The Black Rod

Now there's something you don't see every day---a major big-city newspaper committing hara-kiri. Buh-bye Winnipeg Free Press. We won't miss the 'new' you. A suicide note of sorts was penned by newspaper editor Paul Samyn and published in the Saturday, July 4, 2020 issue of the Free Press. "An apology for marginalizing people of colour, and a promise to atone for our past." cried the headline. Obviously inspired by the police-hating mobs that are terrorizing cities throughout Canada and the United States, Samyn went full grovel. He prostrated himself begging to kiss their rings, their feet, their behinds.  He begged foregiveness and mercy and offered to make amends. He did everything but offer his mother and wife to them as his personal reparations. Samyn wrote that the Winnipeg Free Press was always a racist newspaper. It was founded by racists, he said. Legendary Winnipeg Free Press reporters like John Dafoe were racists.  The newspaper was n...

It was a year ago this month that Winnipeg Free Press publisher Bob Cox began his campaign for federal government subsidies to newspapers whose advertisers have abandoned them. Since then we've learned all about fake news---that's when reporters make up facts then write stories based on their invented truths. But what about fffake news---news the papers want to conceal from the public and do it by not publishing them? The Winnipeg Free Press is currently sitting on two doozies, both about lawsuits --- against the Winnipeg Free Press. In one, the newspaper is accused of stealing the research of a prominent Winnipeg scholar and cheating him out of royalties from a book t hey told him they would never publish, then did. To add insult, they submitted the book for journalism awards. In the other, the (former) editor of the Free Press used libel chill to silence a radio talkshow host whose critical reporting on the Winnipeg Free Press she didn't like. Her backroom cam...