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Anyway, that being said…

Yes, the orginal incident was highly offensive, and Mr Lambie is essentially the gatekeeper of what goes into the paper. His job would come with a level of responsibility linked in with experience and editorial judgement. It’s part of his job. He is paid to do this.
Unfortunately, you also have to balance this with the fact that sensationalist headlines sell papers (Dunblane! Dead Children! Drunken Teenage Yobbos!). Was the fact that this was let through down to a ‘lapse of judgement’? By someone with his level of experience?
(B*****cks it is – but that is just my own opinion.)

Yes, there will be people in blogland who want the guy hung, drawn and quartered. There’s also a lot of pointed discussion about the matter as well, from people without pickforks and flaming torches.
Me? I wouldn’t want his head on a pike. I wouldn’t want him sacked. But I think apology is neccessary. What was offered was *not* an apology. Who is apologising (Mr. Lambie?) and for what?
All hidden away in a pile of self aggrandisement.
It’s a textbook PR excercise, but it wasn’t an apology.
Are you confident that Mr Lambie actually recognises why the original article was offensive? To the point that he will be far more careful about it in future (if only to safeguard his job)?

The problem I have with the whole ‘Cultural Failure’ defence is that it fails to address individual responsibility and is vague in meaning to the point where you have no handle how to improve the situation. It’s got to start at the level of the individual, or nothing will change.

I’d better go before my torch sets off the fire alarm….

Cheers, Eddie.

Still, at least unlike the SSE, we’re all allowing people to publicly comment, eh?

I’m also not convinced Paula has a drinking problem. Like Tim implies on bloggerheads, if you take certain facebook posts out of context, you can get an incorrect and inappropriate image of someone. I’m sure I’ve said daft stuff I later regretted (on here as well as facebook, no doubt). I’ve certainly said daft, tongue-in-cheek stuff about drinking…

I would however like to see the action against the Scottish Sunday Express from the PCC be effective. Ultimately it is the organisation which must take responsibility for the culture within it — if Lambie and Murray are simply following (rather than leading) that culture, they should not be made scapegoats. Punishing the paper (in particular the proprietor’s pocket) is to my mind more likely to effect a change…

And you’re right that the Fred vandalism is wrong. But it is the fact that he has been held up as a scapegoat which has led to him being targeted in that way. And I agree that most of the blogging the SSE thing has been fine and appropriate … I’m not really disagreeing with you much, to be honest … only that I think holding individuals up to public vilification is a bit iffy…

If we are to fix cultural failures, we have to start somewhere. It is entirely proper to call for disciplinary action. Fred Goodwin’s house was vandalised this morning; that is the symptom of an aimless witchhunt braying for public execution. By contrast, the blogging on the Dunblane issue and the subsequent discussion it’s raised on journalism in general is the most measured and intelligent thing I’ve read this year.