The Black Rod

Duncan McMonagle teaches journalism at Red River College . Now that had to be the scariest sentence in Sunday's Winnipeg Free Press. It's like reading: Train conductor teaches pilots at Air Canada. You see, McMonagle had just finished reviewing a new book for the newspaper's book page. And in it, he revealed why his understanding of journalism is as dated as K-Tel's Greatest Hits on 8-Trak. The review was titled Blogger forerunner flaunted biases in mainstream press. The Free Press has belatedly discovered blogging. Just last winter, during the federal election, nobody at the paper knew what a blog was. They assigned columnist Lindor Reynolds to write about political blogs and she couldn't find any (Hey, Lindor, over here, sweetie). Suddenly, they're born-again on the blogosphere. There's staff blogs (okay, so the starting line-up was pathetic, Gordon Sinclair was sent to the showers, and some new players sent in, but they had the idea). They're writing...

There was a full moon last night, and wouldn't you know it, the moonbats were out in force. This year the annual infestation came a bit later than usual, but there they were, fluttering around City Hall and squawking up a storm. The only surprise was that perennial gadfly Nick Ternette decided to jump the shark and join the Moonbats in protesting malathion fogging in the city. Of course it's a safe time to be a fogging protestor. It's been too hot and too dry for mosquitoes to breed. Last year, with the not-so-tacit help of city entomologist Taz Stuart, the anti-foggers managed to delay fogging long enough for people to get infected with West Nile virus. The province forced Taz to fog, the mosquitoes died and the West Nile threat was stopped in its tracks. (So was the rising star of Tazman, who this year was quoted as singing the benefits of pre-emptive fogging as opposed to the utility of dragonflys and Sam Katz's long-forgotten chemical briquets.) The No-Fog Moonbats...

If you made a list of the most improbable news stories, this would certainly be near the top. Stephen Harper's speeches are the most downloaded podcast on iTunes Canada, Apple's popular music download site. When we saw it on Global National, we didn't believe it either. But, it's true. And it shows how Harper is managing to outplay, outwit and outlast the Parliamentary Press Gallery which has launched a campaign to undermine his government. Two embedded reporters with the Parliament Press Army filed stories yesterday that only showed how desperate the media have become in their War on Harper. Take Alexander Panetta, from Canadian Press, and his "scoop" which ran under various headlines across the country, mostly on the theme "Military opposed media ban" (Winnipeg Free Press) or "Military pans ceremony ban" (Winnipeg Sun). If you just read the headlines, you would think he had uncovered some evidence that the Canadian military was upset at S...

Well how about that? The Black Rod has been put on the summer reading list for Manitoba teachers. Now we know The Black Rod has been used as a teaching tool in Winnipeg classrooms, and is read regularly by students in journalism schools.But this was a new frontier for us. The main feature on the teachers' society website ( http://www.mbteach.org/) is for "67 Sites/ A website for each day between the end of classes and September." "Have a great surfing summer" MTS tells its 15,000 members. A scan of the recommended reading turns up an eclectic collection of interesting, informative, occasionally intriguing sites well worth a look. (Yes, we know the URL says 64 sites. The headline says 67 and we counted 67, so 3 must have been added late.) Let's see.....there's a site that posts comic books covers with what's known to collectors as "good girl" art. http://www.samuelsdesign.com/comics/agoodgirl_romance.html There's the website for a man w...

Ongratulationscay , Krista. Okay, our Gaelic is a little rusty, but the news won't wait. When CBC television host Krista Erickson told viewers on Friday she was going on summer vacation - oops, "annual Summer leave", she forgot to add she had something more than barbecues and beaches on her to-do list. Like getting hitched. A little birdie tells us that Krista's plans include jetting off to Scotland to tie the knot with swain Bob Morrison. Krista was still a bouncy baby reporter when she met veteran Crown attorney Morrison in Brandon at the the 2003 murder trial of two men who shot RCMP officer Dennis Strongquill. She was just at the start of her meteoric rise from researcher to host when the still-married Morrison caught her eye and fell under her spell. Fittingly enough for Winnipeg T.V. royalty, the nuptials will be at swanky Skibo Castle, where Madonna wed her beau, Guy Ritchie. We can hardly wait to see the pictures of long and lean Bob in his wedding kilt. Built...

