VITAMEDIAS
FT staff demand apology from Scardino: Financial Times journalists have sent a formal letter of complaint to Dame Marjorie Scardino, chief executive of Pearson, the FT's owner, following her remarks that they are not up to the job.
Union officials at the FT have written to her demanding an apology, following her statement in Thursday's Evening Standard criticising them for failing to uncover wrongdoing and shaky practices at big companies.
She said: "I do think the business press - and I include the FT in this - has not worked hard enough to ferret out these stories.
"If journalists were better at reading balance sheets some of these things would be discovered sooner. We could have done a lot more digging. But business reporters often don't know a lot about business. It's a shame."
Her comments have incensed FT journalists, who are demoralised by a freeze on expenses and travel budgets.
[08.10.02] Scardino apologises to FT journalists: Dame Marjorie Scardino has written to journalists on the Financial Times expressing regret that comments she made in an interview lambasting the business press caused them grief. [...]
In an email to FT journalists yesterday, Dame Marjorie said she was "really sad" they may have had reason to doubt her support.
"For the record, the discussion was not critical of the staff of the Financial Times, for whom I have the highest regard," she said.
"The fact is that every newspaper in the world must wish it had broken some of the business scandals that have emerged in the last year as they were happening in the 1990s.