Amplification of settling accounts after #MeToo vs. journalistic ethos. The case of Marcin Kącki’s text

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the controversy triggered by the text of reporter Marcin Kącki, published on Wyborcza.pl in January 2024, entitled “My journalism – alcohol, unsuccessful therapies, badly loved women, neglected daughters and fear of the dawn.” It concerned Kącki’s problematic relationships with women. The veracity of the reconstruction of events in the text was questioned by the journalist Karolina Rogaska, who recognised herself among the anonymous protagonists. Consequently, the editors of Gazeta Wyborcza issued a series of statements regarding the circumstances of the publication of the text. The study of the texts is conducted in the perspective of discourse analysis inspired by the work of Ernest Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. The research problem concerns tracing the ways in which the journalistic ethos is constructed as a hegemonic project within public discourse, as well as an attempt at its destabilisation (counter-articulation). The context of the study is the amplification of settling accounts that emerged from the #MeToo movement, and the situation when the addressee of criticism resulting from cultural changes in the perception of violence against women is a member of the liberal-left media.