The Canary is a left-wing political blog in the United Kingdom, which editor-in-chief Kerry-Anne Mendoza says is "here to disrupt the status quo of the UK and international journalism, by creating content that compels audiences to view the world differently". While it focuses on UK political affairs, it also has a "Global" section, a satire section ("Off the Perch"), and "Science", "Environment", and "Health" sections.
Contents
History
The Canary was created in October 2015 with five founding members in an attempt to "diversify [the British] media", according to editor-in-chief Kerry-Anne Mendoza. The website is funded by advertising and monthly contributions from about 1,500 supporters.
A major factor motivating The Canary's founders, Mendoza said, was scepticism of the mainstream media, a scepticism shared by Corbyn. In his first address as Labour leader, he attacked pundits for not understanding the discontent among many ordinary British voters, and talked about the "power of social media".
In April 2016, Mendoza said in Free & Fearless (a magazine produced by Hacked Off) that:
we are attracting an audience of 3.5 million unique users per month. On top of this: every two hours, 24 hours a day, seven days a week – someone becomes a paid subscriber of The Canary ... Our growing traffic is attracting advertisers who are now offering us a floor RPM (payment per 1,000 hits) of £3 and a ceiling of £9."
This structure has been criticised for promoting clickbait as writers are only paid for their work if it becomes viral. Mendoza disputes this, claiming that the payment structure means that people who generate the revenues get a fair share.
In June 2016, the investigative journalist and former environment blogger for The Guardian, Nafeez Ahmed, joined The Canary's editorial board. The website has an editorial team of around 30, although only 5 of The Canary's staff earn enough money to work full time.
Political standpoint
Describing her website to Journalism.co.uk, Canary editor-in-chief Kerry-Anne Mendoza said that:
For us, this is ultimately about democracy. Informed consent in the public is the bedrock of democracy, and if that informed consent isn't there because people aren't aware of the kind of information that they need to be, they won't be equipped to make the decent democratic decisions that they need to, say, for example, on climate change, the justice system, or whether austerity is a positive economic policy.
The Canary is generally supportive of Jeremy Corbyn, the current leader of the Labour Party, but has also supported Natalie Bennett (former leader of the Green Party) and the Greens' "radical alternative" to the "Tory-lite" policies of "the neoliberal Labour Party ... The Green Party's rise to viability preceded the election of Jeremy Corbyn, the Momentum movement, and the latest swathe of grassroots movements in Britain winning gains against the austerity politics of the Conservatives." Mendoza claims that The Canary's news coverage was not biased, and that it was "a complete coincidence" that the website was created shortly after Corbyn's leadership victory. "We don't have any affiliations with political parties, we don't have any affiliations with political organisations, and we're not actually ostensibly left-wing," she added, calling the site’s editorial stance "a counterpoint to conservative media" and "broadly liberal".
The website did not have a standpoint on the 2016 EU referendum.
Support
Max Keiser has said that the site "really digs into some of the salient points that need to be made about austerity", saying in an interview with Kerry-Anne Mendoza that he has "been following this site for a while now". Former Respect MP George Galloway also praised the website on his show Sputnik for RT.
Criticism
Critics have dismissed The Canary as symptomatic of the narrow worldview they believe some supporters of Jeremy Corbyn have. Michael Deacon in The Daily Telegraph described it as the "maddest left-wing website in the world" and Private Eye commented it was a "pisspoor Corbynite clickbait factory".
The Canary has also been criticised by some political pundits on the left, notably Owen Jones, who told PR Week that the website promoted "really promotes conspiracy theories and a lot of things that just aren't right. I worry about the Canary-isation of the left, where it ends up in a bizarre sub-culture that anyone who doesn't agree is seen as part of a conspiracy. But then you do get those blogs on left and right."
Jones and David Aaronovitch also criticised Kerry-Anne Mendoza for comparing Zionism to Nazism on BBC Radio 4 as part of her critiques of alleged Israeli war crimes. "It's the perfect journal for Corbynism in that it has no connection to reality," Nick Cohen wrote for The Observer.
It's fantastic that the barriers to actually create and share media commentary have been drastically lowered by the rise of the digital world. It's democratizing and it means that people don’t only have to complain about what they see to be wrong about the media — they can act on it. But ... The Canary is an echo chamber. ... Corbyn's opponents are the enemy; the Tories are contemptible, and so on. These echo chambers cut down on dissenting information, they eliminate us happening on other points of view. This is likely to make people even angrier, more outraged, more certain that people we disagree with are evil, and more likely to live within the echo chamber itself. This isn't good for our capacity to hold reasoned, civil debate in public life.
