For the last two springs, I’ve run a Media Bias study which consists of counting up the op-ed contributors to the major newspapers and identifying their links to progressive, conservative, and business groups, as well as to political parties. The results, both in May 2011 and in April-May 2012, were
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Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Plenty of commentators are using the Labour Day weekend to discuss the place of workers in Canadian society. Sid Ryan notes that depressed wages are bad news for Canada’s economy generally. And Morna Ballantyne and Steven Staples point out the need for unions
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: CBC Promotes Myth of the Liberal Media
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind seeing a Conservative politician writing a column for CBC. Even if he is a creationist. But I’m dismayed to see, once again, a spirited defence of the “left-wing media” myth being promulgated here in Canada, especially by the state broadcaster. As befits a
Continue readingCanadian Progressive: Faking Syrian War Images To Manipulate The Western Public
The demonization of genocidal dictators like Syrian President Bashar Hafez al-Assad is standard practice in the western media’s coverage of developing-world crises. In the photo-shopped imaged below, The Krone (Die Kronen Zeitung), Austria’s biggest newspaper, shows how to manipulate the Syrian uprising for a gullible western public. In its July 28
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Fiscal shocker! Redford Tories promise transparency but deliver opacity!
Secretive Redford Tory, left, moves to the right, while Wildrose transparency advocate, right, opts for a totally different course. Below: Doug Horner and Alison Redford, both smirking. This just in! Alberta’s Progressive Conservative government is secretive! Well… yeah! What’s astonishing is that the Alberta news media appears to be astonished
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Globe & Mail Endorses Mitt Romney for President… Why?
After recently promising that Sixth Estate was back, I disappeared for a few days after all, which was terribly rude of me, I know. My feeble excuse is that getting back into the saddle, so to speak, hasn’t been as easy as I expected it to be, plus, I’m working
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Raising Saskatchewan’s Minimum Wage
Saskatchewan Federation of Labour president Larry Hubich and I have the following joint op-ed in today’s Regina Leader-Post (page A10). It’s been fourteen years since I first wrote into The Leader-Post advocating a minimum-wage increase. Why higher wages make economic sense Recent Saskatchewan government news releases trumpet record numbers for
Continue readingTrashy's World: From the Twitterverse…
Best Tweet of the day: joebyer 6:13pm via Flipboard Expecting Fox to report on the death of “cyclist Neil Armstrong” any minute now. Retweeted by LadySnarksalot (9) Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: For a young peoples’ video look at the history of the Tay Canal please click the link below, by which I mean…
…this one! I am so proud! Not that I had anything to do with this (and I didn’t) but because the video shows how the appreciation of Perth (Lanark County, Ontario, Canada) history is, and will continue to be, alive and well! Congratulations to everyone, particularly the young people and
Continue readingCanadian Progressive: Canada Politics News Roundup For Friday, August 24, 2012
The revelation that the Harper Government has authorized the use of information gleaned through torture is the highlight of our summary today.
Continue readingImpolitical: Opinionitis
Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic yesterday, citing his Sunday New York Times op-ed and the debate it generated, threw in this bit at the end of the blog item: As a small aside, I will say that people who write columns for the Times catch a lot from people like
Continue readingknitnut.net: Ottawa Citizen outs mentally ill man
On Saturday the Ottawa Citizen ran a story called Pleas to help mentally ill son ignored, mother says. It was in Hugh Adami’s column, The Public Citizen. Complete with names and a photograph, this article provides detailed personal information about a 22-year-old man who lives in Ottawa’s shelter system. The
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: No Vale on the Plains?
I had the following comments in yesterday’s front-page story on Vale’s decision to postpone its proposed $3-billion potash mine at Kronau, Saskatchewan: Regina economist Erin Weir, who is widely expected to run for the leadership of the provincial NDP, said in a statement Friday that the Vale announcement “represents a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: A convenient reminder
No, we shouldn’t be surprised that Vic Toews is pioneering exactly the type of reality check that’s most needed when reporting on the Cons’ own PR efforts. But since Toews has helpfully supplied the idea and the template, here’s a handy checklist for any churnalist otherwise tempted to merely take
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: England Threatens to Risk War With Latin America to Please United States!
I wish my title was embellished, but it’s been a crazy 24 hours. The background to this story is that Wikileaks‘ editor Julian Assange is holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London, waiting for the Ecuadorian President Correa to rule on his asylum bid. It’s expected that asylum will be
Continue readingAlberta Diary: All hands to Damage Control! Edmonton Journal tips east-end printing press over the side
Some of the Edmonton Journal’s printers at work in the newspaper’s Eastgate printing plant, which will be shuttered next year, as described by Journal Publisher John Connelly, who is pictured below. So much for the power of the press. As first reported in this space on Oct. 10, 2010, the
Continue readingTerahertz: Radio Freethinker on Tuesday
Just a quick post tonight. On Tuesday afternoon, I’ll be on CITR’s Radio Freethinker show talking about all the latest news from the BC Humanists. The show runs for a full hour, so if you have ideas for what I should talk about, drop them below (obviously soon so that
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Defending Election Fraud is the Right Thing to Do #RoboCon
I’m giving you the following because you too deserve to be irritated by “The Incurious”. Among them is a supposed journalist who should know it’s not very Canadian to call people speaking out against election fraud schemes “liars”. (http://www.danieldickin.ca/2012/08/crucial-robocall-claimant-revealed-to.html) Saskboy said… Considering the evidence made public thus far, you’ve identified
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher keep up their reporting on Robocon by noting that Elections Canada’s trail seems to have gone cold with the use of an unsecured wifi connection to hide the identity of Pierre Poutine. But as Susan Delacourt points out,
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: AccolAIDS much appreciated!
Healthline editors recently published the final list of their favorite HIV & STD blogs and I’m pleased to let you know that this blog made the list, which can be found here (in no particular order). I am very appreciative of this vote of confidence! Kenn Chaplin is no defeatist;
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