...well, it's not to tell the news. Canada's first newspaper set the tone for almost all that followed it. The Montreal Gazette was founded to serve the interests of the wealthier businessmen of the city.Until the 1920s, that meant it was Conservative because the Conservative party then,as now, represented the interests of the dominant economic group in the country.
A rival appeared in the mid-nieteenth century, The Globe (Toronto). It was founded to represent the interests of the growing Toronto business leadership. They wanted policies quite different from those of the Montreal business elite; so The Globe was Liberal.
Most newspapers throughout history have had such biases. Almost all have represented special interests - sometimes religious groups, but usually business interests. The first purpose of most newspapers, then, is to serve the interests of a upper business class and, freqiuently, at the command of the owner.... who is of that class. The same is true of private radio and TV.
The second purpose(so long as it doesn't interfere with the first one, is to serve the the local business community, fromn small shops to big hotels.
The third one is to sell advertising.
All news and opinion usually has to fit purposes 2 and 3. They must, without question, fit purpose one, the interest of the owner. That is all one needs to know to understand The Moncton Times and Transcript.
Take, for example, the issue for August 6, 2011.Start with Section A.
You'll notice there is not a word might be taken as critical of any of the dominant business people in this province. There never has been. There never will be. And, since those people are the major figures in New Brunswick life, that means there isn't a whjole lot to report in section A. That's why almost half of section A is trivia, and over half is advertising (purpose 3).
Section B, NewsToday, seems to be there just so the paper can say it has some world news. The stories are so few and so casually chosen that one can do better looking up Google news. It includes a business page, mostly trivial - and one that is perhaps the only business page in North America to be unaware that we are in the midst of the biggest economic crisis of the past centry. The rest of Section B is trivia and ads. (Fifty percent ads.)
Section C, Sports, is like any sports secton except it's cut down to two and a half pages to save eleven and a half pages for ads.
Section D (Job Market) has one page of pretty useless advice and information, then some two-thirds of the rest is ads. Unfortuately, they didn't have enough ads, so that left two pages - editorial and op ed. The editorial page, in particular, would be much more interesting if it were all ads.
The op ed page starts with the susual opinion column by a staffer. This column is always about something trivial. The words fracking, Ganong, McCain,Irving never appear in it. Today's issue carries the story of how Brent Mazerolle got a ticket. Sit up, world, and listen.
He is followed by Norbert Cunningham, talking about big shows like U2, and how economically good they are for Moncton. I wonder. Like most people, I don't own a hotel or a restaurant or even a parking space. Like other residents, I helped to pay for U2. But I didn't make a cent out of it. Relatively few Monctonians did - and that few at minimum wage or little more. It would be very useful if, instead of reading about Mazerolle's parking ticket, we could get some information about exactly how much we paid - and where the biggest profits ended up. Norbert's column would be a lot more convincing if we had some information on these points.
Section E is Life and Times. It's a great read if you care that today is the birthday of an actress named Catherine Hicks. The Faith Page is MUST reading for all those who are concerned about the job market for female rabbis or about new editions of The Bible. The latter are not different in any important respect from the old editions, except - they are designed for target audiences. One, for example, is designed for golfers. Just reading that information gave me a whole new understanding of my faith.
Section G, Leisure and Travel is pure advertising.
Section H is called Whatever. Two os its eight pages are pure drivel, hype for the next big show in Moncton. They are two pages of photos of people telling us which band they'd like to see live. Three pages of comics. Two pages of columns by teen-agers. This teenagers section is a bit lightweigth this time, but still the classiest act in the Moncton Times and Tribune on a Saturday.
The Moncton Times keeps people ignorant of what is going on around them (or anywhere else), That gives politicians and big business freedom to do whatever they like, however damaging it may be to the rest of us. And it gets people to pay for the thrill of reading propaganda, trivia and ads.
It's a very successful business operation, different from other newspapers in North American only because it doesn't even pretend to tell us the news.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
August 5: Wow! Ticat, Stamps to class this weekend
That's big news today. They aren't going to clash here. It will be a game on home grounds. But they are coming here in a month. So it's exciting and important that they are playing tomorrow. I mean, it they weren't playing home games, they probably wouldn't be able to play in Moncton, either. So it's really important to know. And they tell you where you can get tickets, and how much they cost, and everything. There's even a photo of a football player with premier Alward holding up a football sweater with Alward's name on it. Hilarious.
