Thursday, June 2, 2011
June 2: re ground troops in Libya
I forgot to mention in my previous post that yesterday CBC carried the report of western ground troops in Libya. I guess the newshawks at The Moncton Times&Transcript don't listen to the radio or watch TV, either.
June 2: a few things worth talking about.
Most of the today's paper is the same fish wrapper it usually is. There's long, long story on some ex-politician who wants a government job. I'm sure he's a nice man. But I have no idea why his post-retirement plans merite a front page spread.
For a change, the editorial and op ed pages are pretty good.
Alec Bruce writes his usual, solid column.
Gwynn Dyer is the same. (He doesn't mention the ground troops in Libya probably because he almost certainly wrote t his column before the story broke. The earlier ground troops - disguised as advisors and etchnicians - have been known for a long time, but inadequately reported or documented, so he would stay away from those.)
He mentions that the prime issue is not oil but, regrettably, doesn't say what is. That might take too lenghty a discussion of the position of the American dollar, and of a creature in the making called the African Union. Nor does he explain why Al-Quaeda is on the side of the rebels. As Dyer says, none of this is as simple as it looks.
There's the regular and excellent column by Jody Dallaire on the op ed page.
And, unusual for the staff-written column at the top of the page, a thought provoking one by Rod Allen about high school graduation and drinking.
The level of illegal drinking in the province at high school graduation - and the tragedies associated with it - seem very high for the size of this province. Allen's column is both touching - and a warning for all of us to think of why this is happening.
Just a hint we should consider ---- How we learn to act and behave at the stages of growing up has less to do with police and school that we generally understand. It has far more to do with us, with the expectations and the examples we set.
When The Moncton Times&Transcript makes a major story out of a beer fest at the Coliseum (with a photo of adults lined up to toss back a few) that's a pretty powerful message to children on how adults are supposed to behave. When parents joke about how their kids are going to get blasted at their grad, that is a pretty powerful message to their children that loutishness is fun.
Moncton (and New Brunswick as a whole) is not a society that sets much of a model for children - not in leisure behaviour, not in respect for education, not in intellectual interests, not in public discussion.......
So, while their parents sit at home giggling about it, a lot of kids are going to get blasted. Some, based on experience, are likely to get killed. And they may take others with them.
I can already see the editorial writer blaming the public schools. And parents nodding their heads in agreement with it.
Take a good look at today's editorial and op ed pages. Thehy're worth it.
I have to admit the T&T does have some first-rate commentary writers. Too bad they mess it up with those half wit "think tank" items.
For a change, the editorial and op ed pages are pretty good.
Alec Bruce writes his usual, solid column.
Gwynn Dyer is the same. (He doesn't mention the ground troops in Libya probably because he almost certainly wrote t his column before the story broke. The earlier ground troops - disguised as advisors and etchnicians - have been known for a long time, but inadequately reported or documented, so he would stay away from those.)
He mentions that the prime issue is not oil but, regrettably, doesn't say what is. That might take too lenghty a discussion of the position of the American dollar, and of a creature in the making called the African Union. Nor does he explain why Al-Quaeda is on the side of the rebels. As Dyer says, none of this is as simple as it looks.
There's the regular and excellent column by Jody Dallaire on the op ed page.
And, unusual for the staff-written column at the top of the page, a thought provoking one by Rod Allen about high school graduation and drinking.
The level of illegal drinking in the province at high school graduation - and the tragedies associated with it - seem very high for the size of this province. Allen's column is both touching - and a warning for all of us to think of why this is happening.
Just a hint we should consider ---- How we learn to act and behave at the stages of growing up has less to do with police and school that we generally understand. It has far more to do with us, with the expectations and the examples we set.
When The Moncton Times&Transcript makes a major story out of a beer fest at the Coliseum (with a photo of adults lined up to toss back a few) that's a pretty powerful message to children on how adults are supposed to behave. When parents joke about how their kids are going to get blasted at their grad, that is a pretty powerful message to their children that loutishness is fun.
Moncton (and New Brunswick as a whole) is not a society that sets much of a model for children - not in leisure behaviour, not in respect for education, not in intellectual interests, not in public discussion.......
