Peter Oborne: Why I have resigned from the Telegraph

[T_i_B]

3. Torygraph has falen off the deep end in the wake of Osborne's resignation

Firstly an idiotic editorial defending their actions, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/11423912/The-Telegraphs-promise-to-our-readers.html

Then this rather desperate story attacking the Times http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/media/11426319/Times-publisher-News-UK-launches-internal-investigation-after-suicides-of-two-members-of-its-commercial-staff.html

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/daily-telegraph-anonymous-report

A senior Daily Telegraph reporter wrote an anonymous front page story suggesting suicides at a rival newspaper may be connected to stress caused by commercial pressure – just days after the Telegraph itself faced allegations of blurring the lines between advertising and editorial.

The article, which was printed on the newspaper’s front page under an anonymous “Telegraph Reporter” by-line, claimed advertising sales staff at the publisher of The Times have been driven to suicide by an “unreasonable pressure to hit targets”.

The decision to publish the story connecting deaths to editorial standards was branded as “despicable” by senior journalists on other publications, who suggested the story was an attempt to distract from the Telegraph’s own editorial concerns.

BuzzFeed News is aware of the name of the individual journalist who wrote the piece but has at this stage chosen not to publish it. Several Telegraph journalists claimed the individual involved may have been put under pressure to produce the article by the newspaper’s executives.