When I first tried to join the National Union of Journalists, aged 22, I was told they were full. Really. This was because they were run by ultra-leftists who wanted to mobilise labour by keeping people out of trade unions.
It took two years, but eventually they let me in, and by way of punishment I got sent possibly the worst periodical ever published, The Journalist.
When I went into management I gave up my membership, and witnessed at first hand how useless the union was at defending the interests of its members. On one occasion I actually had to recommend a lawyer to someone to make sure they got decent advice, so poor was their NUJ support.
When City University ventured to advertise for a PhD studentship in citizen journalism in conjunction with Sky News, an NUJ newsletter headlined it “Wanna be a Doctor of low-cost news coverage?” Sounds familiar, eh?
By all means let journalists organize themselves, but there have to be better vehicles than the NUJ for achieving those ends.