In response to my critique (here and here) of the national news media's handling of the @vikileaks3o dustup last Friday, CBC's Kady O'Malley has offered a more thoughtful rebuttal (more thoughtful than this): Here's the major flaw in @kempthead's thesis re: "Hill journos" allegedly enraged at having "the news cycle snatched from their grasp"...
Press gallery' tweets in response to this and this (best read from bottom to top): My favorite response was Glen McGregor's question, "Do you know any journalists?" Yes, Glen, I have two National Magazine Awards, one Michener Award (out of three times as a finalist), and when I left journalism, I had more Atlantic Journalism Awards than the province of Prince Edward Island. No offense, though. I'd never heard of you, either. And for the record, I did not call Kady O'Malley anything. My criticism was directed to the Ottawa press pack generally, and neither attempted nor purported to assess any individual reporter's...
I wrote yesterday that only one Canadian news source had taken note of a Robert Kennedy Jr. column on HuffingtonPost slamming Stephen Harper. In fact, the CBC's Kady O'Malley took note in a tweeet (which is what @kady does): So did Jane Tabor in the Globe and Mail. Neither piece turned up in a Google search at the time of my post. O'Malley took umbrage at my post, arguing that RFK's "entire piece was pure crap" and "a kennedy being staggeringly wrong on facts isn't news." This is a strange standard for news selection, especially coming from Canada's Parliamentary press gallery, where...
The libertarian devotion to individual freedom that led the Harper Government to kill Statistic Canada's mandatory long form census questionnaire apparently did not extend to the Chief Statistician of Canada's letter of resignation. Munir A. Sheikh posted a note about his resignation on the agency's website late Wednesday night. The Harper Libertarians redacted it Thursday morning, replacing it with an uninformative generic message. Here, for the record, thanks to Kady O'Malley, is the full text of the Chief Statistician's censored message to Canadians: July 21, 2010 OTTAWA -- There has been considerable discussion in the media regarding the 2011 Census of Population. There...
The Globe and Mail's Tabatha Southey uses the same Pullman quotation to cast a harsh spotlight on an embarrassing Canadian example of political correctness run amok, courtesy of that habitual offender, the British Columbia Human Rights Commission, a tribunal whose main activity seems to be punishing the exercise of a human right it doesn't much care for: speech. Hat tip: Kady O'Malley...
The clarity and detail of the rebuttal Richard Colvin filed with the House of Commons this morning stand in stark contrast to the government's flimsy response. With devastating thoroughness, Colvin documented factual errors and faulty logic underlying the testimony of government witnesses who tried to explain away Ottawa's studied indifference to the likely torture of prisoners our soldiers handed over to Afghan authorities. Download his statement—it's well worth the read—or check out Kady O'Malley's summary and the Toronto Star's account. In response, the best Dan Dugas, spokesman for Defense Minister Peter MacKay, could offer was another jingoistic attempt to portray criticism of government...
In the PMO War Room, columnist Christie Blatchford must have seemed an inspired choice. She can turn a purple phrase with the best of them. She stands foursquare for troops, widows, and orphans. She's against plummies, toffs, and pointyheads. She's long on guts and glory, short on assay. She has an ego as big as the Ritz, and fragile as a Gruyère Soufflé. To receive a document drop on a Matter of National Importance would be sweet validation. So the Harper Government—someone in the Harper Government—got the brilliant idea of handing Blatchford a trove of Richard Colvin's long-sought emails from Kandahar,...
The CBC's Kady O'Malley brings prescient analysis—and that rarest of journalistic qualities, a political memory—to the Conservative scheme to fabricate a dastardly opposition "refusal" to hear diplomat David Mulroney rebut fellow diplomat Richard Colvin's account of how Canada turned a blind eye to Afghan security officials' torture of detainees our forces turned over to them. Here's the plan: Refuse to turn over documents bearing on Colvin's testimony. Invoke national security, of course. Have Mulroney show up, uninvited, and demand to be be heard immediately, before MPs have any opportunity to prepare for his testimony, let alone see the documentary evidence bearing on...
A Contrarian reader writes: If only it were true that they were back peddling. In tonight's news, MacKay is heard sinking to new depths of loathsomeness by accusing Colvin of impugning the integrity of Canadian troops. He obviously hoping Canadians will turn against Colvin if he can be made to look as if he's attacking the military. How much more cowardly and disgusting can you get than using the military as a red herring to draw attention away from your own behaviour. I'm beginning to feel slimy just being in the same country with...
— Kady O'Malley live blogs the NDP response to the Colvin torture testimony and the Conservative's bucket defence. [Note to CBC: Horrible interface.] Moneyquote: [NDP MP Paul] Dewar...