Category Archives: Newspapers

Do not let the facts interfere with good story

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CBC and Toronto Star exaggerate facts to spin so-called scandal about Disability Tax Credit

CBC and The Star falsify tax costs for 'the story' - click for larger graph

In the rush to get a headline, both CBC and The Star have resorted to distorting the facts about companies who help Canadians with disabilities.

When the basic facts in a story are wrong, how can we rely on the rest of the story for balanced reporting?

The truth behind the Disability Tax Credit is the real scandal. Continue reading →

Olympic officials hide truth in luge death

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Cover-up is ongoing as CBC discovered through secret emails

Nodar Kumaritashvili, died on dangerous luge track in Vancouver officials ignored warning

The death of Georgian luge athlete Nodar Muaritashvili may have been preventable according to secret emails uncovered by the CBC.

Vancouver Olympic organizers (VANOC) were warned long in advance that the track was too dangerous and too fast.

In March 2009, VANOC head John Furlong wrote “Embedded in this note (cryptic as it may be) is a warning that the track is in their view too fast and someone could get badly hurt. An athlete gets badly injured or worse, and I think the case could be made we were warned and did nothing.” CBC  Continue reading →

Disability Tax Credit Billion Dollar tax scam or media frenzy

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Recent stories in the Toronto Star and CBC imply the DTC is a $5.9 billion cash cow for the disabled – what a whopper that is

Disability Tax Credit is only worth $1,000 and less than 40% of taxpayers who qualify get it (illustration Stephen Pate)

Stories this week in the Toronto Star and on CBC Investigative Reports mislead the public into believing the cost of the Tax Credit is spiraling out of control at $5.9 billion annually.

The truth that the DTC costs taxpayers $415 million, 7% of the CBC report. Neither media would correct their stories.

Less than 40% of Canadians with disabilities who qualify are able to get past the gate keepers at the Canada Revenue Agency.

See -  Dispelling the myths about controversial Disability Tax Credit

The CBC and Star purport to be running an expose of National Benefit Authority, a company which helps the disabled get their deductions. More about that later.

Both stories are full of whopping distortions. We emailed the reporters with the facts but they did not correct their stories.  Continue reading →

MSNBC host suspended indefinitely for political donations

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Keith Olbermann suspended indefinitely for donations to Democratic candidates

MSNBC host Olberman breached journalistic ethics guidelines (photo Washington Post)

The Washington Post reported this statement from Phil Griffin, president of MSNBC:

“I became aware of Keith’s political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay.”

MSNBC has a strict policy of no political donations for journalists reporting on politics.

Policies vary by news organizations. Time, Fox, US News and World Report  allow it.

US News and World Report is reviewing its policy for potential conflicts of interest.

Reuters allows donations but not for political journalists.

Newsweek, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and the New York Times forbid political donations from their journalists.

With stories from The Washington Post and MSNBC.

Newspapers just don’t get it

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More brain dead moves by the nerds in the news game

The New York Times just doesn’t get it. They want you to sign up to use Twitter.

They still want you to pay for the news but news is more or less free today.  Mashable said today that 43% of online news isn’t even coming from the newspapers. It comes from social media like Facebook and Twitter.

I follow the New York Times with Twitter. They had an interesting Tweet tonight “nytimes The New York Times Buyers Find Electric Car Brings Perks http://nyti.ms/dqrNrF “

Seemed cool so I clicked through to the story and read it.  It was an interesting story about the Nissan Leaf and some of the financial benefits for buyers.  Continue reading →

Will Twitter replace blogging and journalism

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Growing popularity challenges the long story format

165 million people use Twitter. The popularity of the 140 character message threatens to change how people communicate. It is also changing how newspapers and bloggers write their headlines.

The downside is the life of a Tweet is about one hour and a Tweet is not the whole story.

But will it be another nail on the coffin of the newspaper business and will bloggers shift to Twitter instead?

People love the economy of Twitter. We don’t have to read 250 words, or even 50 words to find out what is happening. It’s all boiled down to 140 characters or about 25 words.   Continue reading →

Americans getting more news from Internet

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TV still tops with radio and newspapers below online / mobile news

Pew Research says Americans are spending more time catching up on the news but not from newspapers or radio.

TV tops where people got news yesterday. 58% said they watched TV news down 10% from 20 years ago.

Web and mobile are the second most popular source. 44% of people spent time yesterday getting news on their cell phones or on the internet.

Direct internet traffic is now at 34%, up 10% over the past 6 years.

The radio ties internet news at 34% down from 54%.

Newspapers, once the #2 source of news twenty years ago have fallen to only 31% of people.

This trend continues from the study two years ago and was conducted between June 8 and 28, 2010.
Continue reading →

The phony carnival war

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Attention from the battle of improving the lives of Islanders with disabilities is being diverted by a phony war over carnivals and disability

Carnival freak shows displayed persons we see today as disabled

Updated from August 24, 2009

The Liberal government is licking its lips at the thought of in-fighting between the PEI Canadian Paraplegic Association and PEI Disability Alert. Double agent Myrtle Jenkins Smith, who works for both the PEI CPA and Minister Currie, has her hand in stirring this up.

Despite two letters to the Guardian protesting how much fun it is to have people with disabilities on display at a carnival, the truth is the event was against the best authorities on disability support and reasonable sense of propriety.

The PEI Council of the Disabled turned down this fund raiser since it was inappropriate. They said it was offensive at the event location. They were putting able body people in wheelchairs and having them wear oven mittens.   Continue reading →

Newspapers discover internet when 12 year old raped

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Ottawa citizen actually posted the link to another newspaper in story about rape in Calgary

An ambulance attendant loads a patient at a playing field adjacent to Clarence Sansom Junior High, on 24th Avenue N.E. in the community of Pineridge. A girl as young as 12 was attacked, and possibly raped, in the northeast schoolyard just before the supper hour Monday as a group of youths looked on and took photos. Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/Police+seize+cellphones+interview+drunk+teens+after+schoolyard+assault/3487713/story.html#ixzz0yritlkqi Photograph by: Courtesy, Global TV

It was a pretty ghastly story in the Ottawa Citizen. Some teenage boys in Calgary allegedly raped a 12 year old girl in the school yard while other children looked on and took photographs with their cellphones.

Police have detained one boy who appeared to be the perpetrator and seized cell phones from others. They may contain videos or pictures which could be evidence.

Alcohol was involved.  A mother in a nearby home witnessed the whole incident unsure what was happening and then horrified when she realized the young girl was being sexually attacked.

The Ottawa Citizen was covering the story from the Calgary Herald. In an unprecedented move for a newspaper, the Citizen printed the link back to other paper.

Picture caption is exactly as shown in the Ottawa Citizen

Continue reading →

On blogging and journalism

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Peter Rukavina is not a journalist but other bloggers are

Photo credit: Paulino Figueirido

Randy MacDonald weighs into the discussion on “bloggers and journalism” referring to the controversy about NJN Network’s expulsion from the PEI Legislature.

Bloggers may or may not be journalists but then journalists aren’t journalists either. Reprinting press releases on a regular basis is called public relations.

MacDonald finds Rukavina’s admission that Ruk is not a journalist more of a personal admission than a state of the craft. In I am not a journalist, Rukavina makes the interesting although unconvincing statement

“The words I write in this space I write for myself alone, without consideration for their consumption. I write about things that happen to me, things that interest me, things that happen in my neighborhood and things that happen in the world.”

Continue reading →