Reuters and bipolar disorder

Is Reuters suffering from bipolar disorder?

Veteran correspondent Michael Georgy graphically describes the illness. “I am addicted to a drug in my brain that creates an elevated mood so powerful I feel there is no challenge I can’t tackle.”

In recent times Reuters has signed

• a contract with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to help it track down illegal immigrants
• a partnership with the Russian news agency TASS to provide media customers with news and videos from the Kremlin
• a covenant with the UK Armed Forces which was later rescinded after protests from present and past Reuters staff who felt it undermined the company’s neutrality and independence.

Kim Williams, chairman of Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company, said the decision to sign the covenant was taken “more in exuberant misunderstanding than in any kind of nefarious intent.”

The highs of bipolar disorder are followed by depression. Georgy says: ”I have so much energy and creativity that I can churn out one story after another, charming people, even taking them along on this wave of elation - until I crash because my body can’t keep up with my mind.”

Winston Churchill, Britain’s wartime prime minister, was also believed to have suffered from bipolar disorder and described his periods of melancholy as his “black dog”.

Is there a black dog waiting around the corner for Reuters? ■