Some of you may remember that the coroner who dealt with the Lucy Meadows case was somewhat scathing about how Lucy was treated by the press in the weeks leading up to her suicide. Well it turns out that some journalists had the cheek to issue a complaint about his words. I guess they think they were being unfairly pilloried. You know, due to being white, straight, cis and probably male. And now they are reporting that the poor coroner has been formally reprimanded for his awful behavior towards them. I’ll link to Gay Star News, because they are simply reporting what other papers are saying.
Naturally the good folks at Trans Media Watch were a little concerned about this. Could it really be the case that mercilessly hounding a trans person, day and night, is perfectly OK, but saying that this sort of treatment of a private individual is outrageous is not? What sort of strange world do we live in? So they made official approaches, and posted two new tweets.
We've just received clarification from the Office of Judicial Complaints on the matter of coroner Michael Singleton…
— Trans Media Watch (@TransMediaWatch) August 2, 2013
Contrary to what some newspapers have said, no formal rebuke was made and the complaint was dismissed. The matter was dealt with informally.
— Trans Media Watch (@TransMediaWatch) August 2, 2013
So the story about an official complaint having been made and upheld is, in fact, a barefaced lie. Why am I not surprised?