When Journalists Mislead the Public...

 And here we see, in real time, a Canadian reporter attempting to smear government MPs. Ms Walsh is not the only one, but the example handy. She links the MPs with a notice from the ethics commissioner's office. No explanation. 

It implies the MPs are in trouble with the ethics commissioner. They are not. Nevertheless, conservative trolls are already squawking on social media about another Liberal ethics violation, where there is none. This is very poor journalism. 

This is using omission of an explanation to cast shade on innocent people. I have no doubt that Canadian media know that most people will not read past the very first couple of lines. They are planting the suggestion of malfeasance by omitting any detail. 

Mercedes Stephenson, of Global news, simply retweets the announcement from the Ethics Commissioner which is also incredibly misleading and suggests the Liberals were guilty of something. 

And, most egregiously, @CBC @PnPCBC posted an alert saying outright that these ministers were guilty. 

Fortunately, Diane Marie and others caught this...

I am sure Canadian journalists also know full well that misinformation spreads much faster than a retraction or correction. Which seems to have been their intent. Deleting a misleading tweet does not undo the damage. 

This is totally unacceptable. This is our press deliberately trying to undermine our duly elected government. And they do it all the time. This was just another example. I call on the @CBCOmbud, the @CRTCeng and whomever oversees the Ethics Commissioner... 

To take a close look at this. From the Commissioner's office on down, this news was worded and presented in such a way as to allow the reputation of these ministers to be impugned. This is not what the press is supposed to do. This violates journalistic integrity and ethics. 

The thing which actually happened was a former US Ambassador was found in violation and these Ministers have agreed to not interact with him for a year. 

And yet, CPC fans are racing around announcing 9 Liberals have been found guilty of an ethics violation and they are all criminals. Because such people grab any information that fits their worldview, and also, they don't seem to actually understand how any of this works. 

The wording used by the Ethics Commissioner's office, & the way the real information was buried in a fine print document is very suspect. One might almost think Dion was channeling his predecessor, Mary Dawson. Someone needs to remind him he is supposed to be non-partisan. 

But our journalists, actively misleading Canadians about this instead of looking into why the ethics commissioner's announcement was so vague as to suggest the Liberals had done something wrong.... Well, that is unconscionable. And decidedly not in the public interest. 

Update: The CBC noon hour radio news just did a piece on Eric O'Toole's complaints about waiting in line for hours for a COVID test. He blames the federal government, even though it is provincial jurisdiction. CBC did not correct him. 

• • •

Another Rant About Canadian Journalism

I can no longer bear to watch Vassy Kapelos on CBC's Power and Politics . The show was once a source of, at the very least, an understanding of who was saying what. 

It seems to have turned into a "bash the Liberal government" free-for-all. This is not journalism. This is more of a blood-sport. Where the aggressors have traps, lures, and telephoto infra-red sights. 

I would like to point out that responsible journalism is not simply attacking the sitting government. It is not just giving everyone a podium to bash the sitting government. 

Journalistic integrity is based on some pretty solid principles.
- Is it TRUE?
- Is it verifiable?
- Is publishing it in the public good?

Journalism is meant to hold the sitting government to account, yes. But it should also hold those who would form government to account. This means not just letting opposition parties trash the government and, sometimes, even make stuff up, unchallenged. 

Journalists fail when they do not hold those who would like to form government to as high a standard as they hold the sitting government. It is not in the public good to give one party a pass, to not fact check both sides.  

And, speaking of both sides... This current trend to try to give both sides equal weight and time, regardless of their validity, is complete garbage. 

I mean, if you get a government minister of health, or civil servant on talking about the importance of vaccinations, then, in the interest of "balance" you allow an anti-vaxxer to spout off nonsense & only challenge the government person, that is irresponsible journalism. 

Sometimes, one side of the argument does not deserve the air time because it is complete balderdash. We need our journalists to recognize when this is happening and to react appropriately. 

This "good people on both sides" nonsense is fairly new. Perhaps not as new as the Trump regime, but pretty close. It is irresponsible journalism. No. Sometimes one side is correct and the other is nuts/evil/a threat to the public good. 

So it completely abandons journalistic principles to treat both as equally valid. You are supposed to be fact-checking, arbiters of messaging. And it is fine to question government officials. They are not sacrosanct. But to just attack and nitpick is choosing sides. 

