Author: Graeme Decarie

A sample of awfulness is the big international news, “Syrian fighting has cost billions”. Gee! I thought it was being paid for by trading baseball cards. The big, front-page story, so important is was written by Craig Babstock himself, is “RCMP vehicle fleet evolves”. Yessir. Occasionally, the RCMP cars, like

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/ The above is a superb web site for anyone interested in the world of big business, and its impact on our world.  Mr. Roberts has been a major figure in business journalism, in the academic world, and in the US government, especially in economic matters. It was sent to

The kids I went to school with were a mixed lot, all from the crowded, jammed together housing of north end Montreal. There were us English-speaking kids of mixed French and British. descent. There were the Italians who lived in a Little Italy just east of the school, where the Italian-Catholic church had

You know all you editorial people, how you’ve been working so hard to give us faithful readers both sides of the shale gas debate? And how you’ve done such a good job checking with experts from the shale gas companies and from UdeMoncton? But we also know how you’ve found

That’s so true. I’m a prof so, of course, I speak as an expert (just like prof Savoie)  when I say clouds can be a sign of rain. Curiously, the Moncton Times and Transcript has never asked me about it. So I suppose we’ll never see the front page headline that

It’s a bizarre editorial even without the possibilities of ignorance, stupidity or lying. It’s an editorial about all the advantages for us in the declining value of the Canadian dollar. Okay. That part is reasonable enough. But the conclusion, without any attempt to connect it to the rest of the editorial,

sorry to be late today. I had an appointment with a doctor. (I’m approaching that age at which one’s social circle is made up largely of doctors, undertaker salespeople and evangelists giving it their last, best shot.) Anyway -I missed a biggie in yesterday’s paper. The letter from medical staff

“Seismic testing not new in N.B.” That’s a “read it while it’s hot” front-page story in today’s TandT. And it flunks Journalism 101. 1. Nobody has ever said seismic is new. That is not what the demonstrations are about.2. The story  is entirely based on an interview with one man who has

the big story, front page special report covers the best part of a whole page. Why? It says almost nothing. This is essentially a feel good story about how the downtown area is just booming., a really exciting people place. It reminds me of the one that appeared just before

We won’t talk about anything in the news section. There’s nothing there that you couldn’t find on google news – or on a radio or TV newscast – yesterday. And both radio and TV do it better. There isn’t even a good example of bad reporting. So let’s talk about

It’s on page 1. The page is well chosen. This is far the biggest story in today’s newspaper. The story is that a majority of New Brunswickers have grave doubts about the development of shale in this province. In fact, that’s a huge story in a province in which the

….I iwonder if the editor who wrote that page one headline understands the whole meaning of it. “Moncton planning for climate change effects”. (Actually, it’s only planning for some effects, particularly flooding and, to a degree, storms. There seems to be nothing here for drought or food shortages….or,,,,_                      Well, let’s start

The letter below was sent to Letters to the Editor of the TandT over a week ago. But it has yet to appear. It is from doctors in Sackville experessing deep concern about the health risks of shale gas development. Professor Savoie, whose field of expertise has no connection with

In my early days of TV, I knew a producer at the station who was sent to cover a strike. When he got there, nothing was happening. The strkers were sitting around quietly, having coffee, chatting….. This was not going to make exciting television. So the producer stirred them, got

I’m starting this blog on Saturday because tonight the CBC will release the names of some thousands of people who have hidden bank accounts overseas. That gives the eagle-eyed, two-fisted journalists at the Tand T all day Sunday to check through the names. Will the TandT mention it in Monday’s

…that’s the title of today’s editorial. And going too far is exactly what the editorial writer does. The editorial is written, almost certainly deliberately written, to be inflammatory. (I don’t discount the possiblity of crashing supidity on his/her part – but I more strongly suspect deliberate provocation, with stupidity as

…..but the TandT is the one that got the big story of the day – a fish market has opened at the Moncton airport. In other news, which didn’t make the TandT, the US is stepping up its intervention in Syria. It is going to officially supply the rebels with

These three are a running theme for today’s blog. First, a public policy expert is NOT an expert on what public policy should be. He or she is an expert on how a policy should be carried out once it has been decided on by experts in economics, urban planning,environmental

It is still June 12. I have just returned from several hours of being cold and wet. I did not see a reporter from the Times and Transcript there – though I did look and ask. But it doesn’t matter since Tand T reporters are trained to see only what

The letters to day, are really the best of the TandT. They are full of the   material we should be reading on the op ed page and editorial page – we should be reading it, but with few exceptions, we don’t. Start reading today’s paper with the letters to the