Friday, April 5, 2019

letter to the Globe re its coverage of SNC etc etc.

I emailed this letter to the Public Editor of the Globe yesterday and sent a copy to my very left-wing daughter saying, "Do you approve?" Because I was afraid, as a huge supporter of indigenous rights and women, she'd be offended. She wrote back, "Fuck yeah!" So I guess it met with her approval. What about yours?
Dear Sylvia Stead:

I am not sure if you’re the right person to contact, but please do me the favour of passing this along if you are not. I am severing ties with this once-august newspaper over its slavering coverage of the Lavalin affair, Canada’s pathetic excuse for a scandal. The newspapers and media have behaved abominably from the start, rolling around in the dirt with glee, splashing in the mud of this absurd squabble. I have held my nose for weeks and tried to ignore it, looking past the endless hysterical coverage in a search for real news about issues that really matter to our country. 

But when I saw that you’d published a column comparing Justin Trudeau to Donald Trump, that was the end. Where is journalistic decency? Where are the limits to hyperbole? It’s all about getting clicks now, isn’t it, stoking the outrage machine? And so the more salacious and exaggerated the reporting, the better. A once-proud newspaper has thrown its integrity into the garbage pail. 

May the Globe come to its senses soon and focus on what matters in our country, rather than this appallingly immaterial internecine tempest in a teapot. I’m no longer sure why, but I expected better from the Globe. Shame on you. 

Yours,
Beth Kaplan

6 comments:

  1. I agree wholeheartedly! The Globe’s coverage is disgusting. Obviously all their journalists have been tasked with keeping the story alive.

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    1. The other day, of 4 editorial articles, 3 were about this - journalists frantically trying to keep the embers of this pathetic little flame alive. I do not understand the motivation of the two women, and I don't understand how the Liberals are handling this, but I do understand that at the moment, they are handing the election to the appalling Andrew Scheer.

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  2. Beth, do let us know if your letter, or any part of it, is published. It should be but I doubt it will be. Enough already, as you say. By the way, I'm enjoying your Blog, having tuned in during the peak of the renovations and feeling your stress and now feeling your 'release' as you travel Europe. It's like reading your memoir in real time! Continue to enjoy...

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  3. Claire, glad you are along for the journey, and that you agree about the "scandal." Everyone I know thinks it's a minor affair, and yet the papers are covering it as if it's the third world war. Makes me crazy, especially with Andrew Scheer licking his lips with glee.

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    1. And to think Scheer would have done things any differently! Now, we have other problems to contend with in Ontario and a return to Mike Harris style politicking/interfering with our Education system! Oy vey!!

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    2. I didn't think it would be possible for a politician to be worse, more destructive and vile than Mike Harris. Et voila - DoFo! Lucky us.

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