So, while their parents sit at home giggling about it, a lot of kids are going to get blasted. Some, based on experience, are likely to get killed. And they may take others with them.
I can already see the editorial writer blaming the public schools. And parents nodding their heads in agreement with it.
Take a good look at today's editorial and op ed pages. Thehy're worth it.
I have to admit the T&T does have some first-rate commentary writers. Too bad they mess it up with those half wit "think tank" items.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
June 1: Shush - don't tell anybody......
We're at war. But it didn't make the news for The Moncton Times&Tramscript. The front page was dominated by the really big stuff - a picture of two bear cubs at the zoo, and a promo for the sports section that the NHL is returning to Winnipeg. The news in the NewsToday section is that Ottawa is studying NB's blood service option.
Two days ago, The Guardian, perhaps the most reputable newspaper in the English-speaking world, confirmed that western troops are on the ground in Libya, and have been for some considerable time; and they are working with the rebel side. (Indeed, that has been common knowledge among western journalists almost since the start of our "humanitarian" operation. But most of our news media have not said a word about it.)
This is easily checked. As I suggested in a previous blog, the T&T could hire a kid at minimum wage to check the world's major news media with a computer. But, like the case of President Clinton publicly apolozing for murdering 200,000 Maya in Guatemala, it never made the T&T - not even when it was revealed that nuns and priests were killed in the slaughter, and one of the victirms was a young man from Buctouche. The story appeared in the New York Times. In fact, that was the only North American mews medium that carried. I guess journalists don't read the New York Times.
Anyway, this raises a number of problems for Canadians.
1. We are in Libya now, dropping bombs to help the rebels.
2. Our mandate from the UN was clear that we were to go for humanitarian reasons, not to take sides.
3. There is no UN mandate at all to put in ground troops.
4. When you drop bombs on people and send in troops, that is called war. That's not a technical term. It's not an exaggeration. That's what invading other countries and killing people is properly called.
5. There are rules for going to war. They come in the form of agreements signed by most countries, including NATO countries. One rule is you cannot go to war against a country unless it has attacked you. Have you noticed any Libyan troops at the mall?
6.When you go to war you are supposed to declare war. Remember how, at the time of Pearl Harbour, Roosevelt said of the Japanese that their attack was not a nice thing to do?
7. In a democracy, people are informed when they are going to be committed to war. There is news. There is public discussion. There is debate in parliament; and there is a vote. Those are rights we supposedly won by the sacrifice of over 60,000 Canadian in 1914-1918.
8. Why do we now find ourselves now in an undeclared war with Libya? Is Libya a threat to Canada? Have Canadians in that country been mistreated? Does anybody even know what that war is about? Has anybody thought about the consequences of yet another invasion of a Molslem country? What about the chances that this open defiance of the UN mandate will serously weaken and possibly destroy the UN?
As a sidelight, have we been told that the American government has just cut almost one and a half million people from its assistance programme/ It's to divert spending for the wars, of course - and Canada may well have to go the same route.
So why is Canada there?
We're there because major corporations in Canada depend on kissing up to the US government for much of their business.
And if some of our sons and daughters get killed or maimed? Well, we'll say something nice about them every November 11. And the Moncton Times will run a big story on that.
I have no idea why The Moncton Times did not run the Libya story. In the years I've read it, I've seen ignorance, propaganda, lying and incompetence. This one could be just a mixture or all four.
Two days ago, The Guardian, perhaps the most reputable newspaper in the English-speaking world, confirmed that western troops are on the ground in Libya, and have been for some considerable time; and they are working with the rebel side. (Indeed, that has been common knowledge among western journalists almost since the start of our "humanitarian" operation. But most of our news media have not said a word about it.)
This is easily checked. As I suggested in a previous blog, the T&T could hire a kid at minimum wage to check the world's major news media with a computer. But, like the case of President Clinton publicly apolozing for murdering 200,000 Maya in Guatemala, it never made the T&T - not even when it was revealed that nuns and priests were killed in the slaughter, and one of the victirms was a young man from Buctouche. The story appeared in the New York Times. In fact, that was the only North American mews medium that carried. I guess journalists don't read the New York Times.