And to have panels where all participants just want to bash the government is abhorrent. Not all governments are bad. Thus far, overall, the Liberals have been doing a damn sight better job for Canadians than their predecessors. 

To anguish over nothing-burgers like a swingset the PM paid for, or renovations the National Capital Commission (which looks after Canada's official residences and buildings) has been planning for a decade, is completely disingenuous. That is being a mouthpiece for the opposition and not acting in the public good. 

I realise that the CBC has suffered sever budget cuts for decades. Which means they have to compete for eyeballs and clicks against sensationalist corporate-run and right-leaning media outlets.

I like to think that if the CBC was fully funded & not dependent on advertising revenue, and if the culture created by Harper appointments was purged, our national broadcaster could do much to educate the public about how our government works and about issues of the day in a non-partisan manner. 

Perhaps that is naive. But I believe there are some real journalists out there capable of adhering to journalistic principles and who actually care about educating the public.  

So many Canadians seem to not really understand how government works, how responsibility is divided between provincial and federal governments. When your guests say blatantly untrue things about how things actually work, it is your job to counter the misinformation.  

To give air time to people who are making sh*t up is not only not in the public good, it is a disgrace to the journalistic tradition and directly counter to the public good. When I was watching, I often thought, "My God. What are these journalists thinking letting this go?"

So, I am sorry if this offends Ms Kapelos . But I am not alone in feeling this show is failing in bringing facts to the table. It feels like a love-in for the CPC. This is not in the public good. 

Any party that aspires to form government need to be put under the same microscope as the sitting government. People in a democracy need to see who they are voting for, warts and all. On all sides.  

Election 2019 - The New Paradigm

We are now entering a new paradigm. Curmudgeonly hard-right radio host, Charles Adler, is calling out conservatives who threatened a Liberal cabinet minister and her children. Physically threatened. The (sic) kudatah boys are spreading across the country. 

I heard a CBC radio report that experts expect, regardless of who wins the election, the losing side will not accept the win. I beg to differ. In Alberta the hard right did not accept the NDP win. They sought to overthrow the democratic choice. 

It is not Liberal supporters, or NDP or Green, who threaten to "take back" their province or country from the duly elected government. Let's drop this "both-sideism". It is only the far right that threatens violence if they don't get what they want. 

Which makes me ask, who are these people who do not respect the democratic process? Who are they, that they think their will is more important that the majority of citizen voters? 

Why do these people think what they want is more important than what a majority of their fellow citizens want? The right, in Canada, represents between 28% and 35% of the population. 

They always vote. This makes a conservative government possible because progressive voters sometimes do not vote. Or they make protest votes. They do not seem to understand that the devil is at our door. We must vote in such a way as to keep the CPC out. 

One thing I heard on CBC radio today was a reference to "authoritarian-organization" voters. These are those on the right who really have no patience for democratic process. They want an authoritarian government on the right, with no more of this democracy "nonsense". 

Make no mistake, this is the threat we face, along with the rest of the world. But Canada is different, in that we (~70% of us) value democracy, diversity, equality, and community support.

We ALL need to vote, and vote like our future depends on it. Because it does. It really does. People fought and died for the right to vote in a democracy. There are those who would gladly take that away. And they are here and now and influencing Canadian politics. 

Don't waste your vote. Vote for the candidate in your riding most likely to keep a seat away from a CPC candidate. Tell your friends and neighbours. Door-knock. Campaign. This is probably the most important election in Canadian history. 

Where Are Our Journalists? (part 7)

This is incredibly depressing. #cdnpoli

Kai Nagata @kainagata

Just talked to a Canadian woman in her 50s who had never heard of the United Nations. "You mean the U.S.?" "No, the U.N." "Which country is that?" "It's ... all the countries."

Anyway, just a reminder that our democracy is largely in the hands of people who don't read.

812

8:35 AM - Jul 1, 2019 · Port Hardy, British Columbia

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I overheard a woman the other day talking on her phone in the grocery store. She was saying. "I have been wondering what happened to the pipeline. Someone told me the government bought it and sold it to the natives..."

The election will, in part, be decided by people who don't pick up a newspaper or watch a news program from one year to the next. They hear things from friends... Who maybe heard it from another friend. Who maybe read it in a meme on Facebook or Twitter, or got a newsletter from their MP or an ad from a PAC. 

