Toe-curling TV : Hancock and toad. GB News and Coad.
A solicitor has apologised for an awkward interview on TV in which he ranted at a GB News presenter, only to backtrack minutes later when it was revealed that he was at fault.
Media lawyer Jonathan Coad was being interviewed on GB News to discuss Isabel Oakeshott's decision to leak Matt Hancock's WhatsApp messages sent during the height of the pandemic.
GB News host Steve Allen introduced the lawyer as having been "recently asked to act for Matt Hancock". However, Coad appeared agitated at the remark, saying that he'd "made it absolutely clear" to the programme "not to disclose that, and that is very, very poor journalism" and "disappointing".
Coad said the presenter had thrown "poo left right and centre at Matt Hancock", and criticised GB News again for mentioning that Hancock had approached him, when he had specifically asked it not to. "Anybody who is tempted to take you seriously, or your programme seriously, here is a good reason not to," said Coad.
However, at the end of the interview, Allen revealed that Coad had seemingly given permission for the Hancock approach to be mentioned. The presenter read out an email that Coad had sent to the producer in which he had written “I would be grateful if it was mentioned that he asked me to act for him”.
Coad apologised to Allen: "I beg your pardon. You're absolutely right that it's my mistake, I missed out the 'not'. I take all that back...apologies. You're right and I'm wrong...fair dos. I'm absolutely wrong about that."
To be fair, he also took it on the chin when RollOnFriday asked him for a comment: “As I said to Steve Allen, the fault was entirely mine," said Coad.
"As a devout Christian I could do no other than accept that. Even though he is not a client, my aim had been not to add further difficulties to those that Matt Hancock was already facing. I got that wrong too. Mercifully such instances of idiocy on my part are rare.”
Coad is not alone when it comes to typos haunting the legal profession, as solicitors have revealed here and here. It was just particularly unfortunate for him that his mistake was captured on live TV:
Comments
72
39
Which is more embarrassing? The typo or being desperate enough to appear on GBeebies?
63
49
He shouldn't worry. No one watches GBNews anyway,
84
35
Why would the fact he's "a devout Christian" have anything to do with it?
101
36
In fairness, while he has made a plum of himself here, you have to give the chap some credit for recognising the error and immediately taking it back in real-time.
61
39
Why did he bring up that he is a Christian? It isn't the medieval ages anymore mate.
50
38
Why would you be desperate enough to boast to a news organisation (or GB News) about being approached to act for Matt Hancock, but not willing to then say it? If you can't talk about it, you shouldn't talk about it.
53
35
It's nice of Coad, who regularly bangs on about poor press ethics, to have disclosed ahead of the interview that he was working/was possibly about to start working for Hancock.
It's not acceptable for him to have attempted to stealthily advocate for his client/potential client without disclosing that - effectively misleading the public into making him look like Very Impartial Important Law Person when he was actually just a shill.
It would have been fully unacceptable for geebeenews to have featured him without disclosing that he had an interest. If anything they would have been in their rights to disclose his interest regardless of his preferences.
Apology or not, Coad was pulling a fast one.
50
29
What a wally
44
34
So, if he’s mentioned he’s a devout Christian, we can conclude he isn’t a vegan and doesn’t do CrossFit.
61
66
The majority of comments having a go at GB news or not understanding why a Christian would feel a need to show humility and immediately accept his mistakes shows why this website is so devoid of interesting opinions. Same old yuppy law twitter crowd that make the profession so insuferable.
42
36
@11.20 - what evidence do you have that he is not a vegan? What evidence is there that he does not do crossfit?
43
37
I’d rather be publicly embarrassed by being wrong than watch GB News
45
33
I have such impressive and correct political views.
I am extremely progressive and subscribe to all of the very newest and most fashionable cosmopolitan opinions. In that capacity it is most important that I inform you that I would never, never, tarnish my most enlightened intellectual status by exposing myself to any kind of opposing view.
So, even though I am aware that you did not ask (and were not about to) it is very important to me that i tell you, loudly, that I have never watched GB News.
Now, pat me on the back for being so right on.