Journalists love a good stunt, an eye-catching novelty
Journalists love a good stunt. They’ve invented a few of their own. But a stunt, by definition, must be an eye-catching novelty. There is nothing novel in being the second person to eat 30 hot dogs at a sitting or fly solo across the Atlantic. It is with deep feeling we mourn the passing of […]
Some journalists treat the Gomery Report like a game of tag
Did nothing profound come out of Adscam? Poets think deep thoughts, so I asked the Parliamentary Poet Laureate, Pauline Michel, if she planned to compose any verse about the sponsorship scandal. No, she replied. She was overwhelmed with requests, Michel explained–“I wish I could write all the poems people ask me to write”–and besides, “This […]
The Liberal government is so barren of ideas that its Parliamentary initiatives are Mike Harris hand-me-downs
We’re all getting older, but nothing ages quite so badly as a four-term government. Cabinet is adrift. The Minister of Foreign Affairs told reporters he takes policy advice from his chauffeur. The Minister of Public Works said he’s thinking of marrying his boyfriend. The Minister of Finance now gets his ideas from the Social Credit […]
Many political journalists have a warmer regard for the elite personalities they cover than the public they presume to serve
Halloween has come early this year in the form of dark mutterings of a midnight plot by the Parliamentary Press Gallery. It’s the spooky spectre of a Liberal Media Conspiracy. Never has conspiracy talk gained such currency amongst rational people. Theorists believe Liberals remain in power with the aid of journalists. Media are led by […]
How the word ‘mistake’ gets overused by newsmakers
It’s a media-friendly noun made of rubber, “mistake.” No word in the English language has such flexibility. “Mistake” once described some harmlessly annoying act of inattentiveness, like sitting on your sunglasses. Now it covers offences once categorized as sins or felonies. When Parti Québécois leadership candidate André Boisclair admitted to cocaine use as a Quebec […]
Harper’s bum rap is starting to look like a game of dog pile
Did you see the film The Sixth Sense? It turns out Bruce Willis was a ghost the whole time! Now that you know the ending, it would be joyless to sit through the drama. There’s much the same sensation in Ottawa as Parliament reconvenes. Monday, Sept. 26 marks the undeclared start of the longest election […]
China to mark anniversary of diplomatic relations with Canada next month, but media should hold the misleading hype
Journalists are never to take anything at face value. It is their best quality. They live by the elemental rule of media once summed up in a copywriter’s slogan: “You must mind the ancient law and never write what you ain’t saw.” Next month marks the anniversary of diplomatic relations between Canada and Communist China. […]
Hours after the storm struck, gas prices in Canadian cities jumped 20 cents and kept climbing: why?
It’s not too much to ask that media get their facts straight in covering an important story, or is it? When gas retailers increased prices 20 per cent and blamed a New Orleans hurricane, several newsrooms justified the action in coverage that could have been ghost-written by an Esso publicist. Journalists presumed to lecture the […]
Does the CBC still matter?
It is the biggest shutdown in the history of Canadian journalism. Yet, this Labour Day, the lockout of 5,500 employees by the CBC is under a virtual news blackout that scarcely rates a mention by journalists. CBC executive Mark Starowicz, writing in Maclean’s, warned of a “potentially staggering” impact in this “largest single industrial implosion” […]
GG appointment takes Paul Martin to the brink again
How tough could it be? We have had leaders confront war, rebellion, epidemics, strikes and recessions. Prime Minister Paul Martin’s duty of selecting a Governor General, by comparison, should be a light, happy chore–like picking new kitchen countertops. The pool of applicants seems adequate. “Many people,” wrote the Kingston Whig-Standard’s Beth Pye, “would love to […]