Anyway, this raises a number of problems for Canadians.
1. We are in Libya now, dropping bombs to help the rebels.
2. Our mandate from the UN was clear that we were to go for humanitarian reasons, not to take sides.
3. There is no UN mandate at all to put in ground troops.
4. When you drop bombs on people and send in troops, that is called war. That's not a technical term. It's not an exaggeration. That's what invading other countries and killing people is properly called.
5. There are rules for going to war. They come in the form of agreements signed by most countries, including NATO countries. One rule is you cannot go to war against a country unless it has attacked you. Have you noticed any Libyan troops at the mall?
6.When you go to war you are supposed to declare war. Remember how, at the time of Pearl Harbour, Roosevelt said of the Japanese that their attack was not a nice thing to do?
7. In a democracy, people are informed when they are going to be committed to war. There is news. There is public discussion. There is debate in parliament; and there is a vote. Those are rights we supposedly won by the sacrifice of over 60,000 Canadian in 1914-1918.
8. Why do we now find ourselves now in an undeclared war with Libya? Is Libya a threat to Canada? Have Canadians in that country been mistreated? Does anybody even know what that war is about? Has anybody thought about the consequences of yet another invasion of a Molslem country? What about the chances that this open defiance of the UN mandate will serously weaken and possibly destroy the UN?
As a sidelight, have we been told that the American government has just cut almost one and a half million people from its assistance programme/ It's to divert spending for the wars, of course - and Canada may well have to go the same route.
So why is Canada there?
We're there because major corporations in Canada depend on kissing up to the US government for much of their business.
And if some of our sons and daughters get killed or maimed? Well, we'll say something nice about them every November 11. And the Moncton Times will run a big story on that.
I have no idea why The Moncton Times did not run the Libya story. In the years I've read it, I've seen ignorance, propaganda, lying and incompetence. This one could be just a mixture or all four.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
May 31 again: Flash for The Moncton T&T
The very reputable British paper, The Guardian, in its issue of May 30, confirms that there are western troops on the gound in Libya. It says they are probably British SAS, and they are working with t he rebels.
Ready to bet you won't see that story in the T&T for Wednesday?
We're at war. Nobody has approved it. We haven't even been told.So much for the sacrifice of a hundred thousand Canadians in two world wars and Korea.
I also want to apologize for saying the T&T is the worst paper I have ever seen. Today, I read its sister paper, The Telegraph-Jounral. For vileness, ignorance and malice, today's editorial on education makes the T&T look refined.
I think I'll pass on the third, ugly sister - The Fredericton Gleaner.
Ready to bet you won't see that story in the T&T for Wednesday?
We're at war. Nobody has approved it. We haven't even been told.So much for the sacrifice of a hundred thousand Canadians in two world wars and Korea.
I also want to apologize for saying the T&T is the worst paper I have ever seen. Today, I read its sister paper, The Telegraph-Jounral. For vileness, ignorance and malice, today's editorial on education makes the T&T look refined.
I think I'll pass on the third, ugly sister - The Fredericton Gleaner.
May 31: How to say nothing - and charge money for it.
Today was really a zero day for the The Moncton Times&Tribune - unless you really, really care that an actor named Colin Farrell turns 35 today. Only a couple of pages are worth even negative comments.
The biggest story in NewsToday begins with a picture of Harper shaking hands with a soldier in Afghanistan. Another big one is a pointless stream of gush that somebody named Williamson is ready to go to Ottawa. I'm glad to hear it. I was worried that after getting elected he wouldn't go.
They do mention Libya where our air force is busy killing people. There is no mention of why. The UN gave them permission to patrol Libyan skies to enforce a no-fly zone for humanitarian reasons. (So why don't we have no-fly zones over Bahrain, Gaza and Pakistan? - Also Yemen where the US has used drone bombers.) The reality is we are are not simply enforcing a no-fly zone.
We are fighting for one side. This almost certainly will lead to a commitment to send in ground troops. (In fact, they are already there as British, French and US "advisors" and "technicians".) We are in another war. We are, without any national or parliamentary debate, at war. The right to decide when and where we would go to war is what our soldiers died for in two world wars. At least, that's what we say every November 11. And forget every November 12.