Additionally, The Canary's criticism of Charlie Brooker's 2016 Wipe, a satirical programme, was widely criticised. Accusing the show of "jaw dropping" character assassination, Canary author Jack Davies described the show as "a hatchet job on Jeremy Corbyn in its section on the Labour leadership election". In particular, Davies argued that a clip of Corbyn being unable to recognise Ant and Dec was used unfairly against Corbyn. Davies wrote that "[Brooker] joked: "If you think that's tough, try getting him to recognise Ant n' Semitism." ... The quip cements a fabricated smear campaign from media pundits, the pro-Israel lobby, Conservative MPs, and Blairites who all have a common enemy: Corbyn."
This criticism was widely mocked on social media by both supporters and opponents of Jeremy Corbyn. Brooker jokingly said to the author beforehand that "We originally planned a 25min pro-Corbyn musical number but our shadowy Blairite handlers insisted we scrap it." The New Statesman's Media Mole responded to the controversy by suggesting humorous pro-Corbyn joke alternatives.
Notable stories
The Canary has published a number of stories which have been notable enough to be picked up by mainstream media outlets.
Electoral fraud investigations
Regarding allegations of electoral fraud in the 2015 general election, the Canary has "dug into assorted expense claims and activities in several such seats crucial to Cameron's success", according to Michael White in the Guardian. A whistleblower contacted the website into allegations of telephone push polling, claiming that people acting for the Conservative Party also paid telephone companies to conduct misleading surveys on voters which were biased in favour of the Conservatives, thus breaking election law in regard to the private polling they are allowed to do during campaigns.
Suicide story
The coverage The Canary gave to a junior doctor committing suicide was criticised by Private Eye for allegedly flouting editorial guidelines on the coverage of such stories.
Portland Communications story
A piece by Steve Topple alleging a parliamentary coup d'état against Corbyn being co-ordinated Portland Communications and the Fabian Society went viral on pro-Corbyn social media, and was mentioned by Len McCluskey (General Secretary of Unite). The piece was widely dismissed as a conspiracy theory.
Claims of fake news
In an article for The Independent in December 2016, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Tom Watson announced that the Labour Party was commissioning an inquiry into fake news websites following the election of Donald Trump as President-elect of the United States. Following Watson's comments, BuzzFeed News mentioned an anonymous source working with the campaign, who alleged that The Canary would be targeted for the campaign. This prompted a response from editor and founder Kerry-Anne Mendoza, who incorrectly accused Watson of figure-heading "an anti-Corbyn coup" and said that "the man Tom Watson has placed in charge of the inquiry is anti-Corbyn MP Michael Dugher, who has written for the Daily Mail and The Sun. This, and other signs, point to this inquiry being no more than a witch hunt against Watson's political enemies on the left", accusing Watson of double standards when it comes to The Canary.
However, in November 2016, BBC News stated that during the 2016 US presidential campaign, The Canary misled "with claims that 'a major media outlet just revealed who won the US election... a week in advance'." The Canary article further claimed that "many have suggested the election is rigged. In October, the BBC and The Guardian both ran stories questioning the veracity of the election results". The BBC stated that its article in question assessed "the validity of claims that the US election is rigged, finding that there's 'no justification for concern about widespread voter fraud'," but did not predict the outcome of the US election. The organisation also rewrote a story originally on MintPress News regarding an alleged anti-ISIS march. BuzzFeed News countered, "This week has seen millions of Shiite Muslims participate in Arbaeen, one of the world's largest pilgrimages, in Iraq. But they are not specifically marching against ISIS, nor has there been a 'media blackout'". Mainstream publications such as The Independent, The Washington Post, the International Business Times and Reuters all commented on the story, mentioning that the pilgrimage was part of the traditional Arbaeen pilgrimage and not a specifically anti-ISIS demonstration. Additionally, BuzzFeed News noted that the MintPress News article was sourced from American Herald Tribune, a website edited by Canadian professor Anthony Hall, a 9/11 and Sandy Hook shooting conspiracy theorist who had been suspended from his job at a university on charges of anti-Semitism.
Dismissal of Laura Kuenssberg
The Canary has been critical of Laura Kuenssberg's coverage of Jeremy Corbyn on BBC News, especially in the wake of the on-air resignation of Labour MP Stephen Doughty, and promoted a petition hosted by 38 Degrees (which was later taken down) which called for her resignation. The Canary responded by repeating Craig Murray's allegations that the petition was taken down due to "Establishment pressure", as opposed to the assertion from 38 Degrees that the petition was taken down due to "sexist and hateful abuse made towards Laura Kuenssberg". Ian Middleton in the Huffington Post also wrote that: "if one looks at the list of comments published ... it's difficult to find anything remotely aggressive or sexist" and the accusations of abuse "may have been part of an orchestrated campaign on behalf of those looking to discredit the petition itself".
Readership
During July 2016, The Canary achieved over 7.5 million page views, ranking 79th in readership among UK media organisations, slightly higher than The Spectator. The majority of its site traffic comes from Facebook.