The Black Rod

Published since 2006 on territory ceded, released, surrendered and yielded up in 1871 to Her Majesty the Queen and successors forever. Exposing the CBC/FP double-team smear of a hero cop Some of the shoddiest journalism in recent times appeared this long August weekend when the CBC and Winnipeg Free Press doubled teamed on a blatant smear of a veteran city police officer. In the latest example of narrative journalism these media outlets spun stories with total disregard for facts that contradicted the central message of the reports which, simplified, is: police are bad and the system is covering up. Let's start with the story on the taxpayer funded CBC by Sarah Petz that can be summed up in the lead. "A February incident where an off-duty Winnipeg officer allegedly knocked a suspect unconscious wasn't reported to the province's police watchdog, and one criminologist says it shows how flawed oversight of law enforcement can be." There you have it. A policeman, not ...

Okay, sabbatical's over. Time to get back to work. The first order of business is some overdue unfinished business, namely the annual recognition of the Black Rod Newsmaker of the Year for 2018. It was a bit of a headscratcher as the year's end approached closer and closer. No name jumped  out from the sad pack of also-rans--- Pallister, Bowman, some overpaid hockey player... Yikes, was there nobody? But then just before the stroke of midnight on the last day of the year (and too late to publish) it came.  Of course.  A dark horse. Someone everybody knows but nobody knows. The man who influenced more Manitobans, more Winnipegers, more Liberals than anyone else in the province... The Black Rod  Newsfaker   Newsmaker of the Year for 2018 -- Bob Cox, publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press. For years Box Cox (as he's affectionately known) has travelled the country far and wide preaching, threatening, lobbying, pleading for somebody ...

With the federal election campaign in full swing, it was only a matter of time before the issue of media bias bobbed up. On Saturday last, the Globe and Mail published a column by its "public editor" (remember when they were called ombudsmen?) Sylvia Stead which was titled:  "Who complains about campaign coverage – and why". The newspaper, said Sylvia, has an editorial code that "requires that The Globe maintain a reputation for “honesty, accuracy, objectivity and balance." Whiners aside, the Globe has lived up to its code, she said, and she, personally, is monitoring the balance of "overall coverage, where it plays within the paper" and even  "the number of photos."   So there.  Case closed. Welllll  ...  readers of The Black Rod know that we like to check assertions out for ourselves, so we went through Saturday's Globe cover to cover to see how Sylvia defines "fair and balanced" news coverage. Uh oh. ...