Climate change media coverage hits rock bottom
So it’s come to this: The Mystery of the Vanishing Rink. Climate coverage has hit bottom. It appears journalists are cool to global warming. In the month of June last year I counted 853 stories on climate change in papers, periodicals, and newscasts. This past June the count fell to 331, a decline of 61 […]
One enduring media myth on joblessness and lawlessness
Government data, soon to be released, will expose one of the most enduring media myths on public safety. The facts have already been misreported. Myths die hard. “During Recession We Need More Police,” announced The Windsor Star. The headline illustrated a mistaken assumption that joblessness correlates to lawlessness. It doesn’t. Statistics prove it. In overlooking […]
Dominion Institute’s wailing over public ignorance seems to strike a newsroom chord
Each Canada Day brings another frown from the Dominion Institute, the federally-funded agency that hectors the public for its inability to answer questions on historical facts. This year I decided to put the questions to them for a change. “Who was Canada’s first Roman Catholic Prime Minister?” I asked Marc Chalifoux, the Institute’s 29-year old […]
Advice for hungry job-hunting journalism students: don’t do it
It is job-hunting season for journalism students. They number in the thousands. Most will struggle for work that pays the $1,000 a week bus drivers earn. Entry-level media salaries have always been dreadful. Ex-CTV anchorman Harvey Kirck, in his 1985 memoirs Nobody Calls Me Mr. Kirck, recalled recording radio spots at 60-cents a pop. “If […]
When media garble government data on recession statistics
The mechanics of news reporting are alphabetically precise: (a) Know your subject; (b) depict reality; (c) keep opinions to yourself. It isn’t every day media strike out on all three. But it happened last week as several newsrooms garbled government data showing just how deep the recession has hit. The effect was to misinform Canadians […]
Hunt underway for human sacrifices to be laid at altar of deficit gods, eh?
OTTAWA—A hunt is underway for human sacrifices to be laid at the altar of the deficit gods. Seasoned politicians can smell it. Danger lurks for the witless. Public spending deemed hum-drum in surplus times becomes a career-ending catastrophe when the federal deficit hits $50-billion. This is as it should be. Deficits are awful; the last […]
A good day as any to mark failure of Canada’s national child care
Today is International Children’s Day, a celebration most keenly observed in countries where boys and girls march with armbands. Still, it’s as good a day as any to mark the failure of national child care, the two decade-long campaign to build an all-Canadian daycare program. Its lack of success is often blamed on sinister forces—a […]
Busting the rail monopoly myth: Railway Association
I am writing to express my opposition to the view that was expressed by the Forest Products Association of Canada column entitled, “Getting government right for the forest industry” printed in the May 11 edition of The Hill Times. It is indicated that one of the critical strategies to improve the performance of Canada’s forest […]
Never has legal profession so dominated political life
You can’t throw a fastball in this town without beaning a lawyer. That is no reason to stop trying. Never has the legal profession so dominated political life. Contrary to myth, most politicians are not lawyers. Only 12 per cent of MPs and three of 10 provincial premiers have law degrees. Yet increasingly, those who […]
Mulroney paints himself as victim
Brian Mulroney is 70. He wintered in Palm Beach. It didn’t seem to do him any good. He appeared, pale and puffy, an old man struggling to explain why he did his banking in $1,000 bills. Inappropriate, he said. Decidedly not illegal. Other words came to mind. “Sad,” the Halifax Chronicle-Herald called it. An old […]
