Federal government benefits in the US —chiefly Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,  veterans' benefits, income security, unemployment insurance, and veterans' benefits—accounted for 17.6 percent of personal income in 2009. The New York Times today published another of its fantastic interactive charts, this one showing where federal assistance has gone over the last 40 years: what counties got what percentage of their personal income from which programs in each of those years. This screenshot doesn't do the actual chart justice, so click through to the original. An accompanying story concludes that, while social support programs once went mostly to the poorest Americans, the middle...

12 February, 2012

Peter Barss thinks newscasters overuse puns. In a letter to CTV, he wrote: Like many news stations (radio and television) you seem inclined to use as many puns as you can fit into a story. The question I'd like to suggest that you ask yourselves is, "Why?" Does a pun help to elucidate a story? I don't think so. In fact, the use--overuse actually--of puns acts as a distraction from the news. Instead of helping to clarify a story, puns draw attention to the "cleverness" of the speaker. It's like "Hey, look at me. I just found another pun." Just because a...

10 February, 2012

Harvard's prestigious Nieman Foundation for Journalism has cast its discerning eye on a Nova Scotia online journal that succeeds while disdaining all the internet rules: How a tightly paywalled, social-media-ignoring, anti-copy-paste, gossipy news site became a dominant force in Nova Scotia Every morning, the business and political elite in the biggest province on Canada’s East Coast turns to an unlikely source of information about their own world. Among all the online news organizations trying to find a way to profitability, consider AllNovaScotia.com, which has just celebrated 10 years online and now challenges its historic print rival for the attention of the province’s leaders. It’s done that by not...

24 January, 2012

Sounding old before her time, Marilla Stephenson follows up the Chronicle-Herald's ringing endorsement of the status quo with a ringing endorsement of middle class sensibilities. The protesters just had to go. They just had to. There had been an overdose in Vancouver or something. Enough is enough. To this we respond: Dear Marilla: You walk into a room With a piece of paper in your hand. You see somebody naked, And you say, "Who is that man." You try so hard, But you just don't understand. Do you, Mrs. Stephenson? With apologies to Robert Allen Zimmerman. Cartoonist Bruce MacKinnon, on the other hand, gets it right....

17 November, 2011

Lots of reaction to HRMs forcible eviction of the Occupy Nova Scotia protesters. The best piece of actual reporting comes from a blog post by Bethany Horne, news curator for the recently launched indie website Openfile Halifax. A recent King's grad with a progressive sensibility, Horne didn't flinch from describing some of the incipient problems at the encampment: [I]f the events of November 11 hadn’t happened, I’m not sure how much longer the gathering would’ve lasted. At the November 9 general assembly, tensions were high. The camp’s reputation for accepting anyone, giving them shelter, food and a makeshift community was attracting more...

17 November, 2011

The Halifax Chronicle-Herald and AllNovaScotia.com, ranking arbiters of mainstream opinion in Nova Scotia, lent editorial support Monday to Mayor Peter Kelly's forcible police removal of peaceful Occupy Nova Scotia protesters. The Herald, in a bracing throwback to its days as the fusty Old Lady of Argyle, approved the eviction in every detail: violence, secrecy, sneakiness, double-dealing, rights-violation, and even Remembrance Day timing. AllNS tried to have it both ways. A commentary* by former-Managing-Editor-turned-United-Church-minister Kevin Cox quibbled with Kelly's timing and secretive decision-making, but endorsed His Worship's position that a vague and rarely enforced municipal bylaw should trump Sections 2. (b), (c),...

15 November, 2011

A recent story by Andrew MacDonald in the online journal AllNovaScotia.com included the following sentence: NSP has begun slowly moving its 500 workers out of the Barrington Tower office to a new $54-million HQ on the Halifax waterfront, dubbed the Bennett Bunker for NSP ceo [sic] Rob Bennett [emphasis in the original]. The phrase, "dubbed the Bennett Bunker," is noteworthy for having been cast in passive voice, a grammatical form journalists often decry as a way for politicians and similar miscreants to evade responsibility for their actions. Who exactly "dubbed" NS Power's office building "the Bennett Bunker?" Why, AllNovaScotia, that's who. It invented...

12 November, 2011

Bill Turpin, one of the few Nova Scotians who has both edited a daily newspaper editor and worked as a civil servant, disagrees with my criticism of Evan Solomon for addressing cabinet ministers as "Minister." The use of "Minister" by bureaucrats is not deferential. It's good form used for good reason. The term is a reminder to both parties that they are engaged in a special relationship. It reminds the Minister that she is not merely a politician, but also someone whose job is to direct the civil service in the best interests of the people. It reminds bureaucrats their jobs...

30 October, 2011

Professors of journalism or public relations would do well to save a copy of today's episode of CBC Radio's "The House" for a classic example of how a politician can use talking points to hornswoggle an overly deferential interviewer. At about 14 minutes into the program, Evan Solomon asks International Trade Minister Ed Fast an obvious question about the recent spate of US protectionist measures aimed at Canada: Why are you being caught off guard by these sudden protectionist measures coming out of the US? Fast responded with a set of talking points so scripted, you can almost hear him rhyming off the bullets: We’re focused...

29 October, 2011

Reporters attending Parks Canada’s Sable Island announcement this morning at the Halifax Citadel were apparently in stenography mode. Or perhaps they had been instructed to fish for soundbites on more urgent stories, like the confusion around environmental and salvage measures for the grounded bulk carrier MV Miner. Whatever the cause, they came ill-prepared to probe the most contentious issue surrounding plans to make Sable Island a national park: the Harper Government’s impulse to promote private sector tourism development on the island. Environment Minister Jim Prentice touched off a furore in January, 2010, when he first announced plans to make Sable a...

17 October, 2011
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