Confessions of a journalism junkie

Okay, 0kay, I’ll admit it, I am a bit of a journalism junkie. In fact, in another life I was most likely a hack for some local Biloxi rag.

But this stuff can be fascinating. Take Chris Morris at Canadian Press. He devoted about 20% of the text of his article on the Lord Cabinet shuffle to cover Kelly Lamrock’s verbose commentary. Take a look:

Kelly Lamrock, house leader for the Opposition Liberals, said Lord’s so-called “five-five plan” is nothing more than a publicity stunt.

“Maybe we should have a minister of optics, a minister of pretty folders and a minister of making everything blue because that’s about the level of the five and five,” Lamrock said.

Lamrock said Lord loves to make plans and set goals, usually for many years down the road.

He said the government’s endless to-do lists save it the effort of actually coming up with new ideas.

“He might as well have said every New Brunswicker will have a pony, the ponies will have ribbons and the entire province will be covered in whipped cream,” Lamrock said.

Now, I have read a half dozen stories in the Telegraph-Journal and the Times & Transcript (less Alec Bruce) about government moves recently that included barely a one sentence clip from Liberal Leader Shawn Graham or Lamrock and Morris basically casts cold water on the Cabinet shake up and the reader is left with a pretty negative conclusion. Contrast that with T&T and TJ stuff which is overwhelmingly just transcription of the press release/speech. I’ll be watching tomorrow’s papers to confirm my suspicions on this.

So what do I conclude:

a) Chris Morris, Alec Bruce and Jacques Poitras (and even Hrabluk these days) are secret Liberal plants – strategically positioned years ago by Shawn Graham to slowly erode confidence in the government so that he could seize power in a bloodless coup in 2007.

or

b) They are journalists doing their jobs. Reporting, critiquing and giving the readers/listeners a broader perspective on the issues – not willing just to rewrite government press releases.

I report, you decide.

Off topic:

Speaking of Fox News, have you gotten the chance to listen to this Mike Malloy on Air America? Cripes, this guy makes Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly look like choir boys. Have a ‘listen’:

Just another rotund, polished Bush Crime Family functionary — this time former FEMA head Michael “Brownie” Brown – sitting at the witness table, telling the tale of his and his superiors’ stupidity, unpreparedness, inability to communicate, false intelligence, missed signals, non-concern, arrogance, toxic narcissism, need to blame someone else, and on and on.

Not unlike the way these thugs have mishandled two completely unnecessary wars. Not unlike the way these criminals have mishandled critically unraveling domestic issues such as Medicare/Medicaid, budget deficits, national debt, environmental and energy issues, defense, all of it spiraling totally out of control, blasting the country into a morass of Gordian-knot-like conditions that will take decades (and near-genius leadership) to unravel. The stance this criminal administration takes on every issue — lie; continue to lie; do not stop lying — is also once again being revealed.

As also were the lies told about Iraq’s WMD, the need to “reform” Social Security, the wondrous blessings to flow from the hatefully misnamed No Child Left Behind act, the lies about energy policy, tax policy, all of it, these new lies being told about the disaster that crushed New Orleans are flowing from the mouths of men who could not sit successfully on a rural county commission.

Phew. Maybe the mind numbing pulp spewed forth on the new Rogers News Radio talk shows needs to get a little more ‘edgy’ to keep up. That would add a little salsa to the Canadian shock radio scene. Imagine if Tom Young talked like this.