Hats off to the Moncton Times. It has discovered a new way to avoid telling the truth without actually lying. And it's so siimple, it amounts to pure genius.
1. Instead or taking an intelligible (even if biased) story from a news service, it assigned a staff reporter to write a story sp canfusing that few will be able to make any sense out of it.. Then they hide it at the bottom of p. 3 under a headline that says New Burnswick's education ranking rose. But it has a sub heading that says NB scores fell. So things got better; but they got worse when they got better. Right. Clear as a bell.
2.The story didn't bother to mention that New Brunswick, with Canada as a whole, was rated, once again, among the best education systems in the world.
3. There is a difference between a ranking and a rating. Obviously, nobody at The Moncton Times and Tribune knows that, not even the editors. The UN makes it clear there is a difference. It also makes it clear that ratings do not measure the qualities of teachers or of individual schools. The Times doesn't even bother to mention that, either - though it has frequentlyy written foaming at the mouth editorials that insist that students tests DO measure teachers and schools..
4. As always, the newspaper does not know there is a difference between a school ranking and a horse race. In a horse race, the one that finishes, say) in 19 seconds is the winner,even if all the other nine finish within half a second of the first horse. But if one person scores 98 n a test, and the next nine all come between 98 and 95 or even a bit less, there is no significant difference. I wish the news media world would learn that.
5. There is no mention of the American ratings. That is a stronge omission because we are in the process of imposing the American system of standardized testing and ranking on New Brunswick schools. I haven't yet seen the official report for the UN rating of American schools; but I know they are close to the bottom of the pile in something like 28th place. And 28th place is not just a few percentt behind Canada in 10th place. The gap is huge with the US far behind even countries that we think of as primitive. But The Moncton times pushing for adoption of the American system. Maybe that has something to do with AIMS,and with the ownership of The Times. Nah. Nonewspaper would be so unethical as that. Maybe.
6. There was no editorial on the subject on Dec. 8. But maybe the editorial writer is just stocking up on foam for Dec. 9.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Dec. 8, 2010 - a testing day for the moncton times and tribune
The UN has released its latest assessment of education systems around the world. Many news media are calling it as a proud day for Canada which retains its spot among the world's best education systems. But The Moncton Times likes to get its news from Postmedia, the very successful rebirth of CanWest - and an even bigger kissup to big business than the Montreal Times is. (Really.) Canwest headed it as a story of the decline of Canadian education.
How will The Moncton Times report it on Dec. 8? Will the editor treat it as bad news (the way he treated the news of a New Brunswick school superintendant winniing a prestigious award? Or the story of New Brunswick having the best high school completion rate in Canada, which the editor foamed at the mouth as a disgraceful showing?)
What has really happened is this.
The quality and rating of Canadian public education has been pretty stable, up close to the best in the world, since these UN studies began. Recently, there have been great improvments to public education in countries like China. We have not become worse. We are, in fact, getting better - but some countries are getting better faster - as China is. In any case, the statistical differences between the top countries (like Canada) are not great. So, really, nothing of great significance has happend.
But The Moncton Times has clearly signed on with corporate New Brunswick and with Atlantic Institute of Market Stuides to discredit and defame our public schools. So will it report our position among the best in the world? Or will they Postmedia it as a bad sign? Or will they ignore it?
There's a fourth choice. They could hide it under the news thatNew Brunwick has risen slightly in the Canadian stats for reading levels. They could use that as praise for the work of standardized testing and school rankings. They could do that and be honest - if only becuase editors and reporters at The Moncton Times are too ignorant of education and of statistics to realize it's not true.
The rise is too small to indicate any such thing -and it could as well be due to a drop of reading skills in Nova Scotia and PEI, the only provinces that NB beats - and that not by much.
In other words, nothing really has changed. I can however, suggest things you will lnot see in The Moncton Times on Dec. 8.
1. It will not report that UN reserachers agree and have announced that standardized tests are useless as tools to rate either teachers or schools. All they test and rank is the children.
