New Statesman blog post

Mensch complained that the New Statesman blog posts misleadingly portrayed her "as a cheerleader for Sarah Palin and the Tea Party".


The Press Complaints Commission has ruled that three blog posts referring to MP Louise Mensch and her alleged views on US politician Sarah Palin, breached the Editors' Code of Practice on accuracy.

In its adjudication, published today, the PCC adds that the magazine has however offered a sufficient form of remedial action by way of a right of reply from Mensch to be published on its website.

The online posts, headlined "Rise of Sarah Palin's 'mama grizzlies'", "Cameron, the Tea Party and a little backbench problem" and "Palin is coming to London", were published on the New Statesman website on 30 September 2010, 2 October 2010 and 7 June 2011.

Mensch complained to the PCC that they misrepresented views she expressed in an interview, and misleadingly portrayed her "as a cheerleader for Sarah Palin and the Tea Party".

According to the adjudication the posts included comments such as that she "loves Palin power", "identifies closely with Palin's socially conservative agenda" and was a "keen admirer" of Palin.

The New Statesman argued that it had not misrepresented her views "which were broadly positive towards Ms Palin". However it added that it was prepared to offer Mensch the opportunity to reply in the form of a blog post on its website.

Having looked through the interview transcript, as provided by the magazine, the PCC found the blog posts to be inaccurate and misleading, breaching Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors' Code of Practice.

According to the PCC Mensch originally said she would accept the right to reply so long as a correction was also published.

But the commission ruled that the resolution to the dispute would be best addressed in the same format as the complained-about material.

"This would, in its view, be more appropriate than a correction as the complainant would be able to articulate the full breadth of her perspective on Sarah Palin, the Tea Party and other related matters," today's adjudication said.

"The commission ruled that the most appropriate manner of correcting the record would be through the publication of an opportunity to reply from the complainant in another blog".

"The commission has begun to build up significant case law in the area of blogs published on newspaper and magazine websites," Stephen Abell, director of the PCC, added in today's announcement.

"The nature of blogs is such that a negotiated right of reply is often a proportionate and sensible remedy. In this case, the original blogs were misleading, and it is right that the complainant be given an opportunity to correct the record. This is a good example of the self-regulatory mechanism working in the online environment."

On Twitter Mensch said her reply would be published once it had been accepted by the PCC.
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