COMMENT: Junkee Introduces No Byline Journalism, For Whimp Journalists
What a load of bollocks! It appears that what we now have is a bunch of new age writers who don’t want by-lines and management, who go along with their whimpering demands, because readers have taken exception to their content which happens to be only about music and millennial culture.
Welcome to 2020 journalism courtesy of Ooh Media who own the web site Junkee.
This is a Company who are better known for their outdoor advertising than cutting edge informative journalism.
Junkee, who on one hand want to label themselves as employing journalists writing about music , but when the going gets tough and someone calls them out for their content suddenly want to hide behind an anonymous by-line because of a so called “orchestrated harassment campaigns” involving online abuse and threats.
According to Mumbrella, the news and pop culture website said that ‘stan culture’ – the word ‘stan’ is a cross between ‘stalker’ and ‘fan’ – is, at its worst, a “toxic, vindictive swamp”. And while Junkee, as a site with a music vertical, wants to continue reporting on the phenomenon and impacts of stan culture, a generic ‘Music Junkee’ by-line will feature on stories that would put an identified journalist at risk.
What garbage.
Maybe News Corp Or Nine Media who journalists are abused every day whether they are on the frontline of a war zone, confronting protestors or exposing crooks and politicians.
I remember when working on the ACP publication the Bulletin and writing about the criminal world of the Painters and Dockers Mr Rent A Kill, Christopher Dale Flannery, threatened to kill me.
I also worked as a crime journalist in the East End of London and around Soho when threats were commonplace.
Most real journalists would wear a threat as a badge of honour and as it goes, I don’t seem to come across too many journalists who are having a problem handling threats.
Kathryn Anne McClymont AM is a journalist who writes for The Sydney Morning Herald. Notable for exposing corruption in politics, trade unions, sport, and horse racing, she has received death threats because of her exposés.
She doesn’t hide behind an anonymous by-line.
And what happens when someone wants to sue for deformation who do they sue Ms Anonymous By-line.
Junkee Editorial Director Rob Stott who obviously approved the move said in one Tweet “I’ve spent too many hours referring my staff to counselling services because of coordinated stan dogpiles. This is not a commentary on stan culture as a whole, but it’s an element that can’t be ignored”.
He added “It’s disappointing that we have to do this. It’s a sad indictment on this particular element of the music industry, and it runs counter to Junkee Media’s editorial code, which says that all content should have a by-line unless there’s a good reason not to,” wrote Rob Stott.
Stott said that it’s difficult to robustly protect his team; social media platforms do not offer “adequate” tools, a 24-hour Employee Assistance Program is only useful once a staff member has already been subject to abuse and threatening messages, and while “the safest route would be to not write about certain popular artists at all … we’re a music publication, so that’s not really an option.”
God help if his staff wrote about terrorism, crime or his staff were having to put their hands every day in the criminal world sewer to extract nuggets of information for a story.
Maybe some of their staff should be shunted off to a war zone in the Middle East as I was at 22 years of age or work among IRA terrorists in Northern Ireland.
Give me a break, what these people have to do is leave their mothers purse strings, man up and face reality, journalists writing real stories get threats.
I for one don’t want to see my profession tainted by a bunch of whimps and editors who don’t have the guts to stand up to people who make threats, then again the name of their site says it all JUNK.