And, of course, good, free advertising.
Meanwhile, the North American stock markets bombed yesterday. Obviously, raising the US debt limit hasn't worked. This is going to affect everybody - yes, even Canada. So it's a good thing we can plan ahead and get our CFL tickets right away.
As well, Israel is beginning a new week of mass demonstrations against its government. Apparently, the "Arab spring" is not just Arab.
But not to worry. Neither of these incidents was reported as news in the Moncton Times and Transcript. The stock marekt plunge didn't even make the so-called business page.
Luckily, the economic crisis did appear in an excellent editorial page comment by Alec Bruce. (That's the trouble with Alec. He doesn't keep up to date on important issues like football and bicycle lanes.)
There is a quite silly editorial on how premier Alward is acting out of character by withholding information on government pensions. He is, we are told, the politician of consultation and openess. Really? Is this the same premier Alward who has done everything possible to withhold information on fracking? And to ignore the public completely on the issue?
The editorial cartoon, as usual, supports the editorial, making fun of Alward for his refusal to be open. Perfectly valid. But would the cartoonist have the cocurage to do a cartoon of Alward holding back information on fracking? The good cartoonists, like Aislin, don't kiss up to the editor.
The situation in Israel has nver made the T&T at all - though its implications for an already shaky region are pretty scary. Even by the standards of Brunswick media, this is a stunningly trivial issue of the paper, designed to keep people in ignorance of what is going on.
There is a letter to the editor from Dallas McQuarrie of St.-Inace that struck my conscience. It refers to the interview reported with professor Savoie two days ago; and it criticizes Savoie for putting profit above public safety. I felt bad about letter because it reminded me I had been much too kind in my criticsm of Savoie.
Obviously sought out by the paper to discrredit the anti-fracking movement, Savoie (who has no special expertrise on fracking) said we have to bear in mind the possible economic benefits of shale gas. There is only one possible interpretation of that statement. Endangering human life and destroying the environment are okay so long as somebody makes money out of it all.
The kindest thing I can say about that remark is that it shows a profoundly perverse set of values. One also has to wonder about the ethics of a professor who allows himself to be used in this way. What is he up to? Is he looking for a job as managing editor at the T&T? Or for a government pension?
And, of course, good, free advertising.
Meanwhile, the North American stock markets bombed yesterday. Obviously, raising the US debt limit hasn't worked. This is going to affect everybody - yes, even Canada. So it's a good thing we can plan ahead and get our CFL tickets right away.
As well, Israel is beginning a new week of mass demonstrations against its government. Apparently, the "Arab spring" is not just Arab.
But not to worry. Neither of these incidents was reported as news in the Moncton Times and Transcript. The stock marekt plunge didn't even make the so-called business page.
Luckily, the economic crisis did appear in an excellent editorial page comment by Alec Bruce. (That's the trouble with Alec. He doesn't keep up to date on important issues like football and bicycle lanes.)
There is a quite silly editorial on how premier Alward is acting out of character by withholding information on government pensions. He is, we are told, the politician of consultation and openess. Really? Is this the same premier Alward who has done everything possible to withhold information on fracking? And to ignore the public completely on the issue?
The editorial cartoon, as usual, supports the editorial, making fun of Alward for his refusal to be open. Perfectly valid. But would the cartoonist have the cocurage to do a cartoon of Alward holding back information on fracking? The good cartoonists, like Aislin, don't kiss up to the editor.
The situation in Israel has nver made the T&T at all - though its implications for an already shaky region are pretty scary. Even by the standards of Brunswick media, this is a stunningly trivial issue of the paper, designed to keep people in ignorance of what is going on.
There is a letter to the editor from Dallas McQuarrie of St.-Inace that struck my conscience. It refers to the interview reported with professor Savoie two days ago; and it criticizes Savoie for putting profit above public safety. I felt bad about letter because it reminded me I had been much too kind in my criticsm of Savoie.
Obviously sought out by the paper to discrredit the anti-fracking movement, Savoie (who has no special expertrise on fracking) said we have to bear in mind the possible economic benefits of shale gas. There is only one possible interpretation of that statement. Endangering human life and destroying the environment are okay so long as somebody makes money out of it all.
The kindest thing I can say about that remark is that it shows a profoundly perverse set of values. One also has to wonder about the ethics of a professor who allows himself to be used in this way. What is he up to? Is he looking for a job as managing editor at the T&T? Or for a government pension?
