The complainant, April Fahr, is the Director of Education and Advocacy for the HugABull Advocacy & Rescue Society. She was concerned that a Fifth Estate episode on whether pit bulls should be banned was biased and cherry-picked data and information. The documentary featured the highly polarized views of both the dog and the evidence about…
A reader in London, Ont., wrote to me to say there really shouldn’t be corrections – because all information should be checked before publication. “Doesn’t anybody proofread stories any more before a paper is printed? … To misspell a person’s name (Smyth instead of Smith, or other examples) I can see, BUT to use the…
As the Star reported this week, the Toronto District School Board says it never discussed the implications of allowing an 11-year-old girl to speak to a barrage of reporters after she had made false allegations that her hijab had been cut. It was “not part of the conversation,” TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird told the Star…
History’s habit of repeating itself has once again hamstrung Canadian antitrust law when it comes to preventing media monopolies. This time, however, the Supreme Court of Canada has left the door wide open to further increases in our already world-leading level of media ownership concentration. The court’s decision three years ago to allow Tervita Corp., an environmental waste…
The complainant, Jenni Byrne of Bayfield Strategy, Inc., wrote on behalf of her client, Fortress Developments. She stated that one of the reporters involved in ongoing coverage of Fortress was biased and sensationalistic in her reporting. She complained that there was no follow-up on a story regarding class-action suits against Fortress. The complaint against the…
With a significant portion of the audience arriving at news sites via social media and search, the imminent death of the homepage is a common refrain. One senior digital manager told me he was expecting the “death of the homepage revolution” to hit his market at some point, but it hadn’t yet. He might be…
A foundation for resiliency needs to be built up before journalists are in the field. Continue Reading Why trauma and mental health must be discussed in journalism schools
The complainant, Jackie Thipthorpe, objected to a story about visitors at a veterinary school open house. The research project featured involved a cow with a fistula which enabled participants to reach into its stomach. She questioned the judgment of reporting the story in the first place, and its lack of criticism of the treatment of…
Earlier this week, I received a complaint about a Globe investigation into a fake news site. The writer, who is a Canadian professor, called the article “fake news.” The Globe story labelled “Media and ‘Fake News’” had the headline “NATO research centre sets sights on Canadian website over pro-Russia disinformation”. The article, by chief political…
As 2018 dawns, it’s clear that Canada’s news media are in danger of lurching into the abyss unless Ottawa takes action soon. Enforcing our country’s anti-trust laws to stop the corporate consolidation and cutbacks in local news coverage would help to stanch the bleeding in the short term, but Canada’s Competition Bureau has recently shown little…