J-Topics
Last week's stories about a man who appears to be Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking what might be crack, raises just about every journalistic issue around responsible reporting and libel that there is. Western journalism professor Paul Benedetti says the incident provides a perfect teaching example about what journalists can and cannot say to avoid a libel court case.
John Gordon Miller writes the Star skirted around the edges of these editorial principles by rushing into print, without anything but a last-minute attempt to get Ford and his people to tell their side of the story.
Shocking news is hard to believe. Last night, there was lots of news, plenty of it shocking. The sun was setting on another day, literally, when newsrooms tore up their front pages and started from scratch, writes Nick Taylor-Vaisey.
Last night, Gawker posted a video for sale allegedly starring Toronto mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. The video became the subject of a frenzied discussion on Twitter, with many cautioning about libel laws. And then started the hilarious cat fight on Twitter about who got the "exclusive." Gawker appears to have forced the Toronto Star into publishing the story on the video that they had been sitting on for almost two weeks. Reporters Kevin Donovan and Robyn Doolittle apparently saw the alleged video on May 3, but were doing due diligence, one can suppose.
Far too often, news organizations focus on the horse race between the parties or the leaders. The endless barrage of who is ahead or behind drowns out a lot of other coverage. Innovation editor Rob Washburn writes that these polling gaffes are an excellent reminder to focus on issues and analysis when it comes to election coverage instead of using the crutch of polls endlessly.
With several mistaken facts in The Globe and Mail editorial endorsing Christy Clark for premier, David Beers writes the editorial will do little to change the views of any British Columbians who resent that so much of the province's major media is owned and run outside the province.
Former Tory Labrador MP Peter Penashue says a CBC reporter treated him unfairly and accused the CBC of being like “family” with the Liberals. CBC reporter Peter Cowan has been nominated as a CAJ awards finalist for his investigation into Penashue’s election campaign spending.
Politics
A section devoted to political reporting, including recent posts from the J-Source team's look at coverage of this year's federal election.
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Opinion: Media's latest stories on Toronto's Mayor Ford a challenge for a court fight
This is very interesting. But perhaps you've overstated the case. Truth is indeed a defense...
Peter Worthington: 10 facts about the journalist who wrote his own obituary
Peter Worthington would have known that there is a venerable tradition of journalists writing...
Opinion: Why all journalists should study public relations
I like this. It's very important to see the closeness of public relations and journalism....