Thursday, August 4, 2011
august 4: A big story makes page 1 ; another Moncton miracle!
We all know the Bono conert made milli0ns. Sow many of those millions are showing up in your bamk account?
One of othe striking features of the craze for concerts and the breathless reporting of them is that we never get any accounting of precisely what the profits are, and who gets them. Haiti makes tremendous profits our of the production of Levis, Fruit of the Loom, and tropical fruits. But at wages of three dollars a day, not much of that money finds its way into Haitian pockets. Money pours into Iraq from oil sales. But very little of it stays in Iraq, and even less finds its way into the pockets of Iraqis. In the case of Moncton, reports suggest that the average city residents got less out of the concerts than they had paid in taxes to set them up.
The front page story, "Moncton cashes in on big concerts", looks like just another over-excited free ad. But it does raise some questions. How much money stays in Moncton? Hotels do well out of it - at the owndership level. But how about the rest of us, the ones who paid for it? And where do the hotel owners spend their profits?
Gee. It sounds to me as though this is the sort of thing an assignment editor should jump at/ But don't hold yhour breath.
There's nothing else in section A - unless you're a really big fan of major league shuffleboard. Fracking didn't make it, of course. But be patient. It can take a newspaper some time to find a professor whose ethical standards are low enough to let him say nice things about fracking and shale gas.
The editorial is depressing for its display of ignorance. It's in praise of the 'visionaires" who brought us the concerts - and it susggests that a city should be run like a business. As a matter of fact, it shouldn't.
The purpose of a business is to make money. The purpose of a city government is to serve its people. The two are not the same.
There is also a cartoon of the concert stage towering over the city, dumping tons of money on it. (Better get your rake out and check the lawn.)
In NewsToday, rhere is no mention of Libya where we are busy killing people for no clear reason. Nor is there even a hint that Israel is torn by mass protests against the government and, particularly, against Netanyahu. Of course, they also haven't reported a whole lot on Saudi military assistance to the Emir of Bahrain as the people of Bahrain rebel against him. I guess it all depends on who is rebelling - and against who.
Now - a confession. I am not an admirer of Quebec nationalism. I lived almost all my life in the bigotry and discrimination that is still Quebec. I ifought against it for years. In the end, I saw it destroy the community I had grown up in. I have no desire ever too see Quebec again.
I blame the nationalists for that. I also blame the Quebec Liberals at least as much, all federal parties, and all Canadians for letting it happen. I have no anti-French feeling out of this. I do have a pretty strong anti-bigotry feeling. But in NB it's usually English bigots who bother me.(and a very few Acadiens who have taken Quebec as their model.)
Remembering all that, read Alec Buce's superb column on Nycole Turmel, the NDP leader who is revealed to have been a member of a separatist party. Any person in the Quebec of the 1960s to the 1990s who was seriously interested to social reform could well be drawn to the PQ or the Bloc for lack of any altenative.
So Turmel has changed her mind about Quebec nationalism. Well, she's not the only one whose mind has changed. I would far rather have a Turmel who can change her mind than a Harper who can't. This affair was clumsily handled, certainly. But it in no way makes her ineligible to lead a federalist party.
Indeed, if anyone breaks up Canada, it is far more likely to be Staphen Harper - just as it was the Liberal Bourassa who who was so largely responsible for destroy the English community of Quebec.
One of othe striking features of the craze for concerts and the breathless reporting of them is that we never get any accounting of precisely what the profits are, and who gets them. Haiti makes tremendous profits our of the production of Levis, Fruit of the Loom, and tropical fruits. But at wages of three dollars a day, not much of that money finds its way into Haitian pockets. Money pours into Iraq from oil sales. But very little of it stays in Iraq, and even less finds its way into the pockets of Iraqis. In the case of Moncton, reports suggest that the average city residents got less out of the concerts than they had paid in taxes to set them up.
The front page story, "Moncton cashes in on big concerts", looks like just another over-excited free ad. But it does raise some questions. How much money stays in Moncton? Hotels do well out of it - at the owndership level. But how about the rest of us, the ones who paid for it? And where do the hotel owners spend their profits?
Gee. It sounds to me as though this is the sort of thing an assignment editor should jump at/ But don't hold yhour breath.
