For weeks, as municipal and institutional election campaigns were held throughout New Brunswick, The Moncton Times and Transcript told us almost nothing about the candidates or the issues. All that appeared were very brief press releases about the candidates, and written by the candidates. There was no probing, no questoning. There
Continue readingAuthor: Graeme Decarie
The Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: May 14: just voted…..
It was 10 a.m. The voting was steady, mostly of the elderly. I wonder how much the voters knew about the issues and the candidates….. I confess I had no idea what most of the candidates stood for. I voted for people I knew, people I felt who had values I could
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: May 13: Acadienouvelle
About a week ago, a reader asked me to comment on the quality of Acadienouvelle. So, on a Sunday morning, here’s a general impression. The standard of journalism is clearly higher than that of The Moncton Times and Transcript. There is no obvious bias in the reporting or commentary. Opinions are,
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: May 12:We’ll start with a student column because…
….it’s almost the only thing worth reading in today’s Moncton Times and Transcript. Jana Giles, a grade 8 student at Lewisville Middle School, writes on p. F7 that iti would be desirable for teachers to be assigned to teach the same subjects for years, rather than, as sometimes happens, to
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: May 11:Clinic gives cosmetic surgery a facelift….
Wow! That’s the headline for a SPECIAL REPORT on the f ront page of The Moncton Times and Transcript. Need your eyelid lifted, nose shortened, male breast reduction, tummy tuck? Get any one of the above at a new clinic in Moncton for only some $5000 each. That’s a front
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: May 10: Sackville hopefuls seek a better community
I”m so glad to hear that news about the Sackville candidates. I had been worried they would say they were all trying to make Sackville a worse community. That’s the general level of coverage for the municipal elections – saying lots of nothing. What gets coverage is taxes, bicycle lanes,
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: May 9:The wisdom of the Times and Transcript
Today, there was a major, New Burnswick story that the Moncton Times and Transcript did not report on. I’m glad. It was embarassiing to be a resident of a province with a politician that could make such bizarre statements….. This was the official government defence of its choice of Rotyal
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: May6: Civic elections? what civic elections?
In fairness, the Moncton Times and Transcript has three stories on city politics. One is on the last meeting before the election for the Moncton council. One is about the last meeting before the election for the Deippe Council. One is about a defamatory flyer sent to Dieppe voters by mail
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: May 7: The best investigative journalism…
….in today’s Moncton Times and Transcript is a letter to the editor. It’s headed ‘Paper misconstrues cancer study story’. The letter accuses the TandT, with considerable evidence, of deliberately misrepresenting a study which showed a close relationship between cancer and industry – notably in St. John. It would certainly not
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: May 6: Sunday morning…..
…so what the hell (figuratively speaking), let’s talk about morality. No, I am not going to start quoting from The Bible. The trouble with people who glue their noses to The Bible is that they lose the point of the whole thing. Morality is a practical matter, a central matter
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: May 5: oooooh! Another royal tour story…
This time, the tour was by Albert Edward, Prince of Wales in 1860. (It was to St. John because you could breathe the air in St. John in those days.) 1860. think about that. It is the lead story in the section called NewsToday. Who says the editors of the
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: May 4: It’s wise to be simple, but….
….not wise to be simple-minded. Most editorials in the Moncton Times and Transcript are written in simple style with simple, everyday language. That’s good. Beware of people who love big words. Big words commonly indicate a pompous ass who uses big words not to inform you but to obscure his
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: May 3: ooh!ooh! Big story..but hush hush…..
Are you ready? Last summer, a busload of 40 people from the British government, the royal household, and even the provincial government travelled around the New Brunswick to see where the prince and the duchess will stay on their visit, and where they will go for walks on their visit
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: Why editors should not write editorials….
Today’s editorial in the Moncton Times and Transcript is bizarre. It begins with a review of the mayoralty debates in Moncton and Dieppe. In both debates, the candidates, it says, presented excellent platforms. (I must have missed that. The platforms seemed to me as trivial as Alward’s promise to listen
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: May 1: Today’s prize for bad journalism goes to……
…me. About I week ago, I was critical of a Moncton Times and Transcript story because it was trivial. It was about the world shortage of helium – and the story reassured us that Moncton still had plenty of it for balloons. It was a trivial story. But I should have
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: April 30: It seemed to begin well….
(Oh, Oh, Oh…don’t forget. Tuesday, May 1, current events at the Moncton Library from 7 to 8 P.M. we’ll start with why coroporations love politicians, but hate civil servants. Then, we’ll go wherever you like.) now – to go back to “It seemed to go well”) Headline. Page 1. “Moncton’s
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: April 29: Understanding protests
The university and college student strike, along with its demonstrations and its confrontations with police, has been making news in Canada, across Europe, and even in Asia. But not in the closed little world of the Moncton Times and Transcript. Eventually, it will dawn on one of the deeper thinkers
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: April 28: The columnists
We can spare time to talk about newspaper columns today because there’s almost nothing in the day’s Moncton Times and Tribune worth reading – except for the columns by Bill Belliveau and Gwynne Dyer, and the whole Whatever section, this time packed with the usual good writing by the usual
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: April 27: The facts of news – and the opinions columns
My apologies for missing yesterday. Sick computer. I’m also not sure whether this is will be in paragraphs. For some reason, my blog site has been wiping out the paragraph breaks in transmission. So I will close each paragraph with a series of dashes like this——–just to be safe———– Oh, and this
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: April 26 mea culpa
I’m having a computer
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