Owen. Not getting it or goady? Sometimes it’s hard to tell.

"I didn’t realise he’d ‘discussed’ the McCanns"

He discusses everything

When you think of the incidents of things like bullying at your school, how many people would have told their mothers the truth? Who on earth would go home and say "yeah me and a bunch of other girls crowded around and picked on a girl for her opinions"?

Even within a school its such a game of telephone. I had a disagreement with another girl and was crying in one of the bathrooms as I was upset as she was a friend but it got all around the school that I was crying because she punched me (she hadn't and we went back to being friends after a phonecall later that evening)

Owen did a public shout-out to someone claiming on another person's thread that s/he was a parent at the school, and asked in full view of his 1 million followers if he could contact him/her in private. He's deleted the tweet now, but he should never have made it.

Oh, and the person he gave a shout-out to? Um, their timeline is not left-wing in the least. The stuff posted was vile. Turns out OJ doesn't mind associating with right-wingers so long as they have children who are trans activists!

As others have said, the problem here is not wanting to get 'the other side of the story'. The problem is putting the shout out to his 1 million followers on Twitter, potentially outing the girl in question and causing a pile on. He has form for working in this way for his podcast though doesn't he? He will say 'who is a good person to talk about the situation in Ukraine/trans rights/misogyny' and then will select people that his friends suggest. It seems like a very unprofessional way for a so called journalist to operate, and I dont see others doing this?

If he wants to do some investigative journalism on that Times story then he can, but do it behind the scenes surely, especially where kids are involved? It all just seems so amateur.

Also, he wasn't keen to get the other side of the story on the WiSpa incident, and when it did transpire that the 'transwoman' in question was actually a big fat sex offender after all, it was quietly brushed under the carpet and never spoken of again....

Journalist isn't a protected title. Although tbh lots of protected titles are misused on Twitter anyway.
You also don't need to be a member of the NUJ to be a journalist. The NUJ gives you a press card which they can withdraw if you break their code of conduct.

I didn’t realise he’d ‘discussed’ the McCanns.

Despite spending a lot of time on it, I don't think Owen understands the internet much. This was evident from his book "Chavs" in which it became apparent that he'd never read any of the frenzied online vitriol aimed at the McCanns BECAUSE they are middle class and are perceived by some to have "got away with it" due to their social position. Really astonishing lack of research there.

It's not a protected title, is it? I mean, he can call himself a journalist on twitter without being an NUJ member, can't he?

For the record, if Owen blocks you on twitter, you can keep up with the Jones on fb. He usually duplicates his opening tweets on FB, so he can reach as wide an audience as possible.

OJ has always been a columnist which is very different from a news reporter or journalist or investigative journalist. If he is a card-carrying member of the NUJ, everything he has done is against their code of conduct and we can report him for it.
He is setting himself up as the arbiter of any article that mentions girls, women and/or trans issues. It's a ridiculous position. You do not give bullies a platform. You do not try to out an anonymous source. It's journalism 101.
He is trying to do both. Whilst making life unbearable for a teenage. He is utterly reprehensible.
The Guardian needs to sack him. Yy that will make him a martyr for idiots and bullies everywhere but it will take away some of his implied legitimacy.

So LOJ has blocked me on Twitter overnight. I only ever tweet and retweet for and about work-related topics, so this must because of a tweet that I merely liked. Liked, ffs.

What an absolute melt this middle-aged you-tuber is.

The OJ reach out for information is upfront bullying. He's basically said on a public platform that he doesn't believe the girl in question and is seeking information to discredit her.

Oj not on

100% agree that on is a vile bully. What normal man tries to start a campaign against a school girl?

Discrimination can be based on perceived characteristics- ie olive skinned women can be abused or discriminated against for being Pakistani even if that’s not their background. That’s the law - it’s the conduct of the discriminator that’s the issue and the harm. Whether or not the person they are abusing is actually Pakistani/ gay/ Muslim / etc is irrelevant.

misogyny is still hatred of women and homophobia is discrimination against gay people. Just because people may perceive others to be women or gay doesn’t mean it’s discrimination or hate towards men or straight people. It just means that the discriminator has made a mistake.