There's nothing else in section A - unless you're a really big fan of major league shuffleboard. Fracking didn't make it, of course. But be patient. It can take a newspaper some time to find a professor whose ethical standards are low enough to let him say nice things about fracking and shale gas.
The editorial is depressing for its display of ignorance. It's in praise of the 'visionaires" who brought us the concerts - and it susggests that a city should be run like a business. As a matter of fact, it shouldn't.
The purpose of a business is to make money. The purpose of a city government is to serve its people. The two are not the same.
There is also a cartoon of the concert stage towering over the city, dumping tons of money on it. (Better get your rake out and check the lawn.)
In NewsToday, rhere is no mention of Libya where we are busy killing people for no clear reason. Nor is there even a hint that Israel is torn by mass protests against the government and, particularly, against Netanyahu. Of course, they also haven't reported a whole lot on Saudi military assistance to the Emir of Bahrain as the people of Bahrain rebel against him. I guess it all depends on who is rebelling - and against who.
Now - a confession. I am not an admirer of Quebec nationalism. I lived almost all my life in the bigotry and discrimination that is still Quebec. I ifought against it for years. In the end, I saw it destroy the community I had grown up in. I have no desire ever too see Quebec again.
I blame the nationalists for that. I also blame the Quebec Liberals at least as much, all federal parties, and all Canadians for letting it happen. I have no anti-French feeling out of this. I do have a pretty strong anti-bigotry feeling. But in NB it's usually English bigots who bother me.(and a very few Acadiens who have taken Quebec as their model.)
Remembering all that, read Alec Buce's superb column on Nycole Turmel, the NDP leader who is revealed to have been a member of a separatist party. Any person in the Quebec of the 1960s to the 1990s who was seriously interested to social reform could well be drawn to the PQ or the Bloc for lack of any altenative.
So Turmel has changed her mind about Quebec nationalism. Well, she's not the only one whose mind has changed. I would far rather have a Turmel who can change her mind than a Harper who can't. This affair was clumsily handled, certainly. But it in no way makes her ineligible to lead a federalist party.
Indeed, if anyone breaks up Canada, it is far more likely to be Staphen Harper - just as it was the Liberal Bourassa who who was so largely responsible for destroy the English community of Quebec.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
August 3: a mixed bag.
It was inevitable. Needing to discredit Monday's protest against shale gas, the T&T sought out its usual apologist for big business, Professor Donald Savoie. "Protests might kill industry, says prof".
The prof says that there could be big money in shale gas.
Wisely, he says not a word about the invironmental and health risks. After all, he knows nothing about those. In effect, he really says, well, it might poison water and land and people. But, gee, there could be big money in this. So let's talk more aboout that part.
On p. A3 is an announcement that professor Savoie has been awarded the Order of New Brunswick by the Alward government Yes, they look after their own.
And, once again, the T&T has refused to admit there could possible be health risks, refused to ask why such drilling is forbidden in France and under a moratorium in Quebec, refusto to ask why American insurance companies are refusing to offer property insurance for land anywhere close to the drilling, refused to give any information at all.
Despite what professor Savoie claims, there has been no debate about the risks of shale gas. The government and Brunswick Meida have refused to permit anysuch debate, and refused to release the information we need for a debate. Professor Savoie did not lie in his statement. But he skated on very thin ice, ideed. I'm sure he knew what the game was, and what part he was playing.
If the T&T watned to clarify the issue, why didn't it interview an authority on the issue - perhaps an academic authority on shale gas drilling? Why ask a professor who knows nothing about it?
The T&T picked Savoie, one must assume, because they know he would be a safe one - and they then printed a story to change the subject and further deaden the debate. That's how newspapers lie without actually lying.
Ono the editorial page, you have to read Alec Bruce's column for yourself. It is superb in both analysis and writing.
I enjoy seeing Norbert Cunniham now that he always writes under his own name. But he needs to read more widely in economics. The world is not in an economic crisis because the poor were demanding too many services. It's not "the people" who caused the cricis. The tipping point came when the low interest morgage scam collapsed, and when US taxpayers had to plunge even deeper into debt and even into poverty to pay to the billionaires who caused the crisis - and who promptly used a nundred and thirty0billion of that they got to give each other bonusses. (And who now insist they must not be asked to pay higher taxes - though their real taxes are extremely low.)
The slide had actually begun even earlier with costly wars which certainly were not a service to the poor. The US leads the world by far in military spending - much of it going to no-bid contracts and/or to currupt friends of a corrupt government.