Apparently, either nobody at the T&T knows that - or nobody gives a damn about the over a hundred thousand Canadians who were killed.
Most of Libya news in the T&T comes from Reuters. The T&T has to pay for it. Here's a money-saving tip for T&T. Hire an office boy for minimum wage. Have him go to google, and type in Hifter Libya Washington Post.
The Washington Post has an interview in its issue of May 26 with Colonel Hifter, formerly of the Libyan army. He defected to the US and took a job as a CIA "asset". He was then smuggled back to Libya where he stirred up and became the major leader of the current rebellion. What a conincidence!
So why are we killing people in Libya?
The business page, always dreadful, has today respelled dreadful as dreary.The major story is about CEOs in the Atlantic region holding a gala to give each other awards and congratulate each other for their brilliance. There were 50 awards. To get that many CEOs, they must have included mom and pop convenience stores.
The editorial and op ed pages include the usual neo-conservative "think tank" propaganda. This time there there are two commentaries, both from The Frontier Insitute. And both unsually silly, even for The Frontier Institute.
Ben Eisen attacks environmentalists as radicals who have been proven wrong. His first proof is a book by David Frum. Young David is a far right crackpot bordering on fascism (even by the standards of The Frontier Institute) who knows nothing about environment - or any other subject he writes about.
Then Eisen tells us that predictions of economic and social collapse have proven wrong as living standards have gone up all over the world.
Hasn't anybody told Mr. Eisen about the millions in the US unemployed,, and those who have lost their homes? Anybody slip him a word about conditions in Europe with at least Spain and Greece close to rebellion? Then there's Africa which has so much economic and social collapse that even the T&T has noticed it. (Some of it.)
China has one fifth of the world's population. Has its living standards risen? They have if you're one of the small number of very rich. They're rich because they make piles of money out of a billion people working cheaply for long hours, and often in dangerous conditions.
The average gross per capita income in China is eight hundred and sixty five dollars per year. That would translate for the average family of three to something like $2400 a year. But that figure includes an upper class who count their incomes in the billions. China is hugely prosperous as a nation, hugely prosperous for its business leaders. But not so hot if you're an ordinary Chinese.
To that we can add India, almost a populous as China but with an average income of five hundred dollars a year. In both countries, as in the US and Canada, the bulk of the wealth has been pouring into the pockets of a very few. And the proportion going to the very rich has been growing for years.
Mr. Eisen also dismisses warnings of food shortages. I guess he never heard of the disaster of Russian wheat production last year, or of the expected disaster for this year. Nor has he heard of the crisis of rice production and of food prices in Asia.
It's not Mr. Eisen's politics that bother me here. It's his ignorance and/or lyng. No decent paper would print this. He is accompanied as a commentator by David Seymour, whose comments on the taxi industry are, to say the least, lightweight.
Cute picture of Alec Bruce, though.
The biggest story in NewsToday begins with a picture of Harper shaking hands with a soldier in Afghanistan. Another big one is a pointless stream of gush that somebody named Williamson is ready to go to Ottawa. I'm glad to hear it. I was worried that after getting elected he wouldn't go.
They do mention Libya where our air force is busy killing people. There is no mention of why. The UN gave them permission to patrol Libyan skies to enforce a no-fly zone for humanitarian reasons. (So why don't we have no-fly zones over Bahrain, Gaza and Pakistan? - Also Yemen where the US has used drone bombers.) The reality is we are are not simply enforcing a no-fly zone.
We are fighting for one side. This almost certainly will lead to a commitment to send in ground troops. (In fact, they are already there as British, French and US "advisors" and "technicians".) We are in another war. We are, without any national or parliamentary debate, at war. The right to decide when and where we would go to war is what our soldiers died for in two world wars. At least, that's what we say every November 11. And forget every November 12.
Apparently, either nobody at the T&T knows that - or nobody gives a damn about the over a hundred thousand Canadians who were killed.
Most of Libya news in the T&T comes from Reuters. The T&T has to pay for it. Here's a money-saving tip for T&T. Hire an office boy for minimum wage. Have him go to google, and type in Hifter Libya Washington Post.
