Well, journalists could have been directed to the 'LAVISH push present' thread for the good of their health, had it not been deleted. That still seems to me an incredibly ill-judged over-reaction by MNHQ.
Why not the usual MNHQ 'peace and harmony' reminders of the talk guidelines, which were singularly absent? Why not deletions of individual posts if they were felt to contravene talk guidelines, instead of a wholesale deletion of a thread that contained a huge amount of funny, honest actual female experience and a valuable broad-church critique of an offensively sexist OP and the values of the publication for which she writes, made worse by her own subsequent aggressive behaviour, which contravened talk guidelines as much as any poster responding to her?
Instead the aggressively rude journalist and the values of her associated rag - the public face of low-grade misogyny - are apparently vindicated at the expense of actual members of Mn. Basically, MNHQ took the Sidebar of Shame's side over that of its own members.
Let's be very clear about what was being espoused here. This wasn't some random newbie (a 'fellow mum', as she disingenuously characterised herself at one point) who mistook the tone of the place and was savaged. This was a journalist who happily puts her name to wide-circulation writing like this, peddling venomous fat-shaming under the guise of health concern:
Sitting in the waiting room of the antenatal clinic I was aghast at the sight of the women around me. To my left, a lady awaiting a 20-week scan munched her way through an enormous bag of crisps. It was barely 10am.
Another woman had spread a napkin over her expansive thighs and was devouring an oversized 'breakfast muffin'. These, as any self-respecting woman knows, are just calorie-laden cakes masquerading as a healthy meal. This is a ruse that only ever seems to fool the overweight.
All around me I spotted arms, chins, thighs and bottoms. Dimpled, corpulent flesh was everywhere. If it weren't for the pregnancy bumps, this easily could be mistaken for a slimming club meeting. Only at a slimming club, there is a sense of shame, or responsibility and desire to change.
What is MNHQ actually saying when it deletes a thread in which this author's unpleasant story premises are robustly criticised? What values is it upholding? Because they certainly aren't mine, and, judging by the thread, they certainly aren't those of a number of other Mumsnetters.
Rather than asking about guidelines for journalists, I feel members should be asking about what we are actually allowed to say to writers who come on Mn for professional reasons, like Sadie Nicholls. Are we allowed to give negative book reviews? Ask challenging questions of politicians? Query the premises on which government policies are based?