Spiked story

I don’t think the cables “revolutionise” anything [Paper publishes story Reuters spiked]. They give credence to “facts”, such as they are purported to be, which are not new and have been circulating for years in Thailand’s samazdat-like rumour mill. As presented in the story Reuters spiked, they are very much old hat. I suspect every tuk-tuk driver, bellboy, bar girl, university pundit, newspaper columnist and pavement stallholder would regard it as general knowledge. Is that really worth quitting over? It’s yesterday’s fish ’n’ chips wrapping. I sympathise with Andrew [Marshall], but who hasn’t been there before? It’s not the first story Reuters has quashed, and one or two instances come to mind which were arguably of far greater significance. We’ve all thrown our teddies in the corner over some similar outrage or other - as they say in Arabic, the dogs bark, the caravan moves on. Reuters would have precious few bureaux or correspondents left in Asia and the Middle East if correspondents were to jump ship every time what passes for editorial management sat on a story. Why this was spiked, of course, isn’t clear. Perhaps it does indeed have something to do with Thomson Reuters’ substantial presence in Thailand as a “regional hub”.

As for Andrew, perhaps he was planning to go anyway and simply chose his moment well. ■