How tsunami disaster gets reduced to a ‘file’
What do you call it when a tsunami packing the power of a hydrogen bomb afflicts a quarter of the world’s surface? A “file”. In the language of bureaucracy all is reduced to crisp files that are kept in Cabinets and alphabetized. “Tsunami aid,” that’s under T. Cabinet members so often speak in terms of […]
Deepest motive for media endorsement of gay relationships is plain fatigue
A bill to legalize gay marriage will soon sail through Parliament. And why not? It’ll be good for tourism, and doesn’t cost money. Yet the issue is not without its unique and unsettling features. One is the fact gay activists spent ten years campaigning for the right to pay for a marriage licence. Attorney Clarence […]
Listless Parliaments, disgusted electors and apprehensive media: a sardonic look back at quirky media coverage
It’s been some year listless Parliaments, disgusted electors and apprehension in media that saw national dailies struggle with profitability and network newscasts face dwindling market share. On the other hand, scientists say it rains sulfuric acid on the planet Venus. Doesn’t that make our troubles seem small? Here’s the year that was: Most Severe […]
All year long the Senate is kicked and cuffed for its aristocratic irrelevance, yet, it’s a reporter’s best friend
In this season of brotherhood, journalism should acknowledge the large, unpaid debt it owes to the one Ottawa institution that does so much for the news business, the Senate. All year long the Senate is kicked and cuffed for its aristocratic irrelevance. Yet, it’s a reporter’s best friend. Even on the slowest day it makes […]
Does God dictate Conservative policy?
It was just an email, but it raised a question media have never fully explored. Does God dictate Conservative policy? The Globe and Mail reported that Stockwell Day, the Conservative foreign affairs critic, emailed colleagues over his refusal to issue a routine statement of condolence following Yasser Arafat’s death. By way of explanation, Day cited […]
Paralysing fear of litigation evident in Gagliano coverage
It was a sensational case of the Crown versus New Liberty magazine, and it taught media a lesson we never forgot. In 1947 New Liberty uncovered abuses in Alberta government-run orphanages. It reported that babies were sold to U.S. couples without background checks and older children were hired out as cheap farm labour. The government’s […]
Compare Mr. Dithers to the press clippings of a year ago when Martin had observers at the edge of their seats
Grab your sweater and a warm cup of cocoa. It looks like we’re settling in for a cold winter of inertia. Media once had a brief, wistful hope the loss of 33 Liberal seats might stoke the furnace. “Power Struggle Will Dominate Parliament,” headlined the Calgary Sun ten weeks ago. Newsman Ted Byfield wrote that […]
Contrived outrage over free flags for Richmond Legion was a media embarrassment, no match for ballyhoo boys
Media observance of Veterans Week seemed very vigorous this year. It was a fist-waving, flag-hoisting, Bloc-baiting cavalcade of patriotism. The racket was so loud it was difficult to pause for Remembrance. Some remembered. A colleague told a story of the night the First World War intruded at the supper table. His grandfather was a combat […]
Good follow-ups not the franchise of national media
In newsroom jargon it’s a “folo,” the follow-up of a story that was once the talk of the town. A good folo uncovers news never detailed in a press release. If it delves deeply enough, it becomes muckraking. Few journalists specialize in the practice it takes leg work and a long memory but […]
Parliamentary Press Gallery collegiality is an old tradition
As a copy editor at CTV National News, I once vetted a script from a Parliament Hill reporter who referred to “Liberal values” in news copy. I suggested the phrase be deleted as gratuitous. No one writes about “Conservative values” or “Bloc values,” I argued. The reporter, who cheerfully agreed to the deletion, was Jim […]
