After brazening her way through a plagiarism scandal, Globe & Mail columnist Margaret Wente appears to be back on her exceptionally busy three-times-a-week pace, even though this hectic workstyle was what some fellow journalists blamed for her ethical lapses. I’m sure she wants to put it all behind her. But
Continue readingTag: media
Alberta Diary: The XL Foods E. coli Crisis: Is the media asking the right questions?
The Edmonton Journal’s front page on Friday. Below: Brian Nilsson apologizing, Lee Nilsson, the Mannix brothers, Fred and Ron. All photos grabbed from the Internet. Postmedia News, owner of Alberta’s two largest newspapers, was so relieved when one of the brothers who own troubled XL Foods Ltd. in this province’s
Continue readingCanadian ProgressiveCanadian Progressive: The Best Reporting on Facebook and Your Privacy
by Theodoric Meyer | ProPublica Facebook hit the one-billion user mark last week, a little more than two years after it reached 500 million users. To mark the occasion, we’ve rounded up some of the best reads on Facebook and privacy. Facebook Raises Fears With Ad Tracking, The Financial Times, September 2012 Facebook has
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: National Post: Wente Plagiarism Affair “Creepy and Soviet” — Plus, More Quote-Lifting by Wente
After Globe & Mail resident plagiarist Margaret Wente returned to work this week following a brief hiatus to lick her wounds after plagiarism allegations from blogger Media Culpa went viral, the National Post waded into the fray yet again, this time via Jonathan Kay. Kay provides a superb and scathing
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Margaret Wente Returns, Issues Yet Another Apology for… “Careless Mistakes”
The Globe & Mail’s resident plagiarist and cheap-shot artist Margaret Wente has finally resurfaced after a mysterious two-week disappearance, with a typically vapid column on the U.S. election. Strangely, the Globe & Mail seems to be introducing an extra-special moderated comment format just for Wente. They also had her print
Continue readingFive of Five: Alberta Business Leaders Prefer Romney
Alberta Business leaders have expressed a preference for Mitt Romney in the upcoming Presidential election: The online survey of 241 business leaders favoured Romney, with 42 per cent of support, over Obama, with 34 per cent. The support for Romney was higher in Calgary (45 per cent) than in Edmonton
Continue readingFive of Five: Alberta Business Leaders Prefer Romney
Alberta Business leaders have expressed a preference for Mitt Romney in the upcoming Presidential election:
The online survey of 241 business leaders favoured Romney, with 42 per cent of support, over Obama, with 34 per cent. The support for Romney w…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Globe and Mail on higher education in Canada
The Globe and Mail has just launched an in-depth feature on higher education in Canada, an installment of their Our Time to Lead series. For a couple of weeks, you can expect to see increased coverage of the issues facing our post-secondary education system in print but especially online. The
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Microsoft’s vacuous new news portal
Microsoft is undoubtedly hoping that its new news portal, to launch concurrently with Windows 8 and be heavily Metro UI based, will revolutionize our consumption of news. Or at least, that it will manage to carve out a nice chunk of the Internet news market for itself, especially given the break up
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Course is Stayed – Win an Election, lose the Planet.
Political theatre harms us all. Issues that are important to public are marginalized while supposedly “important” issues take the spotlight. (Yes, you women, under the bus with you stat!) Noam Chomsky summarizes what elections have become in the US – “Elections are run by the public relations industry. Its primary
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Plagiarism Bad. Wenteism Okay. Plus, Yet More Fake-Feminist Silliness from Margaret Wente
It’s a day that ends with a Y and we still haven’t received a genuine and contrite apology, sans political cheap shots, from the Globe & Mail’s chief plagiarist Margaret Wente. (That’s not to be confused with the Globe’s chief cover-up artist, and chief self-promoter.) So it’s time to up the ante
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Files from the You-Heard-It-Here Department
Jeffrey Simpson of the Globe and Mail tries to remember when he first thought that thought. High-profile national prognosticators may not appear exactly as illustrated. “It’s semi-official: The Enbridge Northern Gateway project is kaput!” – David J. Climenhaga, Alberta Diary, July 19, 2012 “You heard it here: Northern Gateway’s dead”
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: More Sloppy Quoting Work from Margaret Wente — Plus, Bonus Fake-Feminist Rubbish
Recently a famous ethicist named Margaret Somerville, whom I will not link to because of the ongoing plagiarism link boycott, said that criticizing Wente’s plagiarism because we don’t like her politics is inappropriate. That, said the ethicist, would be “using ethics unethically.” We certainly wouldn’t want to do that, would
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Sun News Network apologizes … sort of … while the CRTC runs and the CBSC surrenders
Intrepid CRTC investigator looks into Sun News Network’s on-air obscenities. Agents of the Canadian broadcast regulator may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Sun News commentator Ezra Levant; Bernie M. Farber. Canada’s broadcast regulator has dropped its investigation of foul-mouthed commentator Ezra Levant’s obscene on-air language last June after Sun
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: McGill Ethicist Margaret Somerville Sides With Margaret Wente in Plagiarism Scandal
The controversial McGill ethicist, well known for her stances on gay marriage and abortion, has come out in defence of Margaret Wente. You know, it was bad enough when experienced journalists like Terence Corcoran were defending plagiarism as freedom of the press. But she may be the first tenured academic
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Yes, Professional Columnists Can Get Away With Plagiarism
That should sound like a very straightforward and pedestrian proposition, given all I’ve had to say on the subject of Globe & Mail scribbler Margaret Wente’s plagiarizing ways over the last week or so. But apparently not so much. I know many readers are getting rather bored with my tedious
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Time to call out the media for uncritically reprinting ‘Fraser Facts’
Sun News Network columnist Lorne Gunter, bottom centre, listens as a Fraser Institute “senior fellow” tells a wonderful story about the benefits of private health insurance. Right wing bloviators may not be exactly as … oh, never mind! Below: The real Mr. Gunter. Claims by the market-fundamentalist Fraser Institute widely
Continue readingFive of Five: "France Bans Public Protests Over Cartoons"
Jason Ditz: “There will be strictly no exceptions,” cautioned Interior Minister Manuel Valls, saying that any demonstrations will be broken up by security forces. France had previously closed a number of embassies across the Muslim World fearing protests. The position of the government is odd, however, as they had publicly
Continue readingFive of Five: "France Bans Public Protests Over Cartoons"
Jason Ditz:
“There will be strictly no exceptions,” cautioned Interior Minister Manuel Valls, saying that any demonstrations will be broken up by security forces. France had previously closed a number of embassies across the Muslim World fearing …
Continue reading