The greed of the very rich in the US has given it the biggest wage gap in the industrial world, and created the masses of poor who are now blamed for the recession.
The same thing is going on in Canada - and even in New Brunswick. And Alward has real power???
Norbert has to be kidding. Alward is a gofer, or, more kindly, an obedientdog - to slow to learn tricks, but capable of bringing in the morning paper. Anything he gets done is what he's told to get done.
It wasn't services that caused the crisis. It's corruption, greed and arrogance. And it's not the poor who are corrupt, greedy and arrogant. They're just the ones who pay the price for it.
The prof says that there could be big money in shale gas.
Wisely, he says not a word about the invironmental and health risks. After all, he knows nothing about those. In effect, he really says, well, it might poison water and land and people. But, gee, there could be big money in this. So let's talk more aboout that part.
On p. A3 is an announcement that professor Savoie has been awarded the Order of New Brunswick by the Alward government Yes, they look after their own.
And, once again, the T&T has refused to admit there could possible be health risks, refused to ask why such drilling is forbidden in France and under a moratorium in Quebec, refusto to ask why American insurance companies are refusing to offer property insurance for land anywhere close to the drilling, refused to give any information at all.
Despite what professor Savoie claims, there has been no debate about the risks of shale gas. The government and Brunswick Meida have refused to permit anysuch debate, and refused to release the information we need for a debate. Professor Savoie did not lie in his statement. But he skated on very thin ice, ideed. I'm sure he knew what the game was, and what part he was playing.
If the T&T watned to clarify the issue, why didn't it interview an authority on the issue - perhaps an academic authority on shale gas drilling? Why ask a professor who knows nothing about it?
The T&T picked Savoie, one must assume, because they know he would be a safe one - and they then printed a story to change the subject and further deaden the debate. That's how newspapers lie without actually lying.
Ono the editorial page, you have to read Alec Bruce's column for yourself. It is superb in both analysis and writing.
I enjoy seeing Norbert Cunniham now that he always writes under his own name. But he needs to read more widely in economics. The world is not in an economic crisis because the poor were demanding too many services. It's not "the people" who caused the cricis. The tipping point came when the low interest morgage scam collapsed, and when US taxpayers had to plunge even deeper into debt and even into poverty to pay to the billionaires who caused the crisis - and who promptly used a nundred and thirty0billion of that they got to give each other bonusses. (And who now insist they must not be asked to pay higher taxes - though their real taxes are extremely low.)
The slide had actually begun even earlier with costly wars which certainly were not a service to the poor. The US leads the world by far in military spending - much of it going to no-bid contracts and/or to currupt friends of a corrupt government.
The greed of the very rich in the US has given it the biggest wage gap in the industrial world, and created the masses of poor who are now blamed for the recession.
The same thing is going on in Canada - and even in New Brunswick. And Alward has real power???
Norbert has to be kidding. Alward is a gofer, or, more kindly, an obedientdog - to slow to learn tricks, but capable of bringing in the morning paper. Anything he gets done is what he's told to get done.
It wasn't services that caused the crisis. It's corruption, greed and arrogance. And it's not the poor who are corrupt, greedy and arrogant. They're just the ones who pay the price for it.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
August 2 (no.2): The report on the US debt deal.
I didn't mention the story on the US debt deal because there is no debt deal. The problem is a wildly out of control debt which is now causing a profound and dangerous levels of suffering in the US. The super rich haven't suffered. In fact, their share of the national wealth is rising. And they have no interest in reviving the US when they can simply shift their work to low wage countries. And it's the super rich who pay the bills for both the Republicans and the Democrats (something like New Brunswick in that respect), including Obama.
There is no deal to touch that problem. Instead, Obama and the boys decided to go back to the credit card, and borrow money (that the banks don't actually have), resulting in a bigger debt - not only for the loan but for the interest on it. (Yes. The banksactually get interest forfor lending money they don't have.)
Will the American economy improve? Probably not.
Will American democracy survive? No. That died a long time ago. The US has a thoroughly corrupted political system, and a nation propagandized by some of the same media owners what have corrupted the government.
The barbarians (and their think-tanks) are at the gates.
There is no deal to touch that problem. Instead, Obama and the boys decided to go back to the credit card, and borrow money (that the banks don't actually have), resulting in a bigger debt - not only for the loan but for the interest on it. (Yes. The banksactually get interest forfor lending money they don't have.)
