Chicks And Balances

“Bloggers have no checks and balances . . . [it’s] a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas.” – Jonathon Klein – president, CNN*

Judge upholds CBC firing of reporter who sent candy rubbed in chicken to critic.
Keating broadcast a story in 2000 about a health-care lobby group called Save Our Services abandoning a lawsuit against the provincial government.
Keating told the arbitrator he understood that Earl Hamilton, head of the lobby group, had referred to him as a “toady of the government; he was not to be trusted,” Allan’s ruling stated.
The reporter had spoken to a CBC lawyer about taking defamation action against Hamilton but was talked out of it.
So, on Jan. 29, 2003, Keating “purchased a box of chocolates with a view to spitting on them and sending them anonymously to Mr. Hamilton,” Allan wrote.
Instead, he took two of the chocolates, rubbed them in thawed, raw chicken and sent the box to Hamilton with a note that said “keep up the good work.”

To be fair, Keating did endure a “pang of conscience” and informed the recipient before any harm could be done, and the followup mea culpa cost him his career.

“I did something beyond stupid and it cost me a career. I think the CBC was justified in firing me.”

However, it’s equally fair to ask how tainted the reporting of this “professional journalist” had become before this final excess and resulting epiphany.
via Nealenews There’s no sign at all of the story on CBC.ca.