Benghazi and the case for an ombudsman
Image via USA Today. At the end of last night’s 60 Minutes, Lara Logan kind of apologized for an earlier report on the Benghazi attack that has been shot through like Swiss cheese. As Craig Silverman and Jay Rosen have pointed out, Logan’s 85-second segment did not sufficiently address the many problems with the original […]
Falling revenues and falling axes: layoffs at Rogers Media
For the bean counters in Canadian media, it just keeps getting worse. Rogers Media—a division which includes the corporation’s radio stations, TV channels, magazines and baseball team—announced yesterday that it has laid off 94 employees, or about two percent of its workforce. The announcement comes just six months after Rogers laid off 62 workers. Consumers […]
Gawker had the story first. So what?
Edison did it first, but Westinghouse did it better—just as Gawker did it first, but the Toronto Star did it better. After reading this email exchange between Gawker features editor, Tom Scocca, and Star publisher, John Cruickshank, about the Rob Ford crack video, you have to think that being compared to the most prolific inventor […]
The Fords vs. the truth: an unfair fight
Never has an unfair fight gone on for so long. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and his brother, councillor Doug Ford, want you to believe that they are the victims; that they are trying to fight for “the little guy” in the face of fierce opposition from the left, the unions and—of course—the media. Doug Ford […]
Rob Ford’s poll numbers and the convenient narrative
Nearly as shocking as Toronto police chief Bill Blair’s press conference last week were the results of a poll which suggested that Mayor Rob Ford’s approval ratings had gone…up? Yes—from 39 percent to 44 percent, according to a poll conducted by Forum Research a few hours after Blair’s press conference. This counterintuitive bump has been […]
‘It’s real, and Ford is in it’: did the Star spike the football?
“We do not have a vendetta against Mayor Ford,” Toronto Star editor-in-chief Michael Cooke told the Ontario Press Council in September. “We simply don’t.” Does Cooke’s boss know that? On page two of Friday’s Star, publisher John Cruickshank high-stepped into the end zone, taking shots at the mayor, his brother and the “Ford acolytes” who […]
Silence of the labs
Why the federal government's attempt to muzzle its scientists hinders public knowledge and damages science discourse in Canada
ENVIRONMENT CANADA SCIENTIST David Tarasick helped identify the largest ozone hole in the Arctic, and Postmedia reporter Mike De Souza has finally secured an interview in late October 2011, after almost three weeks of bureaucratic delays. Towards the end of the conversation, De Souza asks why the phone call took so long to set up. “Have you been extremely busy and […]
Sports break
Tips on how to get into sports journalism
Breaking into sports journalism is all about finding your fit. At least, that was the message delivered at “Fast Break,” an event for students and professionals interested in working in sports media. Four panellists took the stage at Centennial College on September 18, 2012 to share their stories. Chris Jones, a columnist for ESPN The Magazine, […]
The front-page photo: bullseye or bust?
When newspaper editors get disturbing photos, their decisions on whether to post the photos on the front page can have lasting effects
The New York Post’s decision for its Dec. 4 front page photograph, showing a man about to be run over by a subway train, landed the paper in controversial territory. “I think that they ran this picture thinking that their audience would love it,” says David Swick, an assistant professor at the University of King’s College. […]
Healthy Reporting
One fact-checker’s prescription
During her years at Chatelaine, fact-checker Megan Griffith-Greene, who is a current CBC associate producer, came up with a set of health-reporting guidelines to address the most common errors. They include: – All human research should include female subjects, without exception. – Always refer to the primary material. – Acceptable research sources include: researchers, official associations, […]
