There is a fantastic punch up going on in the postings on Press Gazette's latest Grey Cardigan column after he suggested that the NUJ's general secretary was a "fucking loon".
Grey gave his diagnosis of Jeremy Dear after the NUJ leader had written in the Journalist: “The idea of a work-in, sit-in or occupation is being resurrected and talked about seriously where communities are losing their local newspaper…
“Given the state of the industry it’s almost certainly not a matter of if, but when, a group of NUJ members decide to occupy their workplace.”
Grey suggested: "I’m sorry, but the man’s a fucking loon. The bosses are going to love that – a newsroom full of journalists, defiantly working away to get their paper out while not being paid? The management suits will be sniggering up their pin-striped sleeves."
“Given the state of the industry it’s almost certainly not a matter of if, but when, a group of NUJ members decide to occupy their workplace.”
Grey suggested: "I’m sorry, but the man’s a fucking loon. The bosses are going to love that – a newsroom full of journalists, defiantly working away to get their paper out while not being paid? The management suits will be sniggering up their pin-striped sleeves."
Many NUJ members have posted defending Dear and the union, there are counter accusations that they are a bunch of Trots, which has provoked a posting from an Anarchist, while others claim the union loyalists and Dear defenders are lacking a sense of humour ... and that Grey's piece is satire.
Shuttleboy posts: "Errr....chaps....he ain't real you know!" but to no avail as the battle of words over whether Dear is a loon or not rages on.
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2 comments:
Blimey, that's not started my morning off well! I was tempted to post, "Come on love, ain't you got no sense of humour. Now get yer knickers off and make us a cuppa tea", but I thought better of it.
Trouble with the debate is it's the usual bunch of posters who seem unable to turn off "abrasive" mode before they post, plus some good old-fashioned armchair union-bashers. It's always good, too, to accuse people who don't agree with you of restricting your right to free speech. It really helps get a measured debate, I always find.
And, while I understand where my friends in the NUJ are coming from, it really is very difficult not to come across as a po-faced Spartist when responding to this kind of knockabout nonsense. I thought we had a communications strategy to avoid this sort of thing?
But, but, he called me a Trot :-(
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