for my light-hearted comment to a colleague, which was clearly not intended for you. My object was to attract the attention of a busy colleague in order to get a comment on a complaint that deserved one. Of course you have been in no way abusive, and I certainly didn't mean to imply you had. My sincere apologies.

As you requested, I am copying this email to Ian Marsden, the Managing Editor.

With best wishes, 

--

Jess McAree | Head of Editorial Compliance

 

 

 

I'm glad that my complaint is now being taken seriously, I did Um and Ah about responding as I didn't want to get into the proverbial slanging match with someone via e-mail. But then I realised that if I didn't say something then this kind of story could be run again and do yet more damage  and influence more anti-mental health views.  I also wanted to let them know how unprofessional I thought they were being by leaving the e-mail trail on the end of the message to me. If I had done that in my job I would be in for disciplinary action before I could even type an apology.

 

I know that I am only one small voice against a newspaper staff but I also believe in standing up for what I think is right and challenging outdated views.

 

I'll let you know how the saga progresses ……

 

 

Love Jen

XxxX