It is rare, believe it or not, for news about federal politics to make the front pages of the country’s newspapers. It is also rare for newspaper editors to give prominent front-page play to stories about another city’s mayor. Not today. The Senate Scandals and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford can be found on front pages all across the country – but not necessarily coast-to-coast . Read more…
Archive for the ‘Journalism’ Category
Correcting Tabatha Southey’s record on my work
I like Tabatha Southey’s column a lot but today, she makes an error when she writes in her Globe and Mail column:
When it was announced that Osama bin Laden had been shot, Sun News did not break away from its recorded coverage of the royal wedding…
In fact, we did break away. I know because I was the on-air anchor for Sun News Network for our “breaking coverage” of the press conference in which U.S. President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed. That press conference began at about 11:30 pm ET though it originally been announced Read more…
Michael Walzer Retires from Dissent | New Republic
Recalling the NDP debate a week ago Sunday…
Social democracy or democratic socialism “those terms once had different meanings, not anymore,” Walzer said…
Globe and Mail’s top politics writer on “grassy-knoll types” in Parliamentary Press Gallery
The Ottawa Citizen‘s Glen McGregor and Postmedia’s Stephen Maher have spent a great deal of time digging away at what in Ottawa is called the “robocall” story, a story that reports on incidents of the use of automated telephone calls during the 2011 election. McGregor and Maher’s reporting has won them acclaim from their peers in the form of many awards mostly (I believe anyway) for the creativity and doggedness in which they’ve tried to sort out what is a complicated story about what will turn out to be either a marginal event in the 2011 election or an epic event in the 2011 election.
Elections Canada is investigating many of the allegations of potential skulduggery that McGregor and Maher report on and, nearly two years after the election, Elections Canada appears set to recommend the laying of some sort of charge. (We know that because McGregor and Maher reported it.)
And, today, partly as a result of their work, Elections Canada is recommending Parliament introduce some new laws that Elections Canada says will help prevent any future problems. The Harper government says it will review the recommendations but might — or might not — have its own ideas about this issue.
Now, I mentioned up top that the Robocall affair will either be marginal or epic — largely depending on what investigators come up with and can prove in court. The Council of Canadians believe this to be epic, arguing in court that there was a massive conspiracy organized by the Conservative Party of Canada to use robocalls to suppress the votes of non-Conservatives and, in doing so, win ridings it otherwise would not.
A new book says McGregor and Maher, iPolitics.ca columnist Michael Harris and others in the Parliamentary Press Gallery are “grassy-knoll types” for buying into this meme, most loudly advanced by the Council of Canadians, that runs though the Robocall reporting that somehow the majority government of Stephen Harper and the Conservatives is illegitimate. Read more…
Suffering the slings of Suzuki
“Last week, I discovered that the nature of things can be extremely unpleasant when you challenge the wisdom of the arrogant.I was attending a reception when suddenly the host of CBC TVs The Nature Of Things was in my face.”I want to talk to you!” a red-faced and agitated David Suzuki said, finger pointing at my chest.”You have no right to demonize me!” he yelled, causing people around us to back away.”
No, that’s not Suzuki yelling at a Sun News Network reporter but hollering instead at the Adrian Dix-supporting, left-leaning columnist for 24 Hours and The Tyee Bill Tieleman. (I quite like Bill’s commentary and reporting, BTW, and he’s generous enough with his time to share some of that with me often on my Sun News Network show Battleground). Some might have received the apparently incorrect impression that the experience of my colleague Jessica Hume from earlier this week was unique to her because she’s a Sun Media reporter and Sun Media employs Ezra Levant and Ezra is, to say the least, no fan of Suzuki.
But no, it’s not just us apparently. Read Bill’s account, from 2009, mind you – “How I Demonized David Suzuki” right down to the end where Suzuki swears at him.
But it’s not just us journalists who sometimes suffer Suzuki’s ire. Sometimes it’s his fans, too. Read more…