2. It almost certainly will not report that the US, the homeland of standardized testing and public school ranking, has dropped catastrophically from its already terrible position as number 18 to something around 25th in the world. This is the country that has been using standardized testing and ranking on a very wide scale for over a generation.AIMS wants us, we of the top ten education systems in the world, to copy the education system of the country that has the education system rated the worst in the developed world. So The Times won't mention that.
3. It will not mention that the woman appointed by George Bush to spread standardized testing, ranking and their bastard child - charter schools - the woman who was one of the very few education scholars to support standardized testing - has recently publicly admitted it does not work In fact, she says it has been a disaster for US education. (Of course, The Times has shown us what a great success it is. Remember their gushing report on the visit to Moncton of that great expert on education - Jeb Bush?
The Moncton Times, as I write, will be going to press. It had two choices. Which did it choose? Will it lie (either deliberately or out of ignorance)? Or will is skip the story? Put your money down, folks.
The reality of what's going on is that corporate New Burnswick wants your children so it can put them on the market for its profit. That's what AIMS is about. That's what the big corporations are about. That's what the Liberals and Conservatives are about. That's what The Moncton Times and Tribune is about.
Meanwhile, one of the first budget cuts the Alward government has announced is the immediate cut to an already hopelessly underfunded education system. As it has been since the days of the timber trade, politics and your lives and your children are controlled by the province's robber barons.
And, as always in this province, the news media cover for the robber barons.
Wake up, New Brunswick. A centurty and a half of backing away from bullies has not done you any good.
How will The Moncton Times report it on Dec. 8? Will the editor treat it as bad news (the way he treated the news of a New Brunswick school superintendant winniing a prestigious award? Or the story of New Brunswick having the best high school completion rate in Canada, which the editor foamed at the mouth as a disgraceful showing?)
What has really happened is this.
The quality and rating of Canadian public education has been pretty stable, up close to the best in the world, since these UN studies began. Recently, there have been great improvments to public education in countries like China. We have not become worse. We are, in fact, getting better - but some countries are getting better faster - as China is. In any case, the statistical differences between the top countries (like Canada) are not great. So, really, nothing of great significance has happend.
But The Moncton Times has clearly signed on with corporate New Brunswick and with Atlantic Institute of Market Stuides to discredit and defame our public schools. So will it report our position among the best in the world? Or will they Postmedia it as a bad sign? Or will they ignore it?
There's a fourth choice. They could hide it under the news thatNew Brunwick has risen slightly in the Canadian stats for reading levels. They could use that as praise for the work of standardized testing and school rankings. They could do that and be honest - if only becuase editors and reporters at The Moncton Times are too ignorant of education and of statistics to realize it's not true.
The rise is too small to indicate any such thing -and it could as well be due to a drop of reading skills in Nova Scotia and PEI, the only provinces that NB beats - and that not by much.
In other words, nothing really has changed. I can however, suggest things you will lnot see in The Moncton Times on Dec. 8.
1. It will not report that UN reserachers agree and have announced that standardized tests are useless as tools to rate either teachers or schools. All they test and rank is the children.
2. It almost certainly will not report that the US, the homeland of standardized testing and public school ranking, has dropped catastrophically from its already terrible position as number 18 to something around 25th in the world. This is the country that has been using standardized testing and ranking on a very wide scale for over a generation.AIMS wants us, we of the top ten education systems in the world, to copy the education system of the country that has the education system rated the worst in the developed world. So The Times won't mention that.
3. It will not mention that the woman appointed by George Bush to spread standardized testing, ranking and their bastard child - charter schools - the woman who was one of the very few education scholars to support standardized testing - has recently publicly admitted it does not work In fact, she says it has been a disaster for US education. (Of course, The Times has shown us what a great success it is. Remember their gushing report on the visit to Moncton of that great expert on education - Jeb Bush?