Remember that game we used to play at school? Some places it was called "telephone", other places it was called "gossip"... Everyone sat in a circle and one person would whisper something into the ear of the child seated next to them... Each child would, in turn, whisper what they thought they heard to the next child, until it came to the one seated next to the first child. The last one would say what they thought they had heard from the one before.  And the resulting message was usually wildly and hilariously different from the message that began to go around.

And so it goes with anything that is spread by word of mouth. Stories change, they get exaggerated, people add their own slant on events, until those who are only informed by hearsay are not informed at all. 

It doesn't help that Canadian media are carrying misleading information. The current example: the video of Justin Trudeau at the G20 which was edited by CanadaProud and was widely distributed by our major news networks. 

The video was edited to show Trudeau in a particularly unfortunate light. The full video, which provides context, portrays a completely different story. So, why did our media outlets chose to spread the edited video and reinforce the negative story? 

Why did they take the word of a source like CanadaProud, a known anti-Trudeau spreader of hate and propaganda, rather than acting like real journalists and verifying before launching it online? 

In the case of the National Post affiliated media and Global, we know there are owners and stake-holders involved with deep pockets and a vested interest in seeing the CPC elected. They stand to make even more money with a certain kind of government... 

To their credit, I have not seen any CBC releases or promotion of the edited video. If anyone has, please let me know. We need journalism we can trust. American news media handed the presidency to Trump, even while he called them the enemy.

They were so caught up in the wonderful clickbait this appalling buffoon offered, and no one thought he could win, so why not cash in on all those eyeballs wanting to see the next scandal? 

Now they have children in cages, sleeping on cement, with no hygiene and not enough food or water. Babies being cared for by other children. ICE dragging people out of their homes. A president who is making a huge profit off the presidency. 

They have women facing charges for having a miscarriage. They have a rapidly deteriorating public school system. They have millions without access to affordable health care. 

Don't say it can't happen here. Did anyone think what Ford has done could happen in Ontario? That so many children with autism would be left without the supports they need? That teachers and nurses would be laid off en masse?

What Doug Ford & the PCs Have Done in Ontario | Art BlogThe List thus far. It began on Facebook in January 2019. This is what Ontario's Doug Ford (and co.) has done since their election.https://artblog.kathrynkaiser.ca/what-doug-ford-has-done-since-ontario-election/?fbclid=IwAR1av_kkN2REh825J0CMOI3lolrDNwQpqqtdPNehS9XnRXCkUNJs8uJKVZ0#human-rights

CTV recently had a segment where they had pundits on to talk about Justin Trudeau's failings as PM. Really? How is this not biased? The very premise of their discussion is biased. Where are the segments on what the current government has done right?

Where are the segments on the failings of the leaders of the other parties? Where is the fact-checking when Scheer speaks? Or Kenney? Or Ford? Or any of their spokespeople? 

The role of the media is NOT to repeat the words of the opposition as absolute truth and dissect the words of the government to find fault. The role of journalists is to fact-check everything. To call out bad behaviour from all parties.... 

To report truths that the people involved don't want reported. Everything else is PR, and the parties already have people paid to do that. Our Canadian media need to stop being stenographers for the CPC and provincial conservatives. 

They need to investigate. They need to report. They need to educate. They need to cover stories that are important to the PUBLIC GOOD. Making fun of the Prime Minister's socks or briefcase is not for the public good. It is to grab eyeballs and ad revenue. 

We desperately need media in this country that actually gets into the complexities of current events. Did any news media explain that the outfits the Trudeaus were wearing in India were the work of a Canadian designer and they were promoting her styles on that trip? 

No. They just kept repeating conservatives mocking them. If our Canadian media will not work in our interests by telling us facts instead of spin, we are going to wind up with a Trump-style government. We are all going to suffer, except the very rich who are pulling the strings. 

And those who aren't interested in politics... we better find a way to reach out to our friends, neighbours, family, and make sure they are hearing facts, not just rumours that have been though the "gossip" line. 

Update: There may be some indications that the truncated video that casts our PM in a negative light began with someone at Global. If this is the case, the CRTC should take a look. Falsifying news violates the code of journalistic conduct.

Yes. I am serious. It's about time someone cracked down on the stinking sacks of rotting dingo's kidneys our mainstream media has been giving us. This is the last straw. We NEED media that fact-checks. That educates. That keeps opinion to a minimum and tells us THE NEWS.