Thread by @lucysiegle

1. A few people have congratulated @Telegraph on being one of few British papers to have the guts to report on our NYT story. Well 'yay' but also let's remember their initial take....While I'm relieved that @gordonrayner has covered this time I spent months....

2. trying to be heard by @IpsoNews about their initial hot take by Ben Woods (he left the industry) which was shameful. (trying to deal with @Telegraph was one of the hardest bits for me. @ipso did not find in my/our favour). But back to yesterday's piece...

3. It contained a statement from GNM.
While this statement makes a refreshing change to G GNMs standard AI chatbot, ‘the Guardian takes sexual harassment incredibly seriously’ (a statement that always seems inversely proportional to shits given) it STILL raises questions.

4. “None of the incidents The New York Times reports were raised with GNM senior management until one serious allegation was raised confidentially with a member of GNM senior management in 2018’.
This is presumably moi! First time 'serious' has been used..

5. Were there other incidents that were deemed non serious? I dunno. Anyway I immediately spot the use of 'confidential' here. They take that from my email to the managing editor booking a time slot to speak. Tbh I didn't know what to say. I wanted to flag a sensitive topic.

6. I describe this car crash meeting @TheNewEuropean theneweuropean.co.uk/lucy-siegle-ni… My over-riding was their senseof absolute astonishment and disgust, not at Nick Cohen, but at me.

7. Highlights include them telling me that there had been another investigation (not of him) but that didn't go anywhere either and 'he probably doesn't know who you are'. There was no compassion and no pathway to complaint or process or plan. I left frightened and humiliated.

8. Returning to @Telegraph and GNM's statement. ‘However, the victim asked to remain anonymous and did not wish to pursue the complaint’. NO PERSON ON THE PLANET would have ‘pursued their complaint’ with this person after that run in. Context is important.

9. In the past GNM have said I turned down an investigation (a word the same exec introduces into a vaguely threatening cross email after I go public - coming up. So this is a different tack this time. They mine MY responses to her lifting 'pursue' & 'confidential'. SMART PLAY.

10. Trouble is, should they be playing these games at this point? HR/safeguarding experts tell me unequivocally that correct course of action would’ve been to suspend him at the point, then pending a thorough investigation, calling for information...

11. ..from current and former employees -- in particular young women -- who may have had negative experiences while working at the organisation. If this had happened it is possible that the next person would have been spared. so that's a shame.

12. Oh and about that ‘another complaint’ – that is rather glossed over in this narrative. In 2019 a woman goes to HR, they tell her that she would not be notified of outcome. She not surprisingly gets freaked out & doesn’t pursue.

13. In 2021 all hell breaks loose when I post a response to @JoMaugham’s tweet correctly suggesting Nick Cohen might not be A1 champion of women’s rights. Three years after trying to report privately to GNM's managing editor I decided to post a thread.

14. The managing editor reaches out again reminding me of the confidentiality of our meeting and hoping I am now ready to partake via the proper channels. LOLS all around. I decline.

15. Reporting on the recent CBI sexual assault charges @guardian quotes former CBI president, “People decided to go to the newspapers and not speak to us directly, which in itself points to something wrong with our culture,” [Damian McBride of CBI]

16. Returning to @Telegraph and GNM's statement yesterday. “When further details of this and another complaint were later made public on social media in 2021 and 2022, we instigated our own HR investigations, although neither complainant wished to take part.”

17. In 2021 through @JolyonMaugham we (and other women) offered GNM a solution. We asked for an independent inquiry that looked reasonably at workplace culture as experts tell me they should’ve offered. Jo details that in a couple of threads

https://twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1547220653375647745?s=20

18. It was low key, constructive and we just wanted to make sure it didn't happen to anyone else & GNM's safeguarding was up to scratch. No money, no lawsuit. But GNM's reaction was hostile. They were out to shut us down from the off.

19. Now I'd like to talk a bit about this 'investigation'. Previously GNM suggested there was a limited investigation after I'd been to see the managing editor, presumably limited by my terrible non compliance. There's no evidence of this tho and it hasn't been mentioned again.

20. A few months ago I applied for a Subject access request where it seems to only show an investigation from 2021. heavily redacted, it seems principally concerned with my behaviour on twitter (which the Guardian considers a criminal network even pre Musk). I do not impress.

21. ‘Lucy Siegle’s tweets, which are the subject of this hearing…. I MEAN GOD FORBID THERE WOULD BE A HEARING ABOUT THE ALLEGATIONS!
‘As the days have passed the language has turned nastier, from Siegle Herself’....

22. Someone else (redacted): ‘It’s certainly nastier Actually it totally undermines her allegations by
making her look v vindictive and not in control’
'the latest tweets from Lucy Siegele [SIC], which are getting nastier. "an old fuckface" and she wants [NC] "in the bin"

23. It's true. I did say these things. At another point it is agreed that because I did not agree 'to be in touch' then my allegations seem to be non credible. Again I would like to emphasise the context of my not taking up the opportunity to be in touch.

24. Tbf, they do seem to ask Cohen why I made this allegation. He (or a rep) says he has no idea and stresses that he didn’t even know who I was - had to look me up on Wikipedia. The logic here confuses me.

25. Compare and contrast from Guardian reporters whose investigations unmasked abuse at the CBI. Eg “We stand by our journalism and the people who continue to come forward to tell their stories despite the significant risks involved.” None of that vibe here.

26. That meant up to five years of incessant worry for those of us who had spoken out on his behaviour. Every Sunday twitter was flooded with his ‘work’ being shared and RTd by adoring fans, especially when it was about him protecting women. Hard.

28. Meanwhile we’ve been through mental health crises, unemployment, career wobbles and the usual. All while being called mistaken, drama queens and just bad victims who can’t complain properly. “I'm the only person whose life is turned over because of this,” he said.

29. On a recent ep of Guardian US weekly podcast host Jonathan Freedland plays clip of E Jean Carroll talking about the end of the notion of the perfect victim who reports on time, complains perfectly and jumps through all thresholds.

30. It's time for Guardian News & Media to take its own advice. Much of our story is troubling. Personally I was surprised to hear of Cohen's big cash payment from GNM and secrecy agreement from @ianhislop @PrivateEyeNews - I didn't see that one coming!

31. (I wonder how one of the women who shared her story with @jane_bradley in the NYT from a marginalised background previously affected by homelessness but with an award winning flair for writing feels about that. She didn't pursue journalism after her encounter with Cohen).

32. Returning to GNM's statements. While they continue to point out our failings as victims, I will continue to point out how many opportunities they missed to tackle Mr Cohen’s ‘behaviour’, safeguard women, & avoid paying ‘big cash payments’ to men whose misconduct they enabled

33. Who has failed here? It's not me actually. But while Guardian News and Media refuses to be accountable, it will continue to be outpaced in safeguarding reform and workplace equality by the organisations that its reporters expose. ENDS

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