Taking your points in order, I agree with your first; the editor is the person whose job it is to contain this fire, and (s)he doesn't seem to have done a great job, at least at first. I don't agree that it's ICU's job to fix this, and if they were to quote "editorial independence" at a complaint I'd see that as a proper defence, not a wimp-out. I do agree that any organisation run by a bunch of hacks - up to and including Parliament - can seem rather out of touch when it comes to self-governance.
I don't find the buck-stopping discussion to be legalistic, but purely pragmatic. There's no point in leaning on person or organisation A to change the behaviour of person or organisation B, if A doesn't control B. I'm a member of the Motorcycle Action Group - the only thing I'm a life member of besides ICU - but good luck in controlling my riding behaviour by lobbying MAG. Moreover, the enormity of the issue doesn't somehow rewrite the chain of control; even if my riding was execrable, and I posed a danger to life and limb of other road users all around the M25, lobbying MAG to change my behaviour would still be a waste of time. You may be right that this issue has blown up too big to be "just Felix" any more, but that doesn't (to me) suddenly invalidate editorial independence; it only increases the risk that the current editor's head will roll.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2012-02-13 12:45 pm (UTC)I don't find the buck-stopping discussion to be legalistic, but purely pragmatic. There's no point in leaning on person or organisation A to change the behaviour of person or organisation B, if A doesn't control B. I'm a member of the Motorcycle Action Group - the only thing I'm a life member of besides ICU - but good luck in controlling my riding behaviour by lobbying MAG. Moreover, the enormity of the issue doesn't somehow rewrite the chain of control; even if my riding was execrable, and I posed a danger to life and limb of other road users all around the M25, lobbying MAG to change my behaviour would still be a waste of time. You may be right that this issue has blown up too big to be "just Felix" any more, but that doesn't (to me) suddenly invalidate editorial independence; it only increases the risk that the current editor's head will roll.