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 Branching Out


This is an open letter directed to all of the NUJ council representatives from the NEC down in regard to attendance – or lack thereof – at their branch meetings. There is something very wrong when a person


can take a full day of their life several times a year to travel from places as far away as Ireland or Scotland to attend council meetings in London, but that same person cannot give up a couple hours of a day to travel what for some is only few miles down the road to attend even an occasional branch meeting. Low turnout for branch meetings is an ongoing


problem in the NUJ. If we want this to improve, then all of the NUJ council representatives should be setting examples by attending at least a few of their branch meetings every year. To not attend any of their branch meetings but


yet be sitting on an NUJ council should be seen as nothing short of an embarrassment. Barbara Lindberg Dublin Freelance Branch


 While some professions base a small


A Canary fed on clickbait and sensationalism It’s good to see the national press coverage of – and dismay at – the “business model” of the Canary, a “fresh, fearless” news and politics website founded last year. As one of our members has raised at branch meetings, it involves paying contributors in proportion to the traffic they generate. Clearly, this incentivises


sensationalism and clickbait, and doesn’t take into account dwell time and whether readers actually make it to the end of stories. A piece going viral doesn’t necessarily make it a good article. Indeed, many of the Canary pieces have got hits from people sharing them because they dislike them. Even if hits were indicators of good quality journalism – which they aren’t – think about the human impact.


24 | theJournalist


proportion of pay on performance, very few base it entirely on performance. How are you supposed to make a living when your income fluctuates so much? As has been pointed out, the model’s about as neoliberal as it gets, which is interesting given the Canary’s politics. In true Canary clickbait style, let’s reveal which MP it hopes wins the next election: You won’t believe which politician


the Canary supports. Clue: he’s a vegetarian whose constituency is in north London. Zaki Dogliani Vice-chair, London Freelance Branch


When journalistic output was measured by the pint The news item “The Telegraph removes monitors from under desks” (The Journalist, Feb/March) concerned


devices that measured the time journalists spent at their desks. The bosses said this would help them monitor energy use and to ensure the newspaper was making “the best use of its space in the building.” This is a far cry from the days when the energy used by journalists and the time spent at desks was not the measure of the Telegraph’s staffers. In that paper’s golden days, stories arose from discussions in Fleet Street’s Cheshire Cheese hostelry. One out of office example was


of a stalwart of the Telegraph’s industrial staff covering the National Union of Mineworkers’ conference in Scarborough with Arthur Scargill et al. It was done entirely from the Hole in the Wall pub which was about a mile away. Then there was a time before the monitors at the Telegraph, when there was a story that “A Telegraph manager


Email to: journalist@nuj.org.uk Post to: The Journalist 308-312 Gray’s Inn Road London WC1X 8DP Tweet to: @mschrisbuckley


one day walking around the building’s upper floors and came across a corner office to find an elderly journalist who was busy at work on some papers ...” where, it was said, that he had been, left without hindrance, for some years. Roy Jones North Wales Coast Branch


Bias on Europe fails both UK and European nations Neil Graham and Craig Williams (letters May/June) objected that convicted criminal Denis MacShane got so much space. Columnist Raymond Snoddy condemns nationals which, after 30 years, have realised the UK is just a colony of a European empire, and want out. Raymond Snoddy claims that the BBC (which is funded by the EU and UK taxpayers’ cash) offers “balance and objectivity”(!) All EU employees, from lowly officials


to EU Commissioner, get a gold-plated pension (paid by us in the UK). It stops if they criticise the EU. The EU “parliament” sought to ban any political party that does not subscribe to creating a United States of Europe. Its attorney-general has called such criticism “akin to blasphemy”. We cannot elect, or dismiss, those who make nearly all our laws today. A former German president has stated that 84 per cent of Germany’s laws are decided in Brussels. The EU has imposed 200,000 laws on the UK since 1975 – more than our parliaments did in 700 years. Do we no longer believe in democracy? Are today’s union activists blind to


reality?


Is the NUJ becoming stupid? Or is it you like wallowing in (UK) cash


from the EU to act as its serfs? You are failing the UK, and European nations, with such bias. Don Briggs Former Daily Mirror executive journalist Manchester


TIM ELLIS


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