Inside The CBC;

A single source has logjammed CBC’s Access to Information office. Of the 500 ATI requests received since September 1, a whopping 450 came from a single source.
This volume means that CBC now has to bring in a consultant to enhance workflows and hire more people to work in its ATI office.
The CBC had not anticipated this kind of volume, having based its estimate on the volume of ATI requests received by organizations about its size and with a similar scope. (For instance, 500 requests are more than the number of requests typically received by the Department of Industry. For an entire year.)
But clearly, nobody could have forseen that a single person or group has filed 90% of the requests, causing this logjam.

Here’s a math question: If 500 SDA readers filed 2 requests a week, how long would it take to suck their budget dry?

Please pee into the phone;

The poll suggested that 17% of Canadians believed many NHL players use performance-enhancing drugs while 36% said a fair number used them. Thirty-two percent felt only a few were on them and 1% said none used them. Fourteen percent had no opinion.

Who needs drug testing when you have public “opinion”?
I don’t know what’s more discouraging – that someone apparently paid for this, or that pollsters actually found people willing to answer such utterly meaningless questions.
via National Newswatch
More on the science of polling, from the comments – “Did/can anybody quantify the difference between “many” and “a fair number”? What would be fair? 99%? I think so. Then they would almost all be on a level playing rink. BTW…do we have a “fair” number of taxes, or just “many”?
Only an expert can answer a question like that. Unfortunately, I’ve had to ban Pollara computers from accessing the site.

“I thought a “housing crisis” was when people couldn’t find housing, not when it got cheaper.”

Investors now have to gauge not only the reality of economic data, but its predictable willful misrepresentation by the press. We therefore have to speculate not only on underlying conditions, but on the effectiveness of the effort to scupper Main Street confidence.

More – “The prophets of recessionary doom, such as former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, Republican adviser Martin Feldstein, ex-Democratic Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, and bond-maven Bill Gross have been proven wrong once again.”

CTV National News for Dec.23, with Sandie Rinaldo:
Lead story: Jed Kahane – weather report from Montreal (melting), New Brunswick (icy), Toronto (wet).
Followed by: David Akin, weather reporting from Amarillo, TX (storm), Kansas (ice). Chicago (flight delay).
Third Story: Anchor Sandie Rinaldo – weather reporting from London (fog) and Hanover (ice), including “dozens of fender benders”.
Perhaps we ought to start a collection and send them all a calendar.
From the comments

I was in the car this afternoon and heard the 2 o’clock news on AM 640 in Toronto.
The lead story: Marco Pierre White, one of Gordon Ramsay’s mentors, says that frozen vegetables are better than fresh, and science seems to back him up.
The second story: Oscar Peterson has died.
Now I’m no jazz fan, but even I recognize that Peterson’s passing is HUGE news, whereas the veggies … not so much.

It sounds a little like the 650 CKOM Saskatoon news this morning – where they are still leading with the story of a police shooting that happened two days ago.

The “street address”.

If you want to know

…why the print media are not all over the CBC question-planting story, listen to Mike Duffy (interviewed by CFRA, Ottawa’s Michael Harris), about 3/4 of the way through (hint: the CBC pays them).

Related – lost in translation.

Name That Journo.
Updated!

When you have a moment, would you Toronto-based news anchors and editors mind letting us know if there’s any end in sight to the Winter Weather Wallop: A Special Report you’ve subjected the nation to for the past 5 days? Two days of national pre-storm “a lot of snow is going to fall” coverage, followed by two days of national “the snow is now falling” coverage and today’s “a lot of snow fell” coverage is beginning to wear thin. It’s a story line we’ve seen before. We pretty much know how it turns out.
Last time I checked, it’s December. Logically speaking, snow in December isn’t news.
Now that I mention it, neither is it news when rain falls in May, wind blows in October, heat bakes in July, or cold snaps in March. But for reasons you haven’t bothered to explain, you treat it as such. And your interest knows no borders – it seems as though no Canadian newscast is complete without a storm report from Miami, or flood warning for Las Vegas.
If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion, please do something to restore your role as a news anchor. For starters, report news. Stop stealing material from your weatherman.
(And since I’m in the mood to give advice to anchor chairs – here’s a freebie. The next time your script includes a tour stop for the Spice Girls, fire somebody. That’s rightfully the domain of your advertising department).
I realize I’m just a lowly media consumer, and you’re a respected TV journalist, so don’t feel as though you need to pay any attention whatsoever to a word of this. You just keep staring at that drain, and I’ll just keep staring at my computer screen*. One of these days, you’ll figure out that sucking sound.

