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 […]
Acting on the word of police, media distorted facts and resorted to cheap hyperbole in covering alleged suspects
Obviously there was cause to be frightened. In August 2003, the RCMP picked up 23 foreign “students” deemed suspicious. One Pakistani had a $40,000 bank balance. An Indian had enrolled at a flight school. Two others were arrested near a Lake Ontario nuclear plant, claiming they were out for a swim. One suspect was “linked […]
Anybody can get justice in this country, so long as they have lawyers, private investigators and a media-savvy mother
Journalists have no training and little aptitude for acting as ombudsmen, though the public would be shocked to hear it. Reporters become jaded in dealing with unsolicited callers who claim some grievance against the government. “Newsrooms are lightning rods for people who line their toques with tinfoil to keep aliens from stealing their ideas,” wrote […]
The Prime Minister betrays an unattractive truth: he is one sore winner
Media are self-loathing. Many journalists shrink from coverage that inconveniences government, though that’s the point of journalism. That’s why reporters are the only private sector employees whose work is constitutionally protected from government supervision. Journalists point out problems. It’s their job to stir the pot, at long hours and low pay, and some media find […]