The Moncton Times, as I write, will be going to press. It had two choices. Which did it choose? Will it lie (either deliberately or out of ignorance)? Or will is skip the story? Put your money down, folks.
The reality of what's going on is that corporate New Burnswick wants your children so it can put them on the market for its profit. That's what AIMS is about. That's what the big corporations are about. That's what the Liberals and Conservatives are about. That's what The Moncton Times and Tribune is about.
Meanwhile, one of the first budget cuts the Alward government has announced is the immediate cut to an already hopelessly underfunded education system. As it has been since the days of the timber trade, politics and your lives and your children are controlled by the province's robber barons.
And, as always in this province, the news media cover for the robber barons.
Wake up, New Brunswick. A centurty and a half of backing away from bullies has not done you any good.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
The Death of Credibility at The Moncton Times
Today, Saturday, Dec. 4, /the Moncton Times published the most important column it has ever published- not just in what the column said, but in the implications of what it said. The Moncton Times is imcompetent and it lies. It's all on the op ed page (opposite the editorial page in a guest column by Karen Branscombe, Superintendant of District 2 schools.
Both the Superintendant of District 2 and the District Education Council, (both of whom has been publicly insulted and virtually spat on by The Moncton Times in past months) had made Moncton High their top priority for essential repairs for several years. But they could not authorize anything without money. And governments have refused to make that money available.
In another newspaper, even one almost as low in the gutter as The Moncton Times and Tribune, reporters would have made enquiries of politicians, (with an unusually large group of Ministers of Education to draw on). If it did not do that, if it launched such comtemptible attacks without checking with the responsibe ministers, then the paper is incompetently edited.
If they did ask, and the ministers answered truthfully, then The Moncton Times lied to us.
If the ministers didn't tell the truth, then the New Brunswick press has an obligation to publicize who lied about what.
Frankly, even if they lied, a cub reporter for a high school newspaper should know that a local district simply does not have the power to allot money on such a scale. Whatever their faults, nobody at even the Moncton Times could have been so stupid as to believe it had such power. Any way you look at it, The Moncton Times and Transcript lied.
Apparently, it lied on another point, too. It said that the superintendant had decided not to go the the parents' protest (which represented less than one percent of the parents. That certainly gives the impression that they asked her, and she told them she had "decided" not to attend. (Of course, it could be that The Times editors and reporters are mind readers - but I doubt it.)
That's lying. That's outright, bare-faced lying. In good newspapers, people get fired for that.
The very least The Moncton Times can do is to apologize for its vicious and vile editorials about education over the past year or so. It apologize for acting as a propganda sheet for Atlantic Institute of Marketing Studies so AIMS can do so much damage with its long discredited notions of standarized testing and ranking.
It seems to me The Times has also said that the teachers' union is too strong. Really? If they're so powerful, why have they never said a word in defence of their own members. So far as I've been able to tell, the teachers' union has all the power and courage of a kitten with a tummy ache.
Why haven't other "leaders" in this community defended the schools? Thousands must have realized that what The Moncton Times was doing was lying and scurrilous. But not a peep. Is Karen Brnscombe the only person in this city with brains, integrity and courage?
Boy, I feel like writing a letter to the ownership of The Times, telling them what a lying rag it is.
But they would probably feel flattered, and give all that wretched crowd a raise.
Both the Superintendant of District 2 and the District Education Council, (both of whom has been publicly insulted and virtually spat on by The Moncton Times in past months) had made Moncton High their top priority for essential repairs for several years. But they could not authorize anything without money. And governments have refused to make that money available.
In another newspaper, even one almost as low in the gutter as The Moncton Times and Tribune, reporters would have made enquiries of politicians, (with an unusually large group of Ministers of Education to draw on). If it did not do that, if it launched such comtemptible attacks without checking with the responsibe ministers, then the paper is incompetently edited.
If they did ask, and the ministers answered truthfully, then The Moncton Times lied to us.
