Guess which Toronto newspaper….
Not-a-lot-of-skill-testing question: which “local newspaper” does the Toronto Star mean when it reports:
“Two and a half hours earlier, Ford was hosting a news conference to
explain why it appeared he had not told the truth to a local newspaper
about being charged with drug possession.”
Very Big Clue: why, it’s the same unnameable organ that the Globe and Mail refers to when it reports:
“Mr. Ford’s bad Thursday began when he called a 9 a.m. news conference to
explain a story in a local newspaper that said the candidate had
forgotten until reminded of it that he beat a charge of possessing a
marijuana cigarette.”
The answer, for those who don’t want to read every newpaper every day, comes from the National Post, which gives credit where credit’s due, and steers true to the mission of plain old-fashioned clarity about plain facts:
“At a hastily called news conference, Mr. Ford addressed his past after
the Toronto Sun confronted him
with evidence he was charged with marijuana possession in Florida in
1999; that charge was later dropped.” (Complete with the hyperlink, mind.)
Now the real question: what justifies the traditional coyness that news organizations so often have with naming other news organizations? To the ordinary reader, especially in the Age of Google, it surely looks rather infantile.
Not-a-lot-of-skill-testing question: which “local newspaper” does the Toronto Star mean when it reports:
“Two and a half hours earlier, Ford was hosting a news conference to
explain why it appeared he had not told the truth to a local newspaper
about being charged with drug possession.”
Very Big Clue: why, it’s the same unnameable organ that the Globe and Mail refers to when it reports:
“Mr. Ford’s bad Thursday began when he called a 9 a.m. news conference to
explain a story in a local newspaper that said the candidate had
forgotten until reminded of it that he beat a charge of possessing a
marijuana cigarette.”
The answer, for those who don’t want to read every newpaper every day, comes from the National Post, which gives credit where credit’s due, and steers true to the mission of plain old-fashioned clarity about plain facts:
“At a hastily called news conference, Mr. Ford addressed his past after
the Toronto Sun confronted him
with evidence he was charged with marijuana possession in Florida in
1999; that charge was later dropped.” (Complete with the hyperlink, mind.)
Now the real question: what justifies the traditional coyness that news organizations so often have with naming other news organizations? To the ordinary reader, especially in the Age of Google, it surely looks rather infantile.
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Professor, School of Journalism; Senior Fellow, Centre for Free Expression, Ryerson University
August 20, 2010
Infantile is a good
Infantile is a good adjective, Ivor. It’s the same outmoded if-we-don’t-report-it-nobody-will-be-the-wiser tradition that prompts many newspapers to report so unhelpfully on industry awards. Each newspaper’s breathless lead is about the award(s) that particular paper has won, rather than using standard news judgment to come up with a lead about, for example, the newspaper that won the most awards or the paper than won the biggest award. Sometimes the story focuses ONLY on the award(s) the particular newspaper has won. So parochial.
August 22, 2010
Instead of following the
Instead of following the letter of the rule, “thou shalt attribute fully,” the rule is adjusted by the maxim, “thou shalt not name the competition”. Happens in a lot of places, both in the private and public sector media.
August 24, 2010
I don’t have a problem with
I don’t have a problem with the Star’s approach. Toronto is engulfed in a very healthy newspaper war, which is great for journalism. The Star has no ethical obligation to give credit to its competition. That may seem to be a small-minded attitude, but every day, little battles like that matter to the rank-and-file in the newsroom. It doesn’t matter to the public whether the Sun gets credit in the Star story, but the content of the Star story does. Vive la competition! May we have more of it!