Will the American economy improve? Probably not.
Will American democracy survive? No. That died a long time ago. The US has a thoroughly corrupted political system, and a nation propagandized by some of the same media owners what have corrupted the government.
The barbarians (and their think-tanks) are at the gates.
August 2: How to tell when a newspaper is lying...
On p. A4, there is a story that isn't really a story, that gives almost no information and, in fact, appears to be part of a fraud.
1. A basc rule is that you begin a story wth the basics of the incident it is reporting. In this case, the story is that an "expert" on education says there is an excellent report on education from ten years ago which should be applied to New Brunswick education.
What expert? What qualifications does he/she have in edcuation? We don't even know the "expert's" name until a third of the way through he story. And it never does tell us why he is an expert on education.
2. Two paragraphs later, it tells us that the "expert" was telling us about some internation standradized test applied to NB schools? What international test? What is the reputation of that test among educational scholars? It also refers to the test as "the" test on the subject. In fact, there are many such tests, some a great deal more honest than others.
3.Then we are told another expert named Elena Scaba was paid $50,000 to write a report suggesting changes to NB education.. Who the hell is Elena Scaba? What qualifications does she have? I checked her name in Google. Eight hundred entries pop up - of which a half dozen or so are actually about her at all - and two are duplicates.. The rest of the entires have no connection with her at all.
None of them give any indication of what she does for a living, or what qualificiations she has on anything. That is very unusual.
I have 30,000 listing in Goggle - of which perhaps a thousand are actually about me.. Many of them have references to education. But no government has ever offered me 50 thou to write a report on education. Did our government in a countryfull of thousands with substantial qualifications in education actually squander 50,000 on somebody nobody has ever heard of?
So let's start with education "expert" Charles Cirtwill. Surprise! Surprise! Mr. Cirtwill is the president and CEO of Atlantic Insitute of Market Studies, a favourite child of the Irvings and their friends. He has no training whatever in education. It's a safe bet, too, that the "international standardized test" was designed by "think-tank" hacks like Mr. Cirtwill.
And who is Elena Scaba? Well, a safe guess is that she is probably a "Senior Educational Research Fellow" f or a propaganda house connected to AIMS - possibly the Frontier Institute, one of those.
As a "news story", this half page isn't a story at all. It's badly written, missing so much basic information that it amounts to misleading and lying. This, on every ground, would be unacceptable in any reputable (or half-reputable) newspaper.
I don't blame the reporter for this. The instruction to prepare such a story would come from the eidtor.
There is a similar artcle in the half page above this one. I would guess that AIMS is getting set to ramp up its attacks on public education so ti can be used as a cash cow for big business; so the owner of the T&T has given marching orders to his wind-up editors.
There is also a story that in the last federal election. the NDP beat the Liberals in Moncton, and were not far behind the Conservative winner, while the Greens polled a respectable number. Just the NDP and the Greens came close to the winning Conervative.
So how come in its final election issue, the T&T interviewed only the liberal and Conservative candidates?
A pat on the head - the T&T did a good job on reporting the anti-fracking demonstration in Fredericton. Unenthsiastic; but at least mentioning it.
Alec Bruce's column is excellent, and still sound - though almost certainly written before all the details of the US debt "deal" were known. In fact, there is no deal if, by deal, one means a strategy for handling the debt. The only deal has been to raise the ceiling while putting off any decision about how to remedy the problem. All the steps from here go down, not just economically but socially and politically.
And, an apology to young Norbert Cunningham. When the T&T published months of lying and ignorant attacks on the public schools, I assumed it was Norbert who either wrote them or approved them. Now, as I read his own, signed columns, he seems to be to be too intelligent to have either written or approved of those editorials. They were done by somebody higher in the food chain.
That gives us a pretty naoor choice of who the culprit miight be - perhaps as narrow as a choice of one. But we do know this much about the person.
The person who wrote those eidtorials on putlic education is ignorant of education; is a bully for such unprincipled attacks on people in no position to fight back (and who were completely abandoned by Home and School and by Parents' Association who were either gutless or as ignorant as the editorial writer - perhaps both); and a coward for never putting his/her own name to those disgusting editorials.
Ignorance, bullying, cowardice. Three words that neatly sum up The Moncton Times&Transcript. My sympathy to all who have no choice but to work there.
