Compound Errors

Media 39 Comments

Chris Taylor’s problem isn’t that he still reads the newspaper. It’s that he reads two.;

The Globe says a relative saw explicit conversation. The Star says they don’t know who filed the complaint.
The Globe says the lad told police she touched him in the genital area. The Star quotes the boy himself saying that’s not true.
The Globe quotes the police saying the teen is “confused”. If we’re to believe the Star, he’s actually fuming mad.

39 Replies to “Compound Errors”

  3. Darn it Vit, you took the words right out of my mouth… yeah right. Latin isn’t the major language around here but then english isn’t either unless you are in the Salvation Army band.
    seriously, the trend of journalistic spin has gone way past “op-ed” pieces and now even the news is skewed… facts be damned. Sad state of affairs for the fifth estate.

  4. “It is not known who filed the complaint against her”
    the criminal version of the also secret and infamous reporter’s slime technique of “anonymous sources”
    when you haven’t got a story, or just need to smear someone . . .

  5. MSM MOTTO TO LIVE BY:
    “Never let the facts interfere with a good sex scandal or tragedy”
    Now you know there is a reason why Jesus never sat down and shared conversation and a meal with “journalists”…hookers, lepers and tax collectors, yes… but never a journalist.

  7. Who exactly is the “sleeping dragon” here?
    Another motto: If you’re a liberal, never let the facts of a particular story get in the way of feebly drawing attention to yourself.

  8. You even notice that journalists and judges are the only people in society without accountability?
    Why is that acceptable in a democracy?

  10. This is such a non-story — “Different reporters have different sources!” Big deal!
    It is a fact that Peel Region Police Det Sgt told the G&M that a relative filed the complaint.
    It is also a fact that, when interviewed by the Star, the boy apparently didn’t know who filed the complaint.
    It is a fact that the boy told the police that the accused once “had lightly caressed him in his genital area.”
    It is also a fact that the boy is now denying this.
    It is a fact that the Det Sgt told the G&M that the boy was confused.
    It is also a fact that, based on his comments to the Star, the boy appears upset by how the case has proceeded. Outraged? Maybe that’s not the best adjective, or maybe it is.
    Sorry, don’t see how this post is enlightening at all.

  14. Posted by: A at November 20, 2007 10:50 AM
    “Sorry, don’t see how this post is enlightening at all.”
    You don’t see the *enlightenment* because you are confusing the facts of the boy’s story with the REAL story.
    What I got from the post is that we see two blind journalists describing an elephant that neither has even touched in the same way. One touched the head, the other touched the butt. But then they both have the audaciousness to present their description as news, AND charge the public for the privilege of reading said *news*.
    The only VALID description to take from this, at the present, is that one journalist had a big head, and the other had a big ass.

  15. .
    Teachers molesting students …
    Students having sex with teachers …
    This is normal now, it’s no longer news.
    .

  16. Doug,
    The sleeping dragon is the zero that these 2 stories are the result of.
    Kate wrongly assumes what compound errors are.
    If you knew anything about mathematics at all you’d realize that a negative and a postive of equal value equate to a big fat zero.
    The same holds true when a rightie and leftie debate…the result is always the same…zero.

  17. .
    Teachers molesting students …
    Students having sex with teachers …
    This is normal now, it’s no longer news.
    .

  19. Interestingly enough, A, I agree with all of your fact statements. And different reporters sometimes do have different sources. The problem is that the Globe and Star shared *exactly* the same sources, with the exception of the kid himself. Both reporters talked to Det. Sgt. Knapton of Peel SVU and Bruce Campbell of the Peel-Dufferin Catholic School Board. The Globe didn’t talk to the kid, though.
    Given that both papers talked to the same guys, presumably at the same press briefing, don’t you find it interesting that there’s such a disparity in the facts presented to us? Even if the kid didn’t know who ratted him out, the police certainly do. And the Star’s reporter shares the same police source as the Globe.
    If they came from different sources, A, I would have no objections. But we’re talking about the same sources here — excepting the kid.

  21. Jon,
    You’re on the correct track.
    Try again using the same type of analogy but think of the glass as being half full this time.