If the ministers didn't tell the truth, then the New Brunswick press has an obligation to publicize who lied about what.
Frankly, even if they lied, a cub reporter for a high school newspaper should know that a local district simply does not have the power to allot money on such a scale. Whatever their faults, nobody at even the Moncton Times could have been so stupid as to believe it had such power. Any way you look at it, The Moncton Times and Transcript lied.
Apparently, it lied on another point, too. It said that the superintendant had decided not to go the the parents' protest (which represented less than one percent of the parents. That certainly gives the impression that they asked her, and she told them she had "decided" not to attend. (Of course, it could be that The Times editors and reporters are mind readers - but I doubt it.)
That's lying. That's outright, bare-faced lying. In good newspapers, people get fired for that.
The very least The Moncton Times can do is to apologize for its vicious and vile editorials about education over the past year or so. It apologize for acting as a propganda sheet for Atlantic Institute of Marketing Studies so AIMS can do so much damage with its long discredited notions of standarized testing and ranking.
It seems to me The Times has also said that the teachers' union is too strong. Really? If they're so powerful, why have they never said a word in defence of their own members. So far as I've been able to tell, the teachers' union has all the power and courage of a kitten with a tummy ache.
Why haven't other "leaders" in this community defended the schools? Thousands must have realized that what The Moncton Times was doing was lying and scurrilous. But not a peep. Is Karen Brnscombe the only person in this city with brains, integrity and courage?
Boy, I feel like writing a letter to the ownership of The Times, telling them what a lying rag it is.
But they would probably feel flattered, and give all that wretched crowd a raise.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Just thinkin'
The Moncton Times report on the conomic summit quote John Irving at langth. Is he, by any chance, related to the owners and all New Brunswick's newspapers? Does he have any connection with the Atllantic Institute of Market Studies? If so, wouldn't an enthical newspaper mention that? How many of the businessmen at the summit were directlly or indirectly employed by him?
Nice to see the universitiy presidents there in strength. Thay had better be. The job of a university president is actually not to lead the university anywhere. The President's job is to kiss up to rich people by doing what they want them to do, and giving out honorary degrees. A university president is essentially a fund raiser. Very safe choice to invite to a summit that is really a scam.
Actually, they could have invited most of tne New Brunswick clergy, too. I can't remember the last time any one of them suggested that the behaviour of big business in this province is often immoral.
Notice the prominent mention made of business having a direct role in the schools, and particularly in curriculum. (They'll call it "partnerships") If you're a professor of education, you know that is dangerous to education, will inflict lasting damage on the childfren and the schools. Professors of useless subjects, like History, Language, Literature, Sociology, psychology and otthers know that there days will be numbered. But they son't dare go public about it. If they did dare to, they would get called into the President's office for a chat.
Business wants the schools not to train children for life, but to train them mostly for low level jobs as obedient clerks. And they want a piece of the education budget to do ti, something for profit.
That accounts for the rapid decline in the quality of American education, and dreadful state of education iin colonies run by American business. Haiti springs to mind.
Don't expect the Home and School or the Parent School committees to lift a finger. They're on the side of the rich. Sometimes they're that way because they love thre rich. Sometimes, more commonly, I suspect, it's becase they're too scared to have any independent principles.
Don't expect your neighbours to lift a finger. New Brunswickers haven't dared to speak against their economic bosses for generations. They know what's going on. They know this is going to harm their children. Either they're too scared to speak. Or they just don't give a damn.
We should see the final report soon. It shouldn't take long to write a report based on breathless five minute group reports. Anyway, As we know from the statements of Ganong and Thibaudeau a week ago, the report was probably written even before the invitations were sent.
Nice to see the universitiy presidents there in strength. Thay had better be. The job of a university president is actually not to lead the university anywhere. The President's job is to kiss up to rich people by doing what they want them to do, and giving out honorary degrees. A university president is essentially a fund raiser. Very safe choice to invite to a summit that is really a scam.
