Star public editor: Why journalists need confidential sources
Credibility studies tell us readers hate unnamed sources. So why does the Star ever use confidential sources?
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CBC ombudsman: Getting both sides of the story
You have to strike a balance between adequate information and perspectives to provide well-rounded coverage against the complainant’s desire to have very detailed accounts, and often a partisan spin, on quite narrowly focused news stories, writes the CBC ombudsman Esther Enkin.
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Globe public editor: Wording about adoptive children was insensitive
An article about the Houston-area shooting that left two adults and four children dead this week prompted a reader to wonder why the story drew a distinction between biological and adopted children.
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Globe public editor: No excuse for the wrong illustration
As with many errors, especially with all-too-frequent mistakes with names, it comes down to a failure to verify and to double-check. Every name, photograph and illustration should be checked, writes The Globe and Mail's public editor Sylvia Stead.
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CBC ombudsman: How deep do you go?
A complainant was dissatisifed with the amount of reporting on a fundraising effort.
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CBC ombudsman: Maintaining the record vs the right to be forgotten
Like most media organizations, CBC News has a policy that it is only in exceptional circumstances that a story is removed from the web site. The rationale is that it can distort the public record when material is selectively deleted, writes CBC ombudsman Esther Enkin.
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Globe public editor: One convicted journalist is guilty, others are not
Two recent high-profile court cases involving journalists are likely to evoke quite different responses from you as a reader, writes The Globe and Mail's public editor Sylvia Stead.
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Globe public editor: Headlines are hard to write, but they must be precise
The Middle East is a complex, complicated and very sensitive part of the world for news coverage. So news media must be careful to get the facts right and be cognizant of balance at all times, writes the Globe and Mail's public editor Sylvia Stead.
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CBC ombudsman: Asperger’s Syndrome doesn’t cause killing
The complainant, Marke Kilkie, felt that a news story about mass killer Elliot Rodger made it sound that the fact he had Asperger’s Syndrome was partly a cause for his murder spree. In the wake of these horrible events, the reporting should be much more careful about the use of these details about mental and…
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How to keep community journalism strong
If local media are such an integral part of small and rural communities, why aren't communities supporting them? Mike Davies talks to western Canadian news leaders about community journalism.