CTV loses lede;

The Year in Media Corrections, including;

In an article in Monday’s newspaper, there may have been a misperception about why a Woodstock man is going to Afghanistan on a voluntary mission. Kevin DeClark is going to Afghanistan to gain life experience to become a police officer when he returns, not to shoot guns and blow things up. The Sentinel-Review apologizes for any embarrassment this may have caused.

And…

On 16 April we reported on an interview given by Bryan Ferry to a German newspaper. Our article was headed “The Nazis were so amazing” and claimed that Mr Ferry had been “singing the praises of the Nazis”. We now accept this was not true.
In fact, Mr Ferry had spoken only of his admiration from an artistic point of view for some aspects of German art, architecture and presentation which were associated with the Nazi regime. He made no mention of the Nazi regime nor did he use the word “Nazi”. We accept that Mr Ferry abhors the Nazi regime and all it stood for. We apologise to Mr Ferry for the offence caused by our report and are happy to set the record straight.

Let’s just say Mr. Ferry has my “sympathy”.
Via

Look up! Little dinosaur, look up!

The Daily Telegraph is “considering installing a small etching of Warwick Fairfax in its tea-room”.

In the latest hilarious stuff-up at its so-called “newsroom of the future”, the Herald has installed massive pillars at its new Pyrmont office depicting a huge etched image of the News Corporation chief.
Mr Murdoch, of course, has much better taste in newspapers – he owns this one for starters.
And the fractuous Herald staff, whose dislike of Mr Murdoch is eclipsed only by their hostility towards their own bosses, Fairfax and Rural Press, are furious.

There are about 25 of the Murdoch pillars throughout the editorial floor, where Herald managers are making much of the company’s attempts to become an integrated media company.

The company spent millions on its move from Darling Park to Pyrmont, and one source said outside consultants were paid “a vast sum” to design the pillars to “make some sort of statement about modern media.”

Via Tim Blair

The BBC funded a paintballing trip for men later accused of Islamic terrorism and failed to pass on information about the 21/7 bombers to police, a court was told yesterday.
Mohammed Hamid, who is charged with overseeing a two-year radicalisation programme to prepare London-based Muslim youths for jihad, was described as a “cockney comic” by a BBC producer.
The BBC paid for Mr Hamid and fellow defendants Muhammad al-Figari and Mousa Brown to go on a paintballing trip at the Delta Force centre in Tonbridge, Kent, in February 2005. The men, accused of terrorism training, were filmed for a BBC programme called Don’t Panic, I’m Islamic, screened in June 2005.

They’ve been on a roll lately.

In a 10 page mea culpa The New Republic finally cuts Scott Beauchamp loose;

When I last spoke with Beauchamp in early November, he continued to stand by his stories. Unfortunately, the standards of this magazine require more than that. And, in light of the evidence available to us, after months of intensive re-reporting, we cannot be confident that the events in his pieces occurred in exactly the manner that he described them. Without that essential confidence, we cannot stand by these stories.

How could this happen?

“…we were reluctant to call Army public affairs to review his claims.”

Oh. I guess it happened the way it usually happens.
Lots of link rich goodness at Michelle Malkin’s– “In an act of grace, the magazine has thanked its critics and apologized to the military. …. No, just kidding about the thanking and apologizing part.”
Previous – TNR’s Canadian connection.
Update: TNR vs NRO – a contrast.

The BBC correspondent in Sudan describes the crowd calling for the teddy bear teacher’s death “good natured” though he concedes some in the crowd are “unhappy.”

Previous.

“You can trust me – I’m a reporter.”

CBS is expanding its coverage of the environment. We seek a talented reporter/host for Internet video broadcast. We are looking for smart, creative, hard working up and comers, who can bring great energy, creativity and a dash of humor to our coverage. A deep interest in the environment and sustainability issues will serve you well.
You are wicked smart, funny, irreverent and hip, oozing enthusiasm and creative energy,” the ad reads. “This position requires strong people, reporting, story telling and writing skills. Managing tight deadlines should be second nature. Knowledge of the enviro beat is a big plus, but not a requirement.

h/t