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In last Friday’s gossip column (which you really should sign up for), Cockburn revealed how Emma Tucker, the London newspaper editor who took the helm of the Wall Street Journal in February, has been unimpressed with the lousy work ethic of her new colleagues. “What do they all do all day?” the former Sunday Times of London chief is reportedly prone to wondering out loud.
Much to Cockburn’s surprise, the small piece of gossip has blown up on the internet, drawing the ire of America’s “hard-working” hacks.
It wasn’t long before journalist complaints started to roll in. How they managed to carve out the time to do so between copying and pasting press releases, Cockburn does not know.
Ben Smith and Brian Stelter, hot off his new and tiring media fellowship at Harvard, tweeted the story out. But others questioned the credibility of a Brit commenting on work ethic.
“This whole thing about Wall Street Journal EIC Emma Tucker being shocked by the supposedly crappy work ethic of the American reporters seems dubious to me as a person who has worked in London, and for multiple UK-based companies, and (weirdly) a lot of British people in the US,” said Puck fashion journalist Lauren Sherman.
The news has already made its way across the Pond where it has been met with a much different reaction.
“A knowing and affectionate chuckle rang around the office when that story dropped because it was just a very Emma Tucker line,” a Times and Sunday Times staffer told Cockburn.
“Obviously we are about 10 percent of the size of the mighty WSJ, here in the impoverished old country. But we do somehow manage to put out the same amount of journalism each day… possibly with slightly fewer graphs,” said the staffer.
Cockburn will leave you to decide for yourself which country has the lazier journalist class. He’s off to Happy Hour…