He's duplicated all these twitter posts on facebook, where he also has lots of followers. I saw a conversation between people in the replies, asking each other to publicly post the name of the school, so they could research the matter for Owen! I repeat, such conversations are wholly predictable results of his call for information.

The man disgusts me.

I bet if he tried really really hard <as in a quick phone call or two> he could discretely find out who the Peer was and have a discrete chat with her to get background on the talk and her interaction with the girl. He might even be able to connect with the school that way, although as he’ll know full well, they won’t be able to comment.

That approach wouldn’t allow him to crow all over Twitter though and do a big performative show of how much he cares.

Clymene, I think his media identity is fluid, depending on who he's arguing with. People on twitter kept commenting that he wasn't a journalist, and saying that it explained the grossly irresponsible request for identifying information about minors, on a public platform. That goaded him into saying he was a journalist.

Next week, who knows!

And that bit about his Facebook is bloody shocking.

IANAJ but I would have thought that there are easier, considerably more ethical ways of finding out the details of a story than asking teenage girls to directly contact a grown man through PM.

I would have also assumed that if journalists have concerns about the veracity of a story, that they would do some investigations to find out and then post their findings, rather than what OJ has done. It would avoid a rather humiliating, public climb down if it does prove correct.

Ah, as I'm blocked and have been for years @PurgatoryOfPotholes, I didn't know that he's changed his self description.

Is he a member of the the NUJ? Because it seems pretty clear thar he's broken several of their Cod of Conduct principles:

1	Does her/his utmost to correct harmful inaccuracies.
2	Differentiates between fact and opinion.
3	Obtains material by honest, straightforward and open means, with the exception of investigations that are both overwhelmingly in the public interest and which involve evidence that cannot be obtained by straightforward means.
4	Does nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest.

He's duplicated all these twitter posts on facebook, where he also has lots of followers. I saw a conversation between people in the replies, asking each other to publicly post the name of the school, so they could research the matter for Owen! I repeat, such conversations are wholly predictable results of his call for information. Fortunately, so far no-one has known, or they have been responsible enough not to answer.

That's scary. It's so irresponsible. Why can't he see it?

He's duplicated all these twitter posts on facebook, where he also has lots of followers. I saw a conversation between people in the replies, asking each other to publicly post the name of the school, so they could research the matter for Owen! I repeat, such conversations are wholly predictable results of his call for information. Fortunately, so far no-one has known, or they have been responsible enough not to answer.

Anyway.

Owen Jones' self-descriptions: a brief timeline

April 2018 - Polemicist

In reply to a journalist who tells him "[w]e have different ways of doing journalism, that’s for sure" in an ongoing argument about the quality of Owen's journalism, Owen pointedly refers to himself as a polemicist instead of a journalist.

I'm a polemicist and activist who's open about my political views. I got a platform because I wrote a book about class which people wanted to read. I accept you don't think my platform is useful but I use it as best I can to promote otherwise marginalised issues and causes.

April 2018

October 2021 - columnist

The same people who dismissed anyone mentioning the daily relentless media monstering Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership faced as a factor in his defeat are now claiming that me, a single newspaper columnist, will single handedly make the Tories win again by criticising Keir Starmer

October 2021

April 2022 - independent journalist

you want me to stay silent about these utterly disgusting political positions for partisan reasons, and well, I'm an independent journalist, I will call bullshit out when I see it without fear or favour, and if you and other Starmer cheerleaders don't like that, then sorry, tough

April 2022

Yesterday, May 2022 - journalist

Hi! Columnists are journalists and in 11 years of working in the media I have never compromised anyone’s anonymity, try again!

May 2022

And can I just point out that an MP has just been arrested on suspicion of rape, but has not been named. I don't see OJ casting doubt on the veracity of that story. The principle of anonymity is observed, for good reason, in all sorts of sensitive stories.

Did anyone ever find that statement that the Guardian was supposed to have released, regarding the workplace harassment? I know Owen posted a screenshot of the (poorly punctuated) draft before the Easter weekend, on twitter and facebook, but did the full version come out?

I've never seen anything, just the screenshot.

Xpost. The reason I think it's important to remember that OJ does not consider himself a journalist is that it means he doesn't have to adhere to NUJ standards.

He's flouted several of the guidelines in this shitty tweet alone

www.nuj.org.uk/about-us/rules-and-guidance/code-of-conduct.html