Actually, they could have invited most of tne New Brunswick clergy, too. I can't remember the last time any one of them suggested that the behaviour of big business in this province is often immoral.
Notice the prominent mention made of business having a direct role in the schools, and particularly in curriculum. (They'll call it "partnerships") If you're a professor of education, you know that is dangerous to education, will inflict lasting damage on the childfren and the schools. Professors of useless subjects, like History, Language, Literature, Sociology, psychology and otthers know that there days will be numbered. But they son't dare go public about it. If they did dare to, they would get called into the President's office for a chat.
Business wants the schools not to train children for life, but to train them mostly for low level jobs as obedient clerks. And they want a piece of the education budget to do ti, something for profit.
That accounts for the rapid decline in the quality of American education, and dreadful state of education iin colonies run by American business. Haiti springs to mind.
Don't expect the Home and School or the Parent School committees to lift a finger. They're on the side of the rich. Sometimes they're that way because they love thre rich. Sometimes, more commonly, I suspect, it's becase they're too scared to have any independent principles.
Don't expect your neighbours to lift a finger. New Brunswickers haven't dared to speak against their economic bosses for generations. They know what's going on. They know this is going to harm their children. Either they're too scared to speak. Or they just don't give a damn.
We should see the final report soon. It shouldn't take long to write a report based on breathless five minute group reports. Anyway, As we know from the statements of Ganong and Thibaudeau a week ago, the report was probably written even before the invitations were sent.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
The Moncton Times is True to Form - only more childish.
First class in journalism 101 - news and opinion are quite different from each other, and should never be mixed. News is for factual reports, especially on the front page. Opinions are reserved for the editorial page, for letters to the editor, and for columnists. Opinions are always displayed in such a way that it is obvious they are opinon and not statenments of fact. News tells what happened. Whether what happend was good or bad is for the opinion sectins. Now read the the front page of The Moncton Times for Thusrsday, Dec. 2.
Economic Summit a Success
That's an opinion, not news. And don't blame a reporter for it. Headlines are written by editors. It is not possible that an editor, even one desperate enough to work for the press in this province, would be ignorant of the basic rule of separation of fact and opinion. This is the deliberate (and quite unethical) use of a newspaper to spread propaganda.
The editorial praises Bernard Lord for saying this is not the time to raise taxes. Somehow, that kiss kiss seems to contradoict that part of the front page story which said there was great interest in a raise of the HST. (Hint - the T in HST means Tax.) The HST is a favourite tax of the rich and corporations because it hits the poor and the miiddle class far less than the riich. "Culling sacred cows" means cutting services. Wage freezes are also a tax because the freezee loses money for a year while the cost of living still rises.
As for culling sacred cows, the sacred cows of services, gifts, favours and loans (incentives) to large corporation will not be among those culled. In fact, we'll be lucky even to hear about them.
The summiteers also announced plans to streamline (cut) government services, and improve our education (introduce more measures that have been tried and have failed for thirty years in the US.) It also means letting some of the summiteers get their fingers into the education budget for private profit.
John Irving pronounced that the whole focus should be on being competitive. That will make us floursih.
Bullshit.
Haiti's industries from factory farming to clothing manufacture have been among the most competitive in the world. They have been for close to a century. But I have never seen Haitians living it up and jumping for joy,not even before the earthquake. Congo's mining is highly competitive on the world market and has produced substantial fortunes for Canadian mining compaanies. But it has produced nothing but poverty and early death for the Congolese.
Yes, we do need to develop industry. But it cannot be our only focus. That's why we don't need people like John Irving telling us what is economically good for us. Mr. Irving, of all people, should know that our business has flourished. But it has made Mr. Irving wealthy - not most of the rest of us.
Anyway, a bunch of people - we sttill don't know who, and we don't know how they were chosen - met to solve all the province's problems. They did in two days flat. They did it with little discussion groups, each giving a five minute report. They did what a government normally does - except they didn't bother to get elected by us. Why should they? That really sums up the whole history of New Brunswick as a province that has had more than its share of robber barons.
