Two days ago, retired journalist and TV newsman Harvey Oberfeld headlined, “Bell Media President Brings Shame to CTV.” Today, the company reacted to disclosures Bell Media President Kevin Crull interfered with news coverage that affected Bell’s business interests. BCE announces departure of Kevin Crull from Bell Media BCE Inc. today
Continue readingTag: Journalism
Northern Insight / Perceptivity: Shining a light
Glenn Greenwald, “A key purpose of journalism is to provide an adversarial check on those who wield the greatest power by shining a light on what they do in the dark, and informing the public about those acts.” A BC political journalist, “For sums paid to my agents at the
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Chomsky on media
What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream, Noam Chomsky, Z Magazine, October, 1997 Part of the reason why I write about the media is because I am interested in the whole intellectual culture, and the part of it that is easiest to study is the media. It comes out every day. You
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: The moderating effect of moderation
RossK writes about the Pro-Media Club and its implicit rulebook, which includes a requirement that no one reprove a colleague, even if overstatements and misrepresentations morph into purposeful lies. The blog world doesn’t follow those guidelines so we can point at any load of old codswallop encountered. In coverage of
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Setting priorities
I’ve written about politics influenced by a captured and compliant press. This is from a helpful Canadian Press article published by Macleans Magazine weeks before the last BC election: …A Liberal government would dedicate all revenues from liquefied natural gas and a proposed oil refinery in Kitimat to debt reduction
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Agenda journalism
Black Press political reporter Tom Fletcher, whose wife is a Public Affairs Officer for the BC Liberal Government, occasionally recalls the nineties: The dark decade, the dismal decade, the decade of destruction …when investment, jobs and people packed up and headed for the B.C. border in response to the NDP
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Oh, what a tangled web we weave…
I will comment about BC Budget 2014 after more study but I’ve read a few reports from media stenographers. Studying detail takes more time than rewording notes issued by the gaggle of Liberal flacks paid for by munificent taxpayers. One Globe & Mail report, written by the father of an
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: MORE Sexism Against Female Canadian Athletes!
THIS picture respects the dignity of a tennis player. Not, “give us a twirl” demeaning, sexist abuse. Today is a terrible day for gender equity in sports. What it looks like is either continued sexism, or increased anti-feminist backlash against women who have been asserting their human rights to safety
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Nobody’s servant…
North Van’s Grumps is the proprietor of Blog Borg Collective. While I search for material in the main aisles of information warehouses, NVG prowls the dark recesses. Happily, he shares many discovered gems and I appreciate him as a source of valuable leads. In comments on the last article here,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Real Journalism: Holding Harper To Account
Unlike the kind of faux journalism that the CBC’s most reverent chief correspondent, Peter Mansbridge, has perfected, real journalism requires critical thinking and hard-hitting questions. In that, The Toronto Star holds to consistently high standards. To appreciate this fact, consider first the following exchange during the year-end interview the Prime
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: In the Time of the "Official Truth" There’s No Room for Journalism
John Pilger looks at what the Western media offer up as journalism and sees instead propaganda. He sees the essence of the mainstream media as not information but power. The world is facing the prospect of major war, perhaps nuclear war – with the United States clearly determined to isolate
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: From Andrew Mitrovica
[View the story “Media accountability, or lack thereof” on Storify]
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Whistleblower Udu Ulfkotte exposes CIA hand in German media: ‘German politicians are US puppets’
“We’re talking about puppets on a string, journalists who write or say whatever their masters tell them to say or write. If you see how the mainstream media is reporting about the Ukraine conflict and if you know what’s really going on, you get the picture. The masters in the
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: All the spin that’s fit to print
This week, British Columbia saw evidence that corporate media does not report adverse details about public finance unless the material is dropped on desks in digested form, complete with defensive spin from government or industry. The issue of BC taxpayer subsidies to the oil and gas industry is not new.
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Hedonists of power
Chris Hedges wrote many words for the New York Times; some of them wrong. He participated in false reporting that helped orchestrate invasion of Iraq by the coalition of the dragged kicking and screaming. He recognized error though and became an articulate critic of his nation’s aggression. The NYT, which
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Election-Eve Racist, Sexist Attack on Olivia Chow
If this cartoon were published, say, 2 weeks before the election, it would have been debated as a tool of racist, sexist propaganda and yet another blemish on corporate media. Her support would likely have grown after such a brutally immature attack. But because politics is a dirty, disgusting, sociopathic
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Zombie Journalists
If you’re wondering what’s contributing to less accountability and more soft fascist, totalitarian government behaviour… Leaked memo confirms that Globe and Mail wants journalists to write advertorials http://canadalandshow.com/article/leaked-memo-confirms-globe-and-mail-wants-journalists-write-advertorials August 28, 2011 Agreeing with Ezra Levant? (6) June 26, 2010 More Despinning the Spin and Chill Around Israel (0) May 7,
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The CBC Respects Dignity Better than Corporate Media
Corporate media, being owned by corporations, needs to maximize shareholder wealth. That means news is a loss leader. News is about generating sensationalism, excitement or hysteria. News is about generating ratings to charge more for advertising to maximize shareholder wealth. Thus, when the CBC characteristically doesn’t sensationalize something, it’s noted
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Climate Change Science Deniers, Ignorance and Media’s False Balance
Climate change deniers are science deniers. That makes them either stupid, or so incredibly biased/conflicted that they are willing to ignore science and dodge accusations of their own stupidity to accomplish some other goal. In BC we are producing oil, gas and coal and stunningly stupid rates, only to go
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Join Ricochet: A new take on independent media.
Have you joined yet? No? So, you’re good with corporate media spinning things for you, against your personal, community, national and ecological interests? Oh. Ok. 🙂 Ricochet is an audacious response to a difficult context. Independent and in the public interest, Ricochet will provide a space dedicated to investigative journalism
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