  22. “The same holds true when a rightie and leftie debate…the result is always the same…zero.”
    Really?
    (Borrowed from gored, in reader tips):
    Hon. Stéphane Dion (Leader of the Opposition, Lib.):
    “Mr. Speaker, the deception must stop: cover-up on torture and cover-up on Mulroney. Will the Prime Minister stop the cover-ups? Will he agree to testify under oath at the Mulroney inquiry?”
    Right Hon. Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, CPC):
    “Mr. Speaker, the terms of the inquiry, as the government already has said, will be set independently by Professor Johnston. I do not know whether he will accept the position of the current leader of the Liberal Party that there be an unlimited inquiry, or of the past leader of the Liberal Party that there be no public inquiry, or of the future leader of the Liberal Party, who says there should be a limited public inquiry. I am sure one of these Liberal positions will be adopted.”

  24. Now you know there is a reason why Jesus never sat down and shared conversation and a meal with “journalists”…hookers, lepers and tax collectors, yes… but never a journalist.

    Aren’t you repeating yourself, once, twice, three times and then contradicting yourself?

  25. Irwin,
    I rest my case.
    Other than the Liberals being slightly embarassed by this exchange and Conservatives snickering to themselves; what really is the net effect? The answer is zero.
    BTW, I’m not embarassed. Dion is merely a stop gap until someone decisive who speaks both official languages properly steps up to the plate. The timing of that is unimportant; patience is a virtue that will be rewarded.

  27. Ron,
    It reminds me of a decent engineering joke.
    The optimist says the glass is half full.
    The pessimist says the glass is half empty.
    An Engineer knows that your glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

  28. Geez guys….
    Since when did entertainment need to be accurate and factual?
    I find it fascinating that the media in this country is too daft to recognize the humungous hole they have themselves created in the marketplace.
    Or have we devolved so far in this society that there is no longer a viable marketplace for unadultered,unbiased reporting?
    I suspect far too many of my fellow Canadians have no interest in knowing the truth.

  29. I was molested by my teacher when I was 16. She was 19, female, I was a 16 year old male, Grade 10 student. In those days, (1966,) one or two years of “Normal” school” got you a teacher’s certifiacte, so we were often partying with the teacher.
    She was a driving a 1964 Volkswagen “Beetle,” she wanted me to clean the carb out for her. On a warm Saturday afternoon, I got my tools out and tuned the bug.
    After I had it purring like a kitten, we went for a test drive on a lonely country road. Then it was my turn for a tune up. After we were done, she had given me a thourough “Tune up.”
    If they call that abuse, there is something wrong with this generation. And by the way “Miss T”, if by any chance you’re reading this, give me a shout. I need another tune up!!

  30. one of our teachers in 1971 “molested” one of the boys.
    she got knocked up, he got bragging rights.
    I doubt the age difference was more than a few years.

  31. Journalism sucks now that it has been ‘professionalized’.
    Proof? Bloggers get the story out – and then they’re visciously attacked by ‘professional journalists’, politicians or other members of the groupthink herd.

  32. Chris Taylor: Even if the kid didn’t know who ratted him out, the police certainly do.
    Actually, all that was revealed by Det Sgt Knapton was that “a relative of the boy” called police with the complaint. This could be a parent, a sibling, an uncle, a step-cousin twice removed, etc. Insofar as neither the public nor the journalists were informed of who this “relative” was, the statement that “It is not known who filed the complaint against [the suspect]” is factual and consistent with the G&M’s version of events.
    The other two sets of facts that you take issue with are consistent with each other if you consider the fact that different sources underpin them.

  34. Not sure this could be considered compound errors, however I would be left with a very different impression of the underlying situation….
    The Ottawa citizen ‘sub-headline’ …
    Focus on ex-millionaire in marked contrast to efforts made for other jailed Canadians.
    http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=ae70b5ca-0746-464f-bbd9-95cef28f8ebb&k=5057
    Compare to the Don Martin Column on the matter
    http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/columnists/story.html?id=07d33fc4-c43e-4dca-a28b-feb4476ac16e
    The ottawa article somehow thinks there is equivalency to a murderer in the US and a white collar crime conviction in Bulgaria.

  36. 40 years ago a group of us young bucks were interviewed by a reporter for the local rage (brampton conservator), when the piece was published it wuz such a distorted exaggeration that at first we didn’t even recognize it, so these two screw ups ain’t nothing new
    and as far as the “victum” goes, LUCKY STIFF:-))))

  37. Kind of puts winning a Pulitzer on the same plane as winning a Nobel Peace Prize (right, big Al??)

  39. Come on, guys, have a heart. The woman’s married, and according to one account the boy says she didn’t do anything to him. For all we know he has a sex-obsessed (or Italian-hating) grandma/grandpa who called in the complaint. These accusations could destroy an innocent woman’s career, her marriage and her life.

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