Town Hall

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. 

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. 

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.