NUJ insider and activist Chris Wheal has described yesterday's attack by Journalist editorship candidate Mark Watts on rival Rich Simcox, over his links to the the NUJ Left, as "McCarthyite" and "a strange and misguided mistake". Wheal writes on his blog: "Watts claims in his email that it was his experience as an investigative journalist that led him to uncover the truth about the NUJ Left. Yet plenty of other people have been commenting on the NUJ Left backing Simcox for weeks. What investigative power did that take? It was an ill-researched diatribe."Wheal also claims Watts has exaggerated the threat of the Left in the union."The NUJ left has about 50 paid-up members and about 30 turned up to its conference last Saturday. It’s a talking shop for activists, not a militia organisation plotting a coup."
He adds: "Watts’ attack was poor journalism, childish, divisive, spiteful and fit only to run alongside Jan Moir’s anti-gay rant in the Mail. "He was high on my list of candidates. He is now bottom."
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