The Washington Post has an interview in its issue of May 26 with Colonel Hifter, formerly of the Libyan army. He defected to the US and took a job as a CIA "asset". He was then smuggled back to Libya where he stirred up and became the major leader of the current rebellion. What a conincidence!
So why are we killing people in Libya?
The business page, always dreadful, has today respelled dreadful as dreary.The major story is about CEOs in the Atlantic region holding a gala to give each other awards and congratulate each other for their brilliance. There were 50 awards. To get that many CEOs, they must have included mom and pop convenience stores.
The editorial and op ed pages include the usual neo-conservative "think tank" propaganda. This time there there are two commentaries, both from The Frontier Insitute. And both unsually silly, even for The Frontier Institute.
Ben Eisen attacks environmentalists as radicals who have been proven wrong. His first proof is a book by David Frum. Young David is a far right crackpot bordering on fascism (even by the standards of The Frontier Institute) who knows nothing about environment - or any other subject he writes about.
Then Eisen tells us that predictions of economic and social collapse have proven wrong as living standards have gone up all over the world.
Hasn't anybody told Mr. Eisen about the millions in the US unemployed,, and those who have lost their homes? Anybody slip him a word about conditions in Europe with at least Spain and Greece close to rebellion? Then there's Africa which has so much economic and social collapse that even the T&T has noticed it. (Some of it.)
China has one fifth of the world's population. Has its living standards risen? They have if you're one of the small number of very rich. They're rich because they make piles of money out of a billion people working cheaply for long hours, and often in dangerous conditions.
The average gross per capita income in China is eight hundred and sixty five dollars per year. That would translate for the average family of three to something like $2400 a year. But that figure includes an upper class who count their incomes in the billions. China is hugely prosperous as a nation, hugely prosperous for its business leaders. But not so hot if you're an ordinary Chinese.
To that we can add India, almost a populous as China but with an average income of five hundred dollars a year. In both countries, as in the US and Canada, the bulk of the wealth has been pouring into the pockets of a very few. And the proportion going to the very rich has been growing for years.
Mr. Eisen also dismisses warnings of food shortages. I guess he never heard of the disaster of Russian wheat production last year, or of the expected disaster for this year. Nor has he heard of the crisis of rice production and of food prices in Asia.
It's not Mr. Eisen's politics that bother me here. It's his ignorance and/or lyng. No decent paper would print this. He is accompanied as a commentator by David Seymour, whose comments on the taxi industry are, to say the least, lightweight.
Cute picture of Alec Bruce, though.
Monday, May 30, 2011
for readers in t he Moncton area
The Moncton current events group will hold its monthly meeting on Thursday, June 2, at 2 p.m., in the Moncton Public Library.
I'll open with a few comments on the subject. Then you raise any topic you wish to explore further.
All are welcome.
I'll open with a few comments on the subject. Then you raise any topic you wish to explore further.
All are welcome.
May 30: How to spot bad editing...
Opinion columns normally appear clearly labelled as opinions (as on the editorial and op ed pages). Opinions that appear as news stories are deceptive. Though appearing as objective news of something that has happened, they wre usually opinions of what has happened. In fact, they are commonly just propaganda. .On the front page of today's Moncton Times&Transcript are at least four stories that are more opinion than news.
This sort of thing is not the fault of the reporter. The person who decides what will appear on a page, and how it will appear, is the editor. Young reporters learn the basic principles of their craft from good editors. That's a tough break for young reporters who make their start with Brunswick News.
"City's recreation plans on track" screams a headline on page 1. ":...each park will be defined by its surrounding community's wants and needs, all thanks to public input." Nonsense.
What happened is the city held public meetings on the subject. That city plans are on track is simply an opinion of the City government. So ar the statements that the community will make the decisions, and all this is thanks to public input.
We have no idea whether the plans are on track. We have no idea how influential public opinion was (or how many of the public expressed no opinion at all). We don't know whether there will be a "vast improvement", not unless some of us can see into the future. We don't even know the qualifications of the city's parks and leisure services. It takes considerable training to do such work. I know that because it happens I taught a university course in it.
