Clementine Ford accused of ‘vile and personal’ attacks against Fairfax journalists and editors

Clementine Ford has been accused of making ‘vile’ attacks against journalists by her former employer. 

Tory Maguire, executive editor of the Herald and Age, made the stunning claims while explaining why a news story that included an interview with the hardline feminist and review of her new book, ‘How We Love’ was spiked from publication.

The article had been written by Age journalist Kerrie O’Brien and was set to be published in the Spectrum on Saturday – before Maguire intervened at the 11th hour.

The article has also been pulled down from the website with Maguire revealing she never wanted it to go up and that is was published ‘in error’. 

Maguire said the decision was made because Ms Ford had levelled ‘vile and personal’ attacks against her journalists and editors.

The executive editor of the Herald and Age accused Clementine Ford of making ‘vile’ attacks against journalists before she decided to spike an article about her book

Tory Maguire refused to publish a news story that included an interview with the hardline feminist and review of her new book, 'How We Love'

Tory Maguire refused to publish a news story that included an interview with the hardline feminist and review of her new book, ‘How We Love’

Ms Ford had been a columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald before her relationship with the newspaper deteriorated following her shock departure in 2019. 

‘Clementine Ford spent years making vile and personal attacks on the journalists and editors of the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age after the mastheads stopped publishing her column,’ Maguire told Weekly Beast. 

‘I had knocked back a pitch for an interview with her but there was a breakdown in communication and it was commissioned and published in error. I have pulled it from Spectrum and taken it down out of respect for my team.’ 

Ms Ford had no idea her interview had been spiked and was only alerted when journalists reached out to her for comment.

‘If something as gentle and inoffensive as a piece about love can be spiked as retaliation against valid journalistic critique.. I do think readers should think carefully about what that means,’ she said. 

Ms Ford later took to Facebook to accuse Maguire of making defamatory comments in a lengthy post.

‘I’m pretty sure Maguire’s comments are defamatory actually, especially the part where she suggests she pulled the piece in order to keep her staff safe,’ she wrote. ‘I mean, what absolute nonsense!’ 

She accused Maguire of going on a ‘vendetta’ and described it as ‘extremely worrying’. 

Ms Ford said she was threatened with dismissal from SMH after calling Prime Minister Scott Morrison 'a f***ing disgrace' on her social media account in September 2018

Ms Ford said she was threatened with dismissal from SMH after calling Prime Minister Scott Morrison ‘a f***ing disgrace’ on her social media account in September 2018

Ms Ford later took to Facebook to accuse Maguire of making defamatory comments in a lengthy post

Ms Ford later took to Facebook to accuse Maguire of making defamatory comments in a lengthy post

‘Nine has shifted a once proud masthead so catastrophically to the right that editorial independence is all but gone, and something as benign and unthreatening as a conversation over lunch with me is too egregious for them to print in a Saturday lift out to the point that an entire page in THOUSANDS of papers was pulled, pulped and replaced (sorry trees!),’ she wrote. 

Ms Ford told Daily Mail Australia she was seeking legal advice following the comments made by Maguire.

‘While I’m unsurprised to see the management of Nine’s publishing arm under (former advisor to Joe Hockey) James Chessell is still interfering with the editorial independence of its staff, the comments about my conduct towards other journalists and editors are false and defamatory, and I am seeking legal advice.’ 

Ms Ford previously said she was threatened with dismissal from SMH after calling Prime Minister Scott Morrison ‘a f***ing disgrace’ on her social media account in September 2018.  

Starting her diatribe against the media organisation, she repeated her view that the Prime Minister was ‘a f***ing disgrace’, before explaining what happened when she said the same thing while employed by Fairfax. 

The mother-of-one, who worked for Fairfax for seven years, suggested in her tweets an affiliation between new management and the Liberal Party had something to do with the new policy

The mother-of-one, who worked for Fairfax for seven years, suggested in her tweets an affiliation between new management and the Liberal Party had something to do with the new policy

She claimed she was contacted by the company and told was a new policy in place that employees ‘didn’t disrespect the office of the PM’.

According to Ms Ford, when she responded asking if she could simply call Mr Morrison ‘a disgrace’, she was told they would look into it. 

The mother-of-one, who worked for Fairfax for seven years, suggested in her tweets an affiliation between new management and the Liberal Party had something to do with the new policy. 

‘What you need to know is that Fairfax’s new managing director is James Chessell, a man who used to work for Joe Hockey,’ she wrote. 

‘Protecting the Liberal brand appears to be strong at New [Fairfax].’

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