Man, I downloaded a tonne of k-os yesterday, and I’ve had “Crabbuckit” in my head ever since. Damn you k-os and your infectious beats, damn you.
And the Post limps in on Haiti
Well, last week the Globe ran an opinion piece by Robert Muggah, who wrote a study on guns in Haiti. Today, the Post ran a news report by Steven Edwards on the matter. The interesting thing to note is that while the story has but one source – Muggah’s report – it fails to mention one of the key themes in the report.
As Muggah himself explained in the Globe, the U.S. has begun to violate its own embargo by shipping guns into the country. The report dedicates an entire appendix to the U.S. sale of guns, a chart that shows this past year marked the first substantial shipment of arms to the country in a decade.
This leads to one of two conclusions. Either Edwards is lazy and didn’t really read the report too closely (and the appendicies are listed in the table of contents, he’d have to be really out to lunch to miss it) or, and I’m just lobbing out ideas here, perhaps Edwards and the Post are trying to downplay the Western culpability in the proliferation of arms and violence.
I don’t want to harp on this, but Canada and the U.S. backed the overthrow of a democratically-elected leader to install an interim government that has been accused of violating civil rights and indiscriminate killings. If the U.S. is also providing the guns to the government-backed militias that are carrying out those killings, shouldn’t the Post mention that?
CanWest continues to sort of cover the UN report on Arab democracy
The slow leak of information on the UN report on Arab democracy continued today, with the Post printing some excerpts from the report. That practice has always seemed sort of odd to me, why not provide some context for people? It’s one thing when excerpts are included as part of a grander allotment of coverage, but just throwing in a report with no explanation or discussion just seems lazy.
The Toronto Star gets in election mode
The Star has apparently decided there’s going to be an election, and as such, ran several stories on the issue, including what a Tory cabinet might look like, what important Liberal initiatives would fall by the wayside, how support for the parties looks these days. . .
Only one problem, the election hasn’t been called yet.
It reminds me of my favourite CNN line during the early days of the Iraq War. The host actually said to a pundit: “All we have is rumours and speculation, but would you care to speculate on the rumours?”
It’s not like there aren’t things to cover, and the Toronto Star is usually pretty good about staying out of this sort of sensationalized bullshit that dominates CanWest papers.
I guess everyone lapses once in awhile.
Random shots at random pieces
The Citizen ran an opinion piece (A13) by Michael Reagan, son of Ronnie. In it, he describes how God has a plan for everyone, and for his father, it was to lose the 1976 Republican nomination, only to win later and defeat godless communism.
Uh, what?
Why the hell is this piece in the newspaper? Who cares what Mikey Reagan thinks God’s plan for his daddy was? He talks about the Superhero Squad of Pope John Paul II, Maggie Thatcher and his daddy, and how God is playing out the last bits of his plan for them all.
Wow, that’s . . . important? Interesting? None of the above?
Next, Lorne Gunter (Post A16) continues to amaze me by ranting at length, once again, about how religious minorities are being persecuted in the fight for same-sex marriage.
Quit trying to play the victim, nobody is trying to strip away your rights.
And finally, Matthew Fisher (Post A12) is complaining about the hyperbole in the press surrounding the Pope’s funeral. Fair point, but it would mean more in a newspaper that didn’t dedicate a week’s worth of front pages to the Pope, or a special section on his death. Also, it would mean more from someone who didn’t write that JPII was the greatest Pole who ever lived. Sure it was a quote, but he didn’t have to use it. He also wrote “The final resting place of John Paul’s heart is a drama that has taken on a life of its own in Poland since the Pontiff’s death four days ago.”
A drama that has taken on a life of its own? Hyperbo-what now?
Geeze, come on, Joe. Expecting people to report on Western culpability in the culture of guns is like…like saying that funding and armeds resistance groups to fight the Soviets and then pulling out when you got what you wanted might one day bite you in the ass.
I mean, come on.
That’s just silly.
This just in… the Pope is still dead. Stay tuned for hour-by-hour updates.