1. A basc rule is that you begin a story wth the basics of the incident it is reporting. In this case, the story is that an "expert" on education says there is an excellent report on education from ten years ago which should be applied to New Brunswick education.
What expert? What qualifications does he/she have in edcuation? We don't even know the "expert's" name until a third of the way through he story. And it never does tell us why he is an expert on education.
2. Two paragraphs later, it tells us that the "expert" was telling us about some internation standradized test applied to NB schools? What international test? What is the reputation of that test among educational scholars? It also refers to the test as "the" test on the subject. In fact, there are many such tests, some a great deal more honest than others.
3.Then we are told another expert named Elena Scaba was paid $50,000 to write a report suggesting changes to NB education.. Who the hell is Elena Scaba? What qualifications does she have? I checked her name in Google. Eight hundred entries pop up - of which a half dozen or so are actually about her at all - and two are duplicates.. The rest of the entires have no connection with her at all.
None of them give any indication of what she does for a living, or what qualificiations she has on anything. That is very unusual.
I have 30,000 listing in Goggle - of which perhaps a thousand are actually about me.. Many of them have references to education. But no government has ever offered me 50 thou to write a report on education. Did our government in a countryfull of thousands with substantial qualifications in education actually squander 50,000 on somebody nobody has ever heard of?
So let's start with education "expert" Charles Cirtwill. Surprise! Surprise! Mr. Cirtwill is the president and CEO of Atlantic Insitute of Market Studies, a favourite child of the Irvings and their friends. He has no training whatever in education. It's a safe bet, too, that the "international standardized test" was designed by "think-tank" hacks like Mr. Cirtwill.
And who is Elena Scaba? Well, a safe guess is that she is probably a "Senior Educational Research Fellow" f or a propaganda house connected to AIMS - possibly the Frontier Institute, one of those.
As a "news story", this half page isn't a story at all. It's badly written, missing so much basic information that it amounts to misleading and lying. This, on every ground, would be unacceptable in any reputable (or half-reputable) newspaper.
I don't blame the reporter for this. The instruction to prepare such a story would come from the eidtor.
There is a similar artcle in the half page above this one. I would guess that AIMS is getting set to ramp up its attacks on public education so ti can be used as a cash cow for big business; so the owner of the T&T has given marching orders to his wind-up editors.
There is also a story that in the last federal election. the NDP beat the Liberals in Moncton, and were not far behind the Conservative winner, while the Greens polled a respectable number. Just the NDP and the Greens came close to the winning Conervative.
So how come in its final election issue, the T&T interviewed only the liberal and Conservative candidates?
A pat on the head - the T&T did a good job on reporting the anti-fracking demonstration in Fredericton. Unenthsiastic; but at least mentioning it.
Alec Bruce's column is excellent, and still sound - though almost certainly written before all the details of the US debt "deal" were known. In fact, there is no deal if, by deal, one means a strategy for handling the debt. The only deal has been to raise the ceiling while putting off any decision about how to remedy the problem. All the steps from here go down, not just economically but socially and politically.
And, an apology to young Norbert Cunningham. When the T&T published months of lying and ignorant attacks on the public schools, I assumed it was Norbert who either wrote them or approved them. Now, as I read his own, signed columns, he seems to be to be too intelligent to have either written or approved of those editorials. They were done by somebody higher in the food chain.
That gives us a pretty naoor choice of who the culprit miight be - perhaps as narrow as a choice of one. But we do know this much about the person.
The person who wrote those eidtorials on putlic education is ignorant of education; is a bully for such unprincipled attacks on people in no position to fight back (and who were completely abandoned by Home and School and by Parents' Association who were either gutless or as ignorant as the editorial writer - perhaps both); and a coward for never putting his/her own name to those disgusting editorials.
Ignorance, bullying, cowardice. Three words that neatly sum up The Moncton Times&Transcript. My sympathy to all who have no choice but to work there.
Monday, August 1, 2011
August 1: Lord love a duck...
So this is the the exciting new format of The Moncton Times&Transcript.
Section A has 14 pages, of which 9 are about the U2 concert of last night - and those are mostly pictures.
Two moreof the 14 pages are advertising and obituaries. That leaves just three for business, local, and world news. Section A is obviously designed to attract those who read while moving their lips. It makes the Gerry Springer Show seem like an intellectual treat.
(There is, by the way, no mention of fracking for shale gas, the wonderful things it's going to do for us, or the lavishing of information and discussion sessions about it.)
