Shaping the news
The reality is that media filters reality instead of reflecting it. In authoritarian regimes, control of communication has always been a primary consideration and news is shaped to further the…
Journalism
Triangulate your information
Ali Velshi is a journalist often seen on MSNBC. Promoting a new book, he appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air. The program covers much ground and is worth our attention. The…
A timely message to our many anti-woke friends and acquaintances: Sorry about yer Rex Murphy!
Back in the day when the Calgary Herald was still a real newspaper with a newsroom, dozens of reporters, and a capital T in the first word of its title,…
Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Joe Vipond and Steve Bentley write about the need to treat the climate breakdown in progress as a serious problem requiring immediate…
News unfit to print (or broadcast)
Many citizens shape their opinions by paying attention to corporate media. What if those news providers are unreliable?
Rip ‘n’ Read, 2024 style
There are many good journalists working in corporate media today. But, lack of resources stifles their work. At times, news people simply accept press releases as accurate and report the…
Editorial cartoons
Starting as a young adult, I paid regular attention to the brilliant Len Norris and other cartoonists featured in newspapers and magazines. Ten years ago, Ian Holliday wrote an article…
An error by Global TV News or part of a pattern? (2010 article repeated in 2024)
I spend much time on the internet reading reliable sources. (Well, mostly reliable.) My subscription list for mainstream media is lengthy, although I consciously avoid Postmedia. While the company employs…
Intellectual Self-Defence: Time For A Reading Sabbatical
To be brief: The obsession with quantity and volume has to end. More is not always better. Quality matters most. But people in the 21st century are addicted to endless…
Why Local Media Has Failed Us
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2024, released this week, identifies the biggest short-term risk to the planet is from misinformation and disinformation, even above extreme weather events. The…
Use and misuse of words by journalists and editors
Dan Froomkin — one of my favourite American commentators — offers several suggestions for the New York Times style guide. Here are a few published at presswatchers.org:
Unhealthy changes in the newspaper world
We learned this week that Black Press Ltd. and associated companies applied for protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. The BC based company’s main business is print and digital…
Not all sides are equal
Writing in The Economist, former New York Times editor James Bennet commented about the state of his profession. He thinks today’s mainstream media too often fails to provide open and…
Corporate timidity threatens journalism
With disputes and condemnations over coverage of the mayhem in Gaza, it is worth considering the ethics of journalism. Whether or not generally accepted rules are followed by media is…
Newspapers more about wielding influence than earning profits
People outside the United Kingdom should pay attention to opinion pieces by The Guardian’s Jane Martinson. The article that caught my attention today was ‘Why own a newspaper in 2023?…
Media should serve the governed, not the governors
I began following the Washington Post decades ago, when journalists often held the feet of politicians to the fire. Today, that is less likely since many media owners today rank…
A journalist who understands journalism
After 28 years as a key contributor at the Georgia Straight, Charlie Smith moved to Pancouver, a new arts and culture media outlet that aims to “shed light on how…
Truth matters
Fiction and invention are handy tools for politicians. Legacy media often repeats lies with minimal or no fact checking, although perhaps with opposing comments added to suggest balance. That process…
Guaranteed chaos okay with fact-free ideologues
Canada’s largest newspaper chain promotes climate change denial and works to elect right-wing politicians, even Danielle Smith who a Postmedia columnist said was surrounded by “guaranteed chaos.”
Murdoch/Fox called to account
Rupert Murdoch is a man whose lack of ethics should preclude him from being within shouting distance of journalism. Yet he is the world’s most powerful media mogul. He owns…