I’ve always respected Susan Delacourt. But tonight she tweeted something I found offensive. Not just to me but to all of us who read paid journalists. She promoted a circling the wagons defence of Christie Blatchford, referencing George Orwell in her favour, in the form of an ugly column written seemingly by a journalism insider, Bert Archer. The column covers territory not much different than the bilge frothing from the Post and Sun medias in the wake of Jack Layton’s passing. It’s worse.
I will commend Susan for immediately responding in private to my reply to her initial tweet. But she’s wrong in promoting this canned drivel from insiders. Journalists should respect us the readers not just themselves. Writing between the lines on the day of the death of someone to promote your agenda is wrong. That is what Christie Blatchford did. She is no George Orwell. He was prescient; she is just a cog in a machine promoting an agenda. The Kays followed up and the Levants piled on. That is not journalism. It is bloodsport and entertainment. And Archer’s follow up and Delacourt’s promotion of it is just the last gasps of dying industry coming up for air.
