The Journalism Doctor

Mark Twain once said “a lie can spread half way around the world while truth is still putting on its shoes.” That’s even truer today than it was in Twain’s time because social media can spread lies and so-called “fake news” far and wide with lightning speed, and we’ve seen how this can have devastating impacts on our democracy.One of the most chilling proofs of this came out the other day. ...

In Milton, Ontario, little Jimmy Jones won’t be picking up his Canadian Champions this week to deliver  to his neighbours. It’s one of Canada’s oldest newspapers, tracing its roots back to 1858, but it was put to death by its corporate masters last Friday. In Aurora, the Banner will no longer appear on doorsteps to tell citizens what their elected representatives are up to. In Mississauga, wi ...

It was an explosive story: A Canadian Liberal member of Parliament was accused of being a willing pawn of Chinese foreign influence, so much so that he supposedly advocated for the continued detention of two Canadian businessmen held for two years in Beijing. In the wake of the story by Global News, Han Dong resigned from the Liberal caucus and launched a $15 million libel suit for defamat ...

Someone should tell Pierre Poilievre to take off his tin foil hat: The government does not actually control the news that the CBC broadcasts. As part of his campaign to limit the reach of government, the Conservative leader went public with an April 11 letter he sent to Twitter asking the social media giant to label all CBC news shared on its platform as “government-funded media.” He wrote ...

The jury in the libel trial of the century had already been sworn in: Five Black men, two Black women, three white women, a white man, and a Latino woman. Considering that the defendant was Fox News Network, the powerhouse right-wing cable TV king, it was hardly shaping up to be its sort of audience. Sure enough, just before opening arguments began in Delaware Superior Court this week, Fox ...

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is a master of the politician’s black art of not answering questions directly. As she embarks on a crucial month-long provincial election campaign, she seems to be doubling down to limit her government’s accountability. She has announced that news outlets will be able to ask only one question each at her news conferences, and follow-up questions will not be allo ...

Case N21C-03-257 EMD  goes to trial before a jury in Delaware on Monday, and  it’s shaping up as one of the most significant tests of media freedom and responsibility in decades. At its heart lies Donald  Trump’s claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, in part because voting machines were programmed to switch votes to his Democratic opponent, President Joe Biden. Milli ...

Transparency—the obligation to explain to your customers what you do —is a cardinal principle of journalism. It was violated in the last few days in two significant stories about Canadian politics, and I’m afraid it will take its toll on our trust in what journalists tell us. Journalism is supposed to answer six questions: Who, what, when, where, why and how. It’s the “why?” that often goes ...

   Just over two years ago, two businessmen with no experience in the newspaper business took over control of the Toronto Star. It was Canada’s biggest daily at the time, and its parent company Torstar was a distressed asset. They managed to buy it debt-free for the bargain-basement price of $60 million. One of the new owners, Jordan Bitove, said at the time: “What this company really needs ...

Pierre Poilievre’s debut news conference as official Opposition leader didn’t go smoothly but at least he found his real enemy. That enemy is not inflation or the national debt or young people getting squeezed out of the housing market or the cost of groceries. Those things he can blame on Justin Trudeau because he’s the prime minister and Poilievre isn’t. That’s politics. The bigger enemy ...