In connection with that training, the parks and playgrounds movement in Canada was begun over a century ago by Mabel Peters of Fredericton (And I can safely guess that no member of Moncton City Council has ever heard of her.) The idea was not just to provide play space, but to offer programmes run by people trained in using the playground to develop intellectual and social skills.
Public consultation is not much help in that. If you think it is, then you must be all in favour of holding referenda on how brain surgery should be performed.
Then there's "NB Liberals begin to rebuild". In this one, we are told that the "renewal" process (so much nicer than rebuilding) has notthing to do with losing the last election, but with "isolating areas of inefficency". If the report had mentioned this beginning with the words - "according to chairwoman Kim Rayworth..."- that would have been fine. That would have presented the view as simply her opinion.
But it began, "However, as chairwoman Kim Rayworth said..." The However, as... turns this from ms. Rayworth's opioin into a statement of fact. That may seem a small point. But it twists the meaning of the story; and a good editor would notice that.
"Moncton beer fest a big hit". Well, again, this is an opinion. A statement of fact might be a whole lot of Monctonians enjoyed doing at the Coliseum what they normally do most day, chugging brewskies. When you see "Moncton beer fest a big hit", you know this is a story of pure fluff.
"Sea Dogs make N.B. proud". Well, I feel happy to live here. Nice province. Nice people. But I really don't give much of a damn who wins the Memorial Cup. Nor, I'm sure, am I the only person in the world who feels that way. And if I did give a damn, I can't see why it should be a cause of pride for me; I didn't score any goals in the game. Nor am I blown away by the personal pride of the office clerk in Singapore whose soccer team just won a trophy.
Anyway, the headline should be about the story. But the story is a standard one, much like the story of any hockey game that has ever been played. There's not a word in it about who is proud or why. This is just feel-good slush.
More slush on page A3. "McKenna gives $1M to the Miramichi." It is full of gushing opinion. "...as heartfelt expression of gratitude to his beloved Miramichi...." Unless writing gush, a reporter should report only what can be seen and heard. Nobody can see or hear whether anything is heartfelt.
Too bad. There was an interesting story tucked away in this blurb. How come a man who spent fifteen of his prime earning years as an MLA has a million dollars to spare?
In other questionable editorial work, the skimpy NewsToday section squeezed out some space to cover the war in Libya, passport changes, a Canadian soldiers' death in Afghanistan, the plight of flood victims in Quebec and Manitoba. But at least a quarter of the section was devoted to Prime Minister Harper's visit to a war graves area in Greece. It was certainly thoughtful of the Prime Minister to do so as a gesture to his communications director, whose grandfather was killed there. But over a quarter of a cramped NewsToday section?
The editorial was its usual, knee-jerk vapidity. It calls on government to bring in more immigrants (largely, as has always been true in Canada, as a source of cheap labour). It also fears that if we don't get such labour, business may move elsewhere. For that reason, the editorial also suggests a law to force New Brunswick immigrants to stay here for at least five years - so they won't drift off to jobs in Ontario and Alberta.
Let's seen, now. As I understand it, big business in New Brunswick insists that goernment intervention in the capitalist process is bad, that capitalism words best in free markets because the free market is a sort of magic wand that solves all problems.
If we insist people stay here instead of going to where the good jobs are, isn't that interfering with the magic wand of the free market? And if the government spends money to bring immigrants here to supply jobs that Candians, in a free market, are not interested in - well, isn't that inteference in the free market?
What are you, Norbert? Some kind of a communist?
Finally, check out the letters to the editor. Two of the letters concern shale gas. The government and the Moncton Times have both said development of shale gas lies at the heart of NB development. But we've only had one news article on it. Most of what we know we have to get from the letters to the editor.
Donne-moi un break.
This sort of thing is not the fault of the reporter. The person who decides what will appear on a page, and how it will appear, is the editor. Young reporters learn the basic principles of their craft from good editors. That's a tough break for young reporters who make their start with Brunswick News.
"City's recreation plans on track" screams a headline on page 1. ":...each park will be defined by its surrounding community's wants and needs, all thanks to public input." Nonsense.