He was the man who launched a thousand blogs. Nay. Ten thousand. Dan Rather got the formal boot out the door at CBS yesterday. Nothing personal. Best of luck on your future endeavours. Now, scram. Since his foiled attempt to cause the defeat of George W. Bush in the presidential election of 2004 by using forged documents in a smear story, Rather has been persona non grata where he was once worshipped as a superstar. We wondered how the mainstream media would treat the scandal, that will forever be known as Rathergate, in their career post mortems. Gingerly, it turned out --- except for one news outlet. Washington Post/Reuters ...And it was Rather's small but visible role in the reporting of the now-discredited story on President Bush's National Guard service that put a cloud over the latter stages of his career . It was also his large role in attacking the critics of the story who were proved right. New York Times Representatives for Mr. Rather and CBS had been talking since at...

Spirited Energy is a versatile descriptive term. Michigan State University expects its cheerleaders to have spirited energy during games, along with skills like the standing tuck, tumbling pass, the high torch and the arabesque. Fans say a song by Hugh Masakela and Mbongeni Ngema has spirited energy. Actors say playright Harold Pinter has a high-octane, spirited energy that guides them to their best performances. Knoxville, Tennessee (pop. 173,890) boasts on its website that it "combines the spirited energy of a big, bustling city with the charm and hospitality of a much smaller town." As a branding slogan, though, "Spirited Energy" is a dud. It's not exciting, informative or inspiring. It's hard to say. And without context, it's actually puzzling, and not in a good way. To have achieved its purpose, a significant proportion of Manitoban's had to respond to it with "Hey, that's not bad." Instead, the vast majority went "Is that it?...

Two months after The Black Rod first revealed a connection between Winnipeg Bandidos and the murder of 8 gang members in Ontario, police have swooped in to make arrests. The local Bandidos were on a run to Toronto the week before the slayings. Police still want to question one member who returned to Winnipeg before the massacre. Three Winnipeg Bandidos including former East St. Paul cop Michael Sandham are charged with first degree murder, while two persons (believed to be wives or girlfriends) are charged with being accessories after the fact. Sandham has long been rumoured to be the leader of the Manitoba chapter. The names of the accused are not as well known as rival Hell's Angels who have often been in the press but are not unknown to the local scene. Dwight Mushey, 36, and Marcelo Aravena, 30, are both well known in the Winnipeg martial arts communities, which may be a clue why the police called the investigation Project Octagon. The tall and dapper Mushey was a Kang's T...

Score one for the Blogosphere (we hope.) It's still too early to say for sure, but we're hoping we can soon report some good news as a result of a story on The Black Rod two weeks ago. On May 24, five Canadian soldiers and an Afghan interpreter were wounded when a rocket-propelled grenade went through their G-wagon during a battle in Panjwai province in Afghanistan. Canada was relieved to learn the injuries to the Canucks were not severe, and most of the men returned to action the next day. But the interpreter was forgotten by the press. We went searching for him and eventually we identified him and learned where he was. Muhammed Niaz was his name and he was in the main hospital at the coalition airbase outside Kandahar. He had lost both legs in the RPG attack. And he felt Canada had deserted him. We told his story . We then sent The Black Rod to Rosie DiManno, of the Toronto Star, and Christie Blatchford, of the Globe and Mail, both of whom had been embedded with Canadian troo...

Maybe it's all that roadwork, but Mayor Sam Katz is in fighting form and he's ready to go a round or two with the Press. Last winter, when the Winnipeg Free Press tried to land a couple of cheap shots with their smear stories on the mayor(exposed and dissected in The Black Rod here and here ), he just leaned against the ropes and played the rope-a-dope. Ask a Free Press city hall reporter about those stories today and he'll feign ignorance and plead "I don't know nothin'." It's Katz-- win by newspaper disqualification. But the trained and trim Mayor isn't putting up with such nonsense any more. When the Canstar weeklies, the Free Press sister publications, went to print this week with a blatantly false story, Katz came out swinging. "(The) Mayor's Office staff will be asking Canstar for a retraction in the form of an accurate story of similar placement and length, explaining and correcting the error in detail," said the post on his...