As turmoil deepens in Egypt, media critics accuse U.S. broadcasters of serving up “blather and confusion” from the mouths of “unqualified panellists.” Most columnists agree that Al Jazeera continues to lead on-the-ground coverage, despite being expelled. “The day belongs to Al Jazeera,” declared the New York Times. The BBC also stands out from the pack…
Here’s a fascinating story about how a friend of the accused Tucson shooter was treated by the media. She’s just a high-school student who, it seems, became a commodity for the news media in the U.S. after the shooting. It’s great reading. Thanks, Tom Hawthorn, for sending the link.
Mike Elk was fired as a labor blogger for the Huffington Post because he took part in a labor disruption. The guy who fired him was earning a reported $300,000 a year. Elk was earning . . . nothing. In this posting, Elk cries foul. He says he’s providing a public service. Should a pro-bono…
Twenty-six months ago, Beverley Giesbrecht was kidnapped by the Taliban in the tribal regions of Pakistan, not far from the Afghanistan border. She was a self-styled journalist from British Columbia, on a mission to meet Islamic insurgents and have them tell their side of the “war on terror.” She’s almost certainly dead and, as Claude…
An article in the Montreal Gazette condemns journalism for failing to show assertions by a British doctor that vaccinations could cause autism. Freelancer Neil Cameron notes: “The widespread fears about vaccination were created not only by Wakefield, by the grapevine fears of anxious parents, and by additional confused leadership by some celebrity nincompoops, but by…
Here’s another good article that perhaps we should all print and keep handy for the next time we find ourselves covering unspeakable tragedy. With thanks to Jane Hawkes of the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma for pointing me to it.
Interesting piece in the New York Times about how the media was quick to blame the shootings in Arizona on politics, the Tea Party, Sarah Palin and ramped-up rhetoric. I’m not sure I agree; it’s all too easy to just blame unexplainable situations on mental illnesses, but the point is one we should be considering.
Vancouver Province reporter Elaine O’Connor has been ordered by the B.C. Supreme Court to reveal her source on a story about a former Liberal MP. Province editor-in-chief Wayne Moriarty said they’ll appeal.
If you watch the news, you’ve probably seen a “look live”. That news-speak term means a reporter who appears to be live in the field, but was taped doing the introduction to their story, or sometimes their throw back to the newsroom or a different type of seemingly live hit, well before the show is…
Tom Gaglardi, owner of the Kamloops Blazers hockey team here in my hometown, has decided the sports editor of the Kamloops Daily News doesn’t get access to anyone on his team until he starts to write more favourably about them. The Daily has responded in print today. And here’s the most recent column by Gregg…