Melbourne lawyer dobbed into managing partner by journalist who objected to her Tweets ... Journalistic mistake corrected, but war of words erupts on social media ... What's with journalists being sensitive? ... Alix Piatek reports
THE Twittersphere is a volatile place, as both Melbourne lawyer Leanne O'Donnell and Sydney journalist Susannah Moran know already.
Both are long-term tweeters, Leanne @MissLods and Susannah @susannahmoran.
Last month Moran interviewed Gilbert + Tobin partner Michael Williams for an article in The Australian about the pros and cons of texting and tweeting in courts.
See, The Australian, Mobile blackout bane for lawyers (corrected version).
Moran had muddled who was acting for iiNet. She said it was Michael Williams, whereas it was actually Graham Phillips, a partner at HerbetGeer.
The mistake was corrected, but the article now online makes no acknowledgement that there had been an earlier error.
Confusion also played out on Twitter about whether the article was saying that Williams was "grilled" in the witness box by his own or by iiNet's barrister.
O'Donnell, a solicitor at HerbertGeer, responded to the original version of the article with a tweet saying:
"Some serious errors in @susannahmoran piece on court tweeting & iiNet litigation. M Williams did not act for iiNet. 1/2
@susannahmoran you state M Williams was answering ?s from his own barrister. He was also cross-examined by iiNet's counsel R Lancaster 2/2"
HerbertGeer successfully acted for iiNet all the way to the High Court in the big copyright case brought by 34 Hollywood and Australian film and television studios, representing the major motion picture companies in Australia and the US.
Moran tweeted back:
"@MsLods @HerbertGeerIPTE There was one unintentional error, that has been corrected, not numerous serious errors as you suggest."
There was a bit more argy-bargy via Twitter between the two.
O'Donnell suddenly found herself questioned by HerbertGeer managing partner John Cain about what was going on.
Moran had rung Cain directly, to ask why she hadn't been contacted by the firm to point out the mistake, rather than have it broadcast by Twitter.
The Australian's editor Clive Mathieson assured us that Moran had not asked for O'Donnell to be "reprimanded". He explained:
"Susannah was upset and confused as to Ms O'Donnell's motivation for the attack, which began at 8.49am.
Her point to Mr Cain was to question why the matter could not have been resolved with a phone call given the otherwise good relations between the firm and the newspaper.
Susannah deals with law firms and lawyers on a regular basis and had not previously encountered this type of behaviour."
Oh dear. Journalists being "upset and confused" by attacks on Twitter. And from News Ltd of all places - famous for its public attacks on journalists - here's a recent instance.
Maybe it's time for journalists who are sensitive to public criticism to disengage from social media - after all, they only have entire newspapers at their disposal to rebut and attack.
In short order the issue took off in the twittersphere. Other tweeters came in with their observations about the Fourth Estate and stories of unfortunate encounters with journalists, some of whom had threatened legal action or placed calls to their employers protesting about tweets.
For example, Possum Comitatus @pollytics claimed he had been threatened by direct message on Twitter with legal action by various journalists.
He added:
"It’s just blowhards trying to bully people because they have delusions of grandeur about their status and importance in this world."
Ouch. The Twitter stream is here ...
From @alixpiatek