MEDIA & ETHICS | MAY 1, 2024

Daily Mail Reporter Caught in Ethical Scandal

A certain class of reporters demand respect from others while failing to adhere to the basic ethics of their own profession.

Jacques Peterson of the Daily Mail is one example. This is the story of what Peterson did and how his wrongdoing was exposed.

Jacques Peterson, an Australian reporter, has been hiding behind a partial identity in the Daily Mail, using the byline “J. Peterson for DailyMail.com” to publish hateful stories and attack people of faith.

At the same time, Peterson simultaneously maintained a secret X (Twitter) account not associated with his Daily Mail writing, under the name “JACQU3$” and the username “Jarcadey.”

Peterson took his X account private to try to sanitize the evidence and delete any incriminating tweets.

Peterson used this account to stay in touch with at least one self-avowed anti-Scientology bigot, who openly and ludicrously claims to be seeking the destruction of the Scientology religion. (Peterson should have disclosed this blatant conflict of interest in his writing, but never did.)

On April 18, Peterson ran a bigoted article, targeting a Scientologist in violation of the Independent Press Standards Organization Editors’ Code of Practice, to which the Daily Mail allegedly subscribes. In its section on “Discrimination,” the Editors’ Code admonishes that “the press must avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual’s… religion” and that details of an individual’s religion “must be avoided unless genuinely relevant to the story”—basic standards flouted by Peterson.

After his article was published, Peterson then, from his “JACQU3$” account, reposted Daily Mail’s tweet promoting his bigoted content. Peterson then replied to his own repost with the Twitter username of the self-avowed anti-Scientologist he had been coordinating with on his bigoted coverage.

STAND League promptly exposed Peterson’s violation of journalistic ethics, at which point Peterson took his X account private to try to sanitize the evidence and delete any incriminating tweets.

Peterson then set his account back to public, posting an image of himself with Australian porn star Angela White, stating he had spent all day with White and that it was “iconic” that his bigoted reporting was now being exposed by Scientologists.

After STAND published the tweet Peterson had deleted while his account was set to private, Peterson instantly responded by blocking STAND and changing the name of his account to @Jaaacquess in an apparent panic, to further evade recognition and accountability.

Peterson then deleted his entire timeline—over 500 past tweets—to cover his tracks in what amounts to a public admission of guilt. The new tweets shown below are all that remains of his entire timeline.

Having further concealed his identity and deleted his entire timeline, Peterson then publicly slurred the religion he had just smeared in the Daily Mail, calling its members “complete loonies.”

This reporter demands the right to speak ill of others—typically unfairly and with bigotry—but, when challenged on his own journalistic and moral failings, runs, hides and tries to scrub his entire history of wrongdoing from the internet.

As evidenced by Peterson’s public embarrassment—and the shame he brought on his entire publication—dishonest journalism never pays.

KEYWORDS