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Industry veteran and long-time journalism professor Joe Banks has launched a new column on the journalism industry and education called Media Musings.

Globe and Mail readers are a smart bunch. They are well-educated, well-read and they spot errors that others don’t.

If there is controversy, then it is a valid journalistic pursuit and in the public interest to explore ideas about it, writes Esther Enkin. 

Credibility studies tell us readers hate unnamed sources. So why does the Star ever use confidential sources?

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. 

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.

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.

A complainant was dissatisifed with the amount of reporting on a fundraising effort. 

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. 

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.