Oops Murray did it again…

Iain Murray must be feeling much better after his misogynistic rant about Jo Moore (Fantastic news – something terrible has just happened (MW October 18), prompted by her intemperate and misjudged e-mail on September 11.

While I agree with his premise that PR spin doctors have much to answer for, his comments such as “Ms Moore aged 38, mother of two” and “Public Relations was – and still is – the fashionable thing for smart, semi-educated young women to do,” are really uncalled for.

I believe Iain Murray (male, father of?, education unknown) is out of touch with the PR industry, most of whose practitioners now have a university degree of some kind. Perhaps when he writes his next piece, he will be kind enough to mention the ages or family details of the male media manipulators Peter Mandleson or Alastair Campbell also mentioned in his piece. I can only assume that the omission was as a result of a momentary lapse of judgment on his part.

No one can condone Ms Moore’s behaviour on that fateful day. But let’s have a level playing field. According to Murray if you are male, acting in an ill-advised, arguably immoral, manner confers power and a sense of arch manipulation. However, if you commit the additional crime of being female, and even worse, a mother in her late 30s, then whichever half of your education you didn’t waste clearly won’t save you.

Rosalyn Palmer

PR consultant

London NW6