Molly-coddled journalists

Paul Callan of the Daily Express rails against research claiming journalists may have a hard time coping with addiction, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of reporting from conflict zones and the like. The Press Gazette publishes a letter from Callan who says a trip down the pub is all he’s ever needed to sort himself out,

Reporters on tough assignments – anything from war zones and toddlers’ funerals to horrendous inquests and “death knocks” – should possess a dispassionate ability to handle the work. If not, they can ask to work on the diary, write soft features or become royal correspondent. No chance of trauma in any of those… in a 40-year-plus Fleet Street career, I have never suffered from “emotional wounding”, trauma, depression, or even bed wetting, after covering a particularly tough story… Quite frankly, any shakiness experienced by what we saw was soon soothed by a few large whiskies. link

This is a topic we’ve covered here before.