Section B is Sports. It has 10 pages. But control your excitment. Six of those pages are ads.
Section C - oh, be still, my heart. It was 14 pages, all of them full of pictures about the U2 concert - and how it brought families together, etc.
(Curiously, there is no mention that the turnout seems to have been some 5,000 fewer than forecast.)
Section D is unchanged - mostly trivia like advice, astrology and comics. two pages of opinions,, and one of letters to the edtior and the weather forecast. Those final three pages are still the only three (partly) worth reading.
The editorial is, as usual, trite and even silly. Norbert's new column "Odds and Ends", could be interesting. But it's hopelessly over the heads of people who buy a paper to look at pictures of busses lined up at a rock concert.
Interesting column by Alec Bruce about the decline of quality on TV. It's no longer even pablum. The latter at least has food value. However, and much as I would not have thought it possible, The Moncton T&T is even worse than the worst I have seen on television. Like televeision, it is designed to keep people in ignorance, to discourage thought and disucssion, to keep us in a vegetative state so that we can be manipulated by those who rip us off. But at least the pictures on TV move.
Oh, don't miss the front page headline. (It's about U2)
ANOTHER MONCTON MIRACLE.!
Oh, yes. There is somewhere in the paper a mention that Moncton New Brunswick literacy is not as high as it should be. Of course it isn't. Children learn to read according to the influences that surround them. New Brunswick children grow up in a society in which parents don't set much of an example for reading. That, coupled with inane TV and tirivial (and heavily pictorial) newspapers, produces children who don't read much.
But trivial and illiterate is how we want them, isn't it? Whey else would there be a newspaper that is mostly pictures, trivia, and runs Rupert Murdoch headlines like. ANOTHER MONCTON MIRACLE! I mean, if we don't keep them trivial and illiterate they might figure out that the Liberals and Conservatives are really the same party, and both of them owned by the same people. And those people want to develop shale gas whever damage it many do to us. Well, the don't have to live here. Do they...
Section A has 14 pages, of which 9 are about the U2 concert of last night - and those are mostly pictures.
Two moreof the 14 pages are advertising and obituaries. That leaves just three for business, local, and world news. Section A is obviously designed to attract those who read while moving their lips. It makes the Gerry Springer Show seem like an intellectual treat.
(There is, by the way, no mention of fracking for shale gas, the wonderful things it's going to do for us, or the lavishing of information and discussion sessions about it.)
Section B is Sports. It has 10 pages. But control your excitment. Six of those pages are ads.
Section C - oh, be still, my heart. It was 14 pages, all of them full of pictures about the U2 concert - and how it brought families together, etc.
(Curiously, there is no mention that the turnout seems to have been some 5,000 fewer than forecast.)
Section D is unchanged - mostly trivia like advice, astrology and comics. two pages of opinions,, and one of letters to the edtior and the weather forecast. Those final three pages are still the only three (partly) worth reading.
The editorial is, as usual, trite and even silly. Norbert's new column "Odds and Ends", could be interesting. But it's hopelessly over the heads of people who buy a paper to look at pictures of busses lined up at a rock concert.
Interesting column by Alec Bruce about the decline of quality on TV. It's no longer even pablum. The latter at least has food value. However, and much as I would not have thought it possible, The Moncton T&T is even worse than the worst I have seen on television. Like televeision, it is designed to keep people in ignorance, to discourage thought and disucssion, to keep us in a vegetative state so that we can be manipulated by those who rip us off. But at least the pictures on TV move.
Oh, don't miss the front page headline. (It's about U2)
ANOTHER MONCTON MIRACLE.!
Oh, yes. There is somewhere in the paper a mention that Moncton New Brunswick literacy is not as high as it should be. Of course it isn't. Children learn to read according to the influences that surround them. New Brunswick children grow up in a society in which parents don't set much of an example for reading. That, coupled with inane TV and tirivial (and heavily pictorial) newspapers, produces children who don't read much.
But trivial and illiterate is how we want them, isn't it? Whey else would there be a newspaper that is mostly pictures, trivia, and runs Rupert Murdoch headlines like. ANOTHER MONCTON MIRACLE! I mean, if we don't keep them trivial and illiterate they might figure out that the Liberals and Conservatives are really the same party, and both of them owned by the same people. And those people want to develop shale gas whever damage it many do to us. Well, the don't have to live here. Do they...
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