Finally! A story that doesn’t matter: Why we hyped JonBenet
Don’t blame media for JonBenet Ramsey. It’s been a hot summer, and sometimes you have to cut the tension. Journalists, like coroners, meet people at their worst. They are paid to dissect the results of tragedy or failure, and it wears. That’s why old reporters walk with a stoop. Coroners have their limits, too. Norway […]
Why are journalists so fascinated by Cuba? Korski wants to know
I’ve never been to Cuba, but journalists who have seem awed by the place. Halifax Daily News writer Arnie Patterson marveled, “No one goes to bed hungry in Cuba.” Fidel Castro is “remarkable” and “heroic,” he wrote. Castro is “amazing,” agreed the Sault Star. The Jewish Tribune reported, “There’s no anti-Semitism there.” Cuba jailed 32 […]
A pretty good barometer of a country’s state of mind is its treatment of animals; it’s almost embarrassing, says Korski
Canada is so rich that dogs eat cake and horses get funerals. “Have we ever had it so good?” asked a Globe and Mail editorial. “It is hard not to be awed by how fortune shines on this country.” Sheila Copps, writing in the Toronto Sun, urged Canadians to “thank our lucky stars.” News from […]
Following the arrest of 17 ‘Al Qaeda-inspired’ terrorist suspects, the media have failed to ask one critical question: Why?
That long, awkward silence you hear is the blush of journalistic embarrassment. Two months after joining in an al-Qaeda witch burning, media have quietly dropped the story. Newsrooms will not even ask questions that now must be asked. It is our way of hoping the public forgets. Prompted by a June 3 police news conference […]
So that’s what the war was about, Justin Trudeau posing as Papineau
The First World War started 92 years ago this week. It is still poignant. The Prime Minister’s wife, Laureen, sobbed at the gravesite of a great uncle killed in action while on a recent visit to France. Tears are an eloquent remembrance. A few journalists have found other meaning in the conflict–as justification for free […]
They don’t teach mathematics in journalism schools, eh?
They don’t teach mathematics at journalism school. That must explain why news coverage based on numbers is so often mangled by media. There are many interesting examples. When Statistics Canada recently issued a news release stating the typical Canadian spends 12 days a year in traffic, journalists got excited. “A whopping 12 days!” said CTV’s […]
Prospect of large numbers of visitors from Chinese mainland revives ethnic stereotyping by domestic, international media
This tourism season it is not asking too much to give foreigners a polite welcome. Just don’t mention the incident at the First World Hotel. Communist China is preparing to place Canada on a government-approved list of holiday destinations. The prospect of large numbers of visitors from the Chinese mainland has revived ethnic stereotyping by […]
Korski’s candidates for ‘Worst Column To Appear in Print’ awards
Journalists like to receive awards but don’t often give them out. That seems ungenerous. So, in the spirit of public service I’m naming my candidates for the Worst Column To Appear In Print. Ho-hum media are a dime a dozen, but awful journalism is a national treasure. I used to collect bad headlines, a lively […]
Media are mandated to balance both sides of a story, no?
Tommy Douglas is lionized by media as a great Canadian, though he once advocated work camps for unwed mothers. It was no momentary slip; the former NDP leader wrote a 35-page paper on the trouble with Canadians of low IQ and those he deemed morally “defective.” Nor was it a schoolboy indiscretion. Douglas was 28 […]
Political Reporting Thomson was not first rich man to see his image remolded
They said goodbye to Ken Thomson, a newspaperman who pursued money. A fitting eulogy was written long ago by another newspaperman, Bob Edwards of the Calgary Eye Opener. Reporting the death of financier J.P. Morgan in 1913, Edward wrote: “To the question, ‘How much did Morgan leave?’ the answer must continue to be, ‘All that […]