Hey, all you folks at The Times and at the summit, this whole shmeer isn't just bad journalism, naked self-interest, and zero ethics. It's bloody childish.
Economic Summit a Success
That's an opinion, not news. And don't blame a reporter for it. Headlines are written by editors. It is not possible that an editor, even one desperate enough to work for the press in this province, would be ignorant of the basic rule of separation of fact and opinion. This is the deliberate (and quite unethical) use of a newspaper to spread propaganda.
The editorial praises Bernard Lord for saying this is not the time to raise taxes. Somehow, that kiss kiss seems to contradoict that part of the front page story which said there was great interest in a raise of the HST. (Hint - the T in HST means Tax.) The HST is a favourite tax of the rich and corporations because it hits the poor and the miiddle class far less than the riich. "Culling sacred cows" means cutting services. Wage freezes are also a tax because the freezee loses money for a year while the cost of living still rises.
As for culling sacred cows, the sacred cows of services, gifts, favours and loans (incentives) to large corporation will not be among those culled. In fact, we'll be lucky even to hear about them.
The summiteers also announced plans to streamline (cut) government services, and improve our education (introduce more measures that have been tried and have failed for thirty years in the US.) It also means letting some of the summiteers get their fingers into the education budget for private profit.
John Irving pronounced that the whole focus should be on being competitive. That will make us floursih.
Bullshit.
Haiti's industries from factory farming to clothing manufacture have been among the most competitive in the world. They have been for close to a century. But I have never seen Haitians living it up and jumping for joy,not even before the earthquake. Congo's mining is highly competitive on the world market and has produced substantial fortunes for Canadian mining compaanies. But it has produced nothing but poverty and early death for the Congolese.
Yes, we do need to develop industry. But it cannot be our only focus. That's why we don't need people like John Irving telling us what is economically good for us. Mr. Irving, of all people, should know that our business has flourished. But it has made Mr. Irving wealthy - not most of the rest of us.
Anyway, a bunch of people - we sttill don't know who, and we don't know how they were chosen - met to solve all the province's problems. They did in two days flat. They did it with little discussion groups, each giving a five minute report. They did what a government normally does - except they didn't bother to get elected by us. Why should they? That really sums up the whole history of New Brunswick as a province that has had more than its share of robber barons.
Hey, all you folks at The Times and at the summit, this whole shmeer isn't just bad journalism, naked self-interest, and zero ethics. It's bloody childish.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Day One of the great NB summit meeting.
Things are moving quickly at the summit. The main speaker has already emphasized what I said would be the first point. There must be no tax increases for the rich or for corporations. There will be tax increases for the middle class. (Gee. Just the same as those wise policies of George Bush who made the US such an economic success.) Watch for the soon-to-come editorial that will change uts mind and say some taxes should be raised. Yours.
What the speaker did not say is there will also be a tax increase for the poor. The sales tax will go up. Rich people and corporation love that kind of tax because, though it inflicts real suffering and sacrifice on the poor, it means nothing much to the rich because they have piles of money left over. We are all going to get suckered to pay for the blunders of the wealthy and big business.
Meanwhile, an interesting story slipped onto the New Page of the Times. It must have happened when the editors looked away. It shows that the rich of Canada have been getting wildly richer for at least 20 years, while all the rest of us are following behind. The gaps between rich and poor in Canada and in the US are getting so great they are the widest they have ever been in the history of both countries. Tens of millions are unemployed and living below the poverty line in our two countries. Meanwhile, corporations and the wealthy are continuing to make huge gains. I sometimes wonder whether the editor reads the news page. Probably not. Usuallly it is a page not worth reading.
