Author: Graeme Decarie

Well, it depends. Doesn’t it? In Haiti, some human  lives are worth five dollars a day or less – if their ownders can find a job. They aren’t worth the cost of education or health care, of course. Then there are the hundreds of thousands of Haitians still living under scraps of

…..it’s getting more boring. Up until two years ago, the TandT was a vicious, ranting paper – rather like Norber on a bad hair day. I remember, in particular, its vicious  (and ignorant) attacks on the public school system. Since then, it has simmered down.  Unforturnately, the result is not

On p. D9 is a story that is actually worth reading.  “Energy industry fought Ottawa over greenhouse gas regulations.” The gist of the story is that  the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers got more than the usual consultation with the the federal government  while the latter was preparing the regulations – and a strong

I’ll comment on just a couple of points because there’s almost nothing worth talking about in this miserable sheet. It has whole pages dedicated to pictures of our social betters smiling at a party. Who could possibly give a damn?It has another whole page of pictures of people on ski-doos.

My heart sank when I saw the headline “Reuben Cohen speaks out on Moncton High”.  Usually, newspapers like The Moncton Times and Transcript use that “speaking out” headline to lead into some hack who is more shooting off his mouth that speaking out. But I almost burst into cheers when

The news services are doing their usual incoherent job of presenting the news on the federal and provincial budgets. Their “news” is mostly quotations from politicians speaking the their usual buzz words…responsible, effeciency, live-within-means,…….. most of which don’t mean a damn thing. In fact, the cuttings, firings, government attacks and protest resignations

….Letters to the editor can be a great spot to slide in propaganda.  Today’s example is a letter from Tom Harris, Director of the International Climate Science Coalition (Wow!), writing from Ottawa (gollywow!).  I mean, gee, international…coalition…and in Ottawa. Oh, and it has free speakers -most of them with PhDs.

In recent weeks, The Moncton Times and Transcript has become noticeably worse, even by Irving press standards. It is coming close to having no news whatever. The reasons are surely obvious. The major issue in New Brunswick is shale gas exploration. The TandT, despite promises of intense coverage and information-gathering

“Gulf observers quit Syria” Yawn. All them there foreigners. they’re always fightin’. I guess  ought help them rebels make a democracy – like ours. That’s what happens when you get news in isolated bites without any sense of the big picture. It reminds me of a visit to a zoo

Commonly, journalists think they know everything. It’s not (entirely) their fault. Journalism is all about  seeing through lies and false alarms,understanding the big picture, getting to the truth. Nobody can do that, not really.But journalists devote their lives to pretending they can. It’s the same with university teachers – and

exhibit 1. headline p. A3 “Highfield Square Tenant ready to move on”    Duh – well, yeah. The place is closing. We all know that. So it was kind of expected that the few tenants would move on.. Also that the doors will be closed, the lights turned off, and the

Let’s not talk about the rather important stories that the TandT didn’t notice. We won’t talk about their recent report of Harper announcing his crushing fear of an Iranian nuclear bomb – and how the TandT  (and Harper, I guess) – did not notice the Jan. 19 story in the

Today’s editorial in The Moncton Times and Transcript brought a tear to my eye. A highly successful developer (land, stadia, hockey teams, hotels) is rumoured to have bought land around the Crown Plaza Hotel (which he already owns). That, says the editorial writer, is admirable. It shows confidence in the

Editorials were never a good idea to start with. Fault one is that the editorial pretends to speak for the whole newspaper. It can’t, of course. In the first place, newspapers can’t have an opinion. They are bundles of paper. Bundles of paper can’t have opinions. Only people can have

There was really only one story worth reading today.  The Common Front for Social Justice has told the finance minister he should not reduce the debt by cutting off services to the poor. He should do it by raising taxes paid (or, rather, not paid) by the upper middle class

Again, there’s little to say about The Moncton Times and Transcript because so little is in it. There’s the usual ad disguised as news about a new act at the casino. There’s a good deal of space devoted to a story about the choice of a new location for Moncton

I’m late in writing today. The problem I’m having is that today’s Moncton Times and Transcript was almost entirely frivolous and pointless. It wasn’t just the usual mix of ads and misinformation disguised as news stories. It was supremely tedious, irrelevant and boring. I really could think of nothing to

Quite a number of news agencies have reported the US is moving 12,000 troops to Libya. You remember Libya. That’s the place where we just dropped tens of thousands of tons of bombs on cities – for humanitarian reasons – and we hurt so few that NATO has never thought

I remember the day well. I was twelve years old, just back to the city from scout camp, walking down St. Gerard St, when I came to a crossing. I looked to the left. I looked to the right. And I felt a glow of pride, even arrogance. There was

1. I forget to mention a local boosterism item that the Moncton TandT seems not to have heard of. that’s odd. The TandT usually remembers to print long stories about Moncton or the New Brunswick itself becoming famous – you know, for opening a snack bar, whatever. But here’s a