What happened is the city held public meetings on the subject. That city plans are on track is simply an opinion of the City government. So ar the statements that the community will make the decisions, and all this is thanks to public input.
We have no idea whether the plans are on track. We have no idea how influential public opinion was (or how many of the public expressed no opinion at all). We don't know whether there will be a "vast improvement", not unless some of us can see into the future. We don't even know the qualifications of the city's parks and leisure services. It takes considerable training to do such work. I know that because it happens I taught a university course in it.
In connection with that training, the parks and playgrounds movement in Canada was begun over a century ago by Mabel Peters of Fredericton (And I can safely guess that no member of Moncton City Council has ever heard of her.) The idea was not just to provide play space, but to offer programmes run by people trained in using the playground to develop intellectual and social skills.
Public consultation is not much help in that. If you think it is, then you must be all in favour of holding referenda on how brain surgery should be performed.
Then there's "NB Liberals begin to rebuild". In this one, we are told that the "renewal" process (so much nicer than rebuilding) has notthing to do with losing the last election, but with "isolating areas of inefficency". If the report had mentioned this beginning with the words - "according to chairwoman Kim Rayworth..."- that would have been fine. That would have presented the view as simply her opinion.
But it began, "However, as chairwoman Kim Rayworth said..." The However, as... turns this from ms. Rayworth's opioin into a statement of fact. That may seem a small point. But it twists the meaning of the story; and a good editor would notice that.
"Moncton beer fest a big hit". Well, again, this is an opinion. A statement of fact might be a whole lot of Monctonians enjoyed doing at the Coliseum what they normally do most day, chugging brewskies. When you see "Moncton beer fest a big hit", you know this is a story of pure fluff.
"Sea Dogs make N.B. proud". Well, I feel happy to live here. Nice province. Nice people. But I really don't give much of a damn who wins the Memorial Cup. Nor, I'm sure, am I the only person in the world who feels that way. And if I did give a damn, I can't see why it should be a cause of pride for me; I didn't score any goals in the game. Nor am I blown away by the personal pride of the office clerk in Singapore whose soccer team just won a trophy.
Anyway, the headline should be about the story. But the story is a standard one, much like the story of any hockey game that has ever been played. There's not a word in it about who is proud or why. This is just feel-good slush.
More slush on page A3. "McKenna gives $1M to the Miramichi." It is full of gushing opinion. "...as heartfelt expression of gratitude to his beloved Miramichi...." Unless writing gush, a reporter should report only what can be seen and heard. Nobody can see or hear whether anything is heartfelt.
Too bad. There was an interesting story tucked away in this blurb. How come a man who spent fifteen of his prime earning years as an MLA has a million dollars to spare?
In other questionable editorial work, the skimpy NewsToday section squeezed out some space to cover the war in Libya, passport changes, a Canadian soldiers' death in Afghanistan, the plight of flood victims in Quebec and Manitoba. But at least a quarter of the section was devoted to Prime Minister Harper's visit to a war graves area in Greece. It was certainly thoughtful of the Prime Minister to do so as a gesture to his communications director, whose grandfather was killed there. But over a quarter of a cramped NewsToday section?
The editorial was its usual, knee-jerk vapidity. It calls on government to bring in more immigrants (largely, as has always been true in Canada, as a source of cheap labour). It also fears that if we don't get such labour, business may move elsewhere. For that reason, the editorial also suggests a law to force New Brunswick immigrants to stay here for at least five years - so they won't drift off to jobs in Ontario and Alberta.
Let's seen, now. As I understand it, big business in New Brunswick insists that goernment intervention in the capitalist process is bad, that capitalism words best in free markets because the free market is a sort of magic wand that solves all problems.
If we insist people stay here instead of going to where the good jobs are, isn't that interfering with the magic wand of the free market? And if the government spends money to bring immigrants here to supply jobs that Candians, in a free market, are not interested in - well, isn't that inteference in the free market?
What are you, Norbert? Some kind of a communist?
Finally, check out the letters to the editor. Two of the letters concern shale gas. The government and the Moncton Times have both said development of shale gas lies at the heart of NB development. But we've only had one news article on it. Most of what we know we have to get from the letters to the editor.
Donne-moi un break.
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