If someone wants to start a rabidly partisan, scurrilous scandal sheet, that's fine with us...
Scurrilous Adj. Def.:
untrue or unfair, insulting, and designed to damage a person's reputation: scurrilous allegations [Latin scurra buffoon]
containing obscenities, abuse, or slander
containing abusive language or defamatory allegations
For The Gazette: free speech = freedom to speak falsely and to slander. And this is how professional journalists have succeeded in marginalizing themselves in Canada's great free speech debate.
"If someone wants to start a rabidly partisan, scurrilous scandal sheet, that's fine with us..."
ReplyDeleteSay what you want about the Gaz, they aren't afraid of competition on their own turf.
I'm actually with the Gazette on this one.
ReplyDeleteThe editorial is more nuanced than you make it out to be.
And they state
It's not that we have anything against press councils. In fact, The Gazette belongs to and participates fully in the Quebec one. We don't always agree with its decisions, but it does a generally good job of criticizing the media's ethical failings, and we publish its decisions whether they're in our favour or not. However, we belong to it voluntarily; we can drop out any time we like - and that's as it should be.
and
The underlying problem here might be that liberty has once again run into one of its most formidable foes - the bureaucratic mind. Such minds recoil at the unruliness of the media - among other things - and won't rest until all participants in public discourse are fully regulated by government. They do all this "for the common good," of course.
But when they succeed, we can all kiss our precious freedoms goodbye.
The underlying problem here might be that liberty has once again run into one of its most formidable foes - the bureaucratic mind.
ReplyDeleteWhy does a newspaper which is part of a large media conglomerate, think it stands apart from the perils of bureaucratic thinking?
They're whining about a problem they created with their shoddy, dumbed-down media, a product of bureaucratic groupthink of the worst kind. That's the issue, not this disingenuous defence of a human right such as freedom of expression, which properly belongs to natural people, not corporate entities like raggy CanWest newspapers.
Oh give it a rest ti-guy. You constatly complain about "dumbed down" media, when in fact more quality information is available to anyone who spends a few minutes looking.
ReplyDeleteThe media did not "create" this problem. Overly intrusive, politically inspired bureuacrats did.
And for one who whines about the lack of choice in media, you are the first one to get on the HRC bandwagon to shut down any opinion (Hint: Steyn), that does not adhere to your own small mindedness.
Lastly, your conception of what a corporation is, and what rights are attached to it, is pathetic.
Freedom of expression DOES belong to natural persons AND corporations; as all corporatins are composed of natural persons.
Of course, this logical observation will be lost on you.
They're whining about a problem they created with their shoddy, dumbed-down media, a product of bureaucratic groupthink of the worst kind.
ReplyDeleteThe Gazette has some good, some bad. The editorial board is usually spot on.
As a newspaper, they are usually quite interested in reporting the truth (compared to some others)...
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