Private business is great at what it is designed to do, make profits for itself. What it cannot do, what it has failed to do for centuries, is to distribute that wealth fairly throughout the whole society. The whole world is on the edge of paying a terrible price for that. The reality is that we are not all in this together. The rich, even in recession, are getting richer. Their children are not going cold and hungry. Their private schools are not dangerous becuase of lack of maintenance and adequate funding. Now New Brunwicks poor are going to get poorer so othe rich can maintain the style they are used to.
Meanwhile, the people who have already proven for over a century that they cannot plan an economy and cannot disttribute wealth fairly are now gathered to advise us all on how to plan ours.
And they have the hutzpah to call this swarming of billionaires, millionaires and dead light bulbs as representative of the whole province.
Okay - all at this summit who are poor or even lower middle class, or fishermen, or farmers, please stand up.
And we still have not been told by the super reporters of The Times exactly who is at this summit and how all these people were chosen. We know they were invited. We havenèt been told who invited them, or why those people and not others were invited.
The only news worth buying that paper for is on the page that tells you which celebrity nobody ever heard of is having a birthday today.
What the speaker did not say is there will also be a tax increase for the poor. The sales tax will go up. Rich people and corporation love that kind of tax because, though it inflicts real suffering and sacrifice on the poor, it means nothing much to the rich because they have piles of money left over. We are all going to get suckered to pay for the blunders of the wealthy and big business.
Meanwhile, an interesting story slipped onto the New Page of the Times. It must have happened when the editors looked away. It shows that the rich of Canada have been getting wildly richer for at least 20 years, while all the rest of us are following behind. The gaps between rich and poor in Canada and in the US are getting so great they are the widest they have ever been in the history of both countries. Tens of millions are unemployed and living below the poverty line in our two countries. Meanwhile, corporations and the wealthy are continuing to make huge gains. I sometimes wonder whether the editor reads the news page. Probably not. Usuallly it is a page not worth reading.
Private business is great at what it is designed to do, make profits for itself. What it cannot do, what it has failed to do for centuries, is to distribute that wealth fairly throughout the whole society. The whole world is on the edge of paying a terrible price for that. The reality is that we are not all in this together. The rich, even in recession, are getting richer. Their children are not going cold and hungry. Their private schools are not dangerous becuase of lack of maintenance and adequate funding. Now New Brunwicks poor are going to get poorer so othe rich can maintain the style they are used to.
Meanwhile, the people who have already proven for over a century that they cannot plan an economy and cannot disttribute wealth fairly are now gathered to advise us all on how to plan ours.
And they have the hutzpah to call this swarming of billionaires, millionaires and dead light bulbs as representative of the whole province.
Okay - all at this summit who are poor or even lower middle class, or fishermen, or farmers, please stand up.
And we still have not been told by the super reporters of The Times exactly who is at this summit and how all these people were chosen. We know they were invited. We havenèt been told who invited them, or why those people and not others were invited.
The only news worth buying that paper for is on the page that tells you which celebrity nobody ever heard of is having a birthday today.
The Cowardice, Slime and Ass-kissing of the The Moncton Times Editorial Staff
The editorial in today's (December 1) Moncton Times is beneath contempt.
School District Two Superintendant Angela Branscombe has won a national award.as one of the hundred most powerful women in Canada. That an astonishing achievement for a person who is the superintendant of a relatively small and poor school district in the middle of nowhere.But not so to the ignorant and subservient editors of the most wretched newspaper I have ever seen.
Instead, the editorial writer (who seems to know as little about education as he does about civilized manners) publicly accuses her of incompetence in the case of Moncton High. These are the same editors who decided some weeks ago that the big story of the day was a demonstration of unhappy parents of MHS students and of neighbouring schools affected by the MHS closure. In fact, something fewer than one percent of all the eligible parents even bothered to show up. There was no story. No ethical newspaper would have bothered with anything so trivial. The Moncton Times played it up, anyway. As journalists, the editors knew that to most readers, the message would not be the real one that there was almost no protest. The message would be that there is something wrong with District Two.
