Peggy Wente gets ready to write her next column. Globe and Mail columnists may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below, the real Ms. Wente, looking like she’s in a mug shot after being busted for plagiarism; the late Ken Adachi. There has never been a shortage of plagiarism in Canadian
Continue readingTag: Globe and Mail
Politics and its Discontents: ‘I Am Not A Crook’
In words eerily echoing Richard Nixon’s famous “I’m not a crook” declaration, Globe and Mail plagiarist Margaret Wente truculently writes the following in her still extant column: I’m far from perfect. I make mistakes. But I’m not a serial plagiarist. What I often am is a target for people who
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Journalists slow to criticize colleague
Reader contributions at mainstream media sites are occasionally unreadable, occasionally delightful. Here’s one of the latter type from the Globe & Mail after Margaret Wente defended herself on charges of plagiarism raised by an independent media critic: “Margaret, you would have done yourself and the Globe a favour had you
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – The Economist adds a noteworthy voice to the chorus calling for greater tax enforcement to ensure the corporate elite pays its fair share: Characterising this steady financing as short-term lending is “the ultimate example of form over substance” and undermines a fundamental tenet
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Globe and Mail joins the cabin boys – deceitful blind quotes come to Canada
Aspiring to be a cabin boy to the big shots, an unnamed Globe and Mail reporter scans the horizon for news. Actual Globe reporters may not be as snappily dressed as illustrated, or willing to climb as high for a story. Below: Bob Garfield. The Globe and Mail wants to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your weekend. – Will Hutton discusses how the increasing gaps in economic equality are leading to radical differences in opportunity – with the U.S./U.K. push toward private schooling serving as a particular source of exclusion: (T)he middle class of whatever ethnic background is spending more on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Janet Bagnall neatly dissects the Cons’ plan for dismantling public services: The Harper government is nothing if not predictable in how it goes about dismantling a program or service. It starts by denigrating the program and the program’s beneficiaries, and telling Canadians that
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Ethical Transgression Be Damned
One of the few journalists today holding the Harper regime to public account, Lawrence Martin, has a very interesting assessment of yesterday’s minimalist cabinet shuffle, and offers a rather damning indictment of the Conservatives’ ethical myopia at ipolitics.ca. The piece also offers the reader a sharp contrast to the Harper
Continue readingImpolitical: Tone at the top
The Globe editorializes on Bev Oda’s resignation: “Bev Oda’s departure: an overdue nod to accountability.” The departure of Bev Oda from the federal cabinet should have happened months ago. Nevertheless, her resignation – effective July 31, apparently prompted by the knowledge or belief that she would be shuffled out later
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Jason Kenney’s Tell-Tale Conservative Apology
Apparently, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has apologized for labeling Thomas Lukaszuk, the deputy premier of Alberta, “a complete and utter a-hole.” And Lukaszuk’s boss, premier Alison Redford wants us to believe that Kenney’s insult amounts to: “there are people who have personalities that do and don’t get along.” And that “there
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: This is nothing we progressives haven’t said before
Many of us have been snorting at the “Canada’s back” on the international world stage claim that Harper and the Conservatives have been going on about for several years now – as if we had disappeared from the world stage to begin with. Many of us have pointed out that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Among the other possible tests in an impending Etobicoke Centre by-election, here’s one I’ll be curious to watch: will attention to the Robocon scandal turn the Cons’ usual misleading robocall blast strategy into a liability rather than a low-cost means of injecting messages
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your day. – Kayle Hatt’s blog looks to be a must-read from here on in. And his post on what to draw from the latest polls is particularly worth a read: Every poll that has been released since Thomas Mulcair was elected leader of the NDP
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: The other shoe: Why the Globe’s ‘temporary leaves’ are likely to become permanent for some
One of the Globe and Mail’s senior copy editors writes a headline while a Pagemasters NA trainee looks on. Globe editors may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Globe Publisher Phillip Crawley. In the 21st Century, corporate bosses aren’t opposed to journalists making a fortune – as long as they
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: A leaky paywall won’t keep the Globe and Mail afloat
Newspaper readers like these guys just don’t exist any more. Below: Globe and Mail Publisher Phillip Crawley, a typical Globe reader, who may not be exactly as illustrated. According to the publisher of Canada’s National Toronto Newspaper, the Globe and Mail will now try to make its readers to pay
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Friday flipping
-Young Liberal Zach Paiken asserts that Canada is becoming more conservative – therefore, Liberals must follow that trend to get re-elected one day. I don’t see any polls or statistics in that story backing that claim up. Zach, if you’re not aware, has a bit of a reputation amongst some
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Oh Noes! The Grope & Fail To Become A Pay Site
Over the past few years the news reporting and columns in the G&M have really gone down hill, IMHO. I used to read a lot of the G&M as part of my daily news reads. But lately, I read maybe a few articles per month now. So, for me, no
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Reading Recommendation
If you’re like me, you harbour a certain fascination with Stephen Harper. Never before has there been a Prime Minister who so publicly displayed an anal retentiveness that has become emblazoned across the land, a man who, while frequently described as a policy wonk and a winner-take-all politician, appears to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The Cons’ attacks on the environment and its defenders are starting to attract plenty of unwanted attention, with the Globe and Mail editorial board weighing in as the NDP, the other opposition parties and the environmental movement join forces to reject the utter
Continue readingFar and Wide: Snake Oil Salesmen
Do you remember the photo ops, Conservatives standing in front of military hardware, on site at aerospace companies, trumpeting the “12 billion” in benefits the F-35 would bring to Canada? Here’s a beauty release put out by the PMO in 2011, wherein the Prime Minister mentions the 12 billion in
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