Motherfuckers in the newsroom

I feel sorry for Lionel Morais. Not because I happen to know that his appointment as chief news editor of the New Straits Times was made without the current group editor's consent. I feel sorry for him because at a meeting with staff correspondents and bureau chiefs last Friday, he lost his cool. He's not known to be a short-tempered fella but that day Lionel just blew his top, and I feel sorry for him.

That he had been unhappy with the kind of attention that blogs like mine have been giving to the NST is now made obvious. He was particularly angry with NST journalists, especially staff correspondents and bureau chiefs, who have been leaking information to such blogs. He didn't have to mention Rocky's Bru ... I know whose blog he was referring to.

He call these informers "motherfuckers".

I know each and every one of the journalists at the meeting, including Lionel and Ah Chai, and I am sorry for them. I have spoken to each one at one time or another, on the phone and in person. I think it's unfair to call the people who talked to me and shared info with me "motherfuckers". They are not smuggling the next day's story to your rival papers. Journalists talk and exchange info, that's what we do, don't we?

After all, bro, you too have told me things about the NST's newsroom;. it's just that I decided not to blog about it. That - telling me those things about NST - doesn't make you a motherfucker in my book.