The editorial was also careful not to blame any provincial government or their education ministers. That is surely odd. After all, as the editorial says, reports on the school have shown its condition for years - along with many other neglected schools across New Brunswick.
But asuperintendant has no magic wand to make money appear. Governments do that. And no New Brunswick government in recent memory has cared a damn about giving the schools enough money even for routine office supplies. The had millions for a hockey rink. But nothing for schools. The editorial writer knows that. But he or she or it put the blame the superintendant in order to cover the irresponsible asses in Fredericton of both parties who allowed this crisis to develop. They also want to create a sense that the schools are in crisis. That makes it easier for AIMS to talk us into a gradual privatization of education. And the owners of The Times would probably like that.
Parents and students in Moncton should be damn grateful they have a superintendant who has the courage and wisdom to protect students against what could have become a real disaster. She deserves our thanks and respect. She certainly does not deserve the rantings of a guttersnipe.
What a disgusting lying, petty and ignorant editorial. Forget about impressing the world with a new hockey rink or a CFL team. Any visitor catching a glimpse of The Moncton Times will immiediately realize that this is Hicksville.
Oh - about the witty editorial cartoon on the same page.... An old friend of mine is Terry mosher, who is arguably the best editorial cartoonist in Canada. Terry is a good artist. So is The Times cartoonist. The difference between them, though, is as wide and deep as Grand Canyon. Terry has never kissed any ass. And he has the guts to criticize even thenewspaper owners.
Tell you what, kid, you do a few cartoons critical of the owners and editors of The Moncton Times. Then we can talk.
School District Two Superintendant Angela Branscombe has won a national award.as one of the hundred most powerful women in Canada. That an astonishing achievement for a person who is the superintendant of a relatively small and poor school district in the middle of nowhere.But not so to the ignorant and subservient editors of the most wretched newspaper I have ever seen.
Instead, the editorial writer (who seems to know as little about education as he does about civilized manners) publicly accuses her of incompetence in the case of Moncton High. These are the same editors who decided some weeks ago that the big story of the day was a demonstration of unhappy parents of MHS students and of neighbouring schools affected by the MHS closure. In fact, something fewer than one percent of all the eligible parents even bothered to show up. There was no story. No ethical newspaper would have bothered with anything so trivial. The Moncton Times played it up, anyway. As journalists, the editors knew that to most readers, the message would not be the real one that there was almost no protest. The message would be that there is something wrong with District Two.
The editorial was also careful not to blame any provincial government or their education ministers. That is surely odd. After all, as the editorial says, reports on the school have shown its condition for years - along with many other neglected schools across New Brunswick.
But asuperintendant has no magic wand to make money appear. Governments do that. And no New Brunswick government in recent memory has cared a damn about giving the schools enough money even for routine office supplies. The had millions for a hockey rink. But nothing for schools. The editorial writer knows that. But he or she or it put the blame the superintendant in order to cover the irresponsible asses in Fredericton of both parties who allowed this crisis to develop. They also want to create a sense that the schools are in crisis. That makes it easier for AIMS to talk us into a gradual privatization of education. And the owners of The Times would probably like that.
Parents and students in Moncton should be damn grateful they have a superintendant who has the courage and wisdom to protect students against what could have become a real disaster. She deserves our thanks and respect. She certainly does not deserve the rantings of a guttersnipe.
What a disgusting lying, petty and ignorant editorial. Forget about impressing the world with a new hockey rink or a CFL team. Any visitor catching a glimpse of The Moncton Times will immiediately realize that this is Hicksville.
Oh - about the witty editorial cartoon on the same page.... An old friend of mine is Terry mosher, who is arguably the best editorial cartoonist in Canada. Terry is a good artist. So is The Times cartoonist. The difference between them, though, is as wide and deep as Grand Canyon. Terry has never kissed any ass. And he has the guts to criticize even thenewspaper owners.
Tell you what, kid, you do a few cartoons critical of the owners and editors of The Moncton Times. Then we can talk.
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