Rocket Talk: When's the TTC Going to Roll Out More Fare Collection Methods?
Newsstand: November 9, 2009
Zack Taylor in Disney Mama Drama
Santa's Weston Workshop
The Daily Photoist: November 9, 2009
It's hard to disagree with the wisdom attributed to New York Sun editor John B. Bogart, that "When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news."
And if a man bites another man? Depends. And if a man eats (even a part of) another man? In that regard, we have to respectfully differ from the CBC.
The other day, while finally getting around to listening on the Star website to the leaked audio of the radio communications between RCMP officers responding to that crazy fucking incident on the Greyhound, we were startled by the last line: "Okay, [the suspect's] at the back of the bus, hacking off pieces [of the body] and eating it." What? We had to consult the transcript to be sure what we'd heard. We'd been following this story on CBC.ca and certainly would have recalled reading about such a transcendently weird detail.
Later, in the default news pane of Yahoo! Mail, we saw a headline about the incident that used the word "cannibalized." Thinking this was a major new revelation, we rushed back to CBC.ca to have this characterization confirmed by a reputable source. No such luck. Same details as before.
As it turns out, this was official CBC policy. "Any time we have a story that we’re covering in an ongoing way, we have a discussion around what to cover, what time of day it would air,” Esther Enkin, Executive Editor of CBC News, is quoted as saying on InsideTheCBC.com. “[But] we have to report the essence of it.”
On the one hand, it's understandable that an outlet that primarily deals in broadcast journalism would refrain from reporting gruesome details. A viewer or listener doesn't always have the ability or opportunity to turn off or get away from the TV or radio when something truly awful comes on. (These horrifying WSIB ads from last year were just plain cruel.) But on the other hand, with print and online journalism there's a considerably greater deal of agency on the part of the reader, something which is pretty much inherent in the written medium. You choose what to read about and in what context. And if you do choose to read about this sort of incident, chances are that you'd rather learn more than less.
All of this turned out to be rather moot, however, as the day before InsideTheCBC.com wrote that "CBC News will not air or publish some of the more gory details emerging from the case," CBC News was doing just that, online and on TV (and presumably on the radio, too). It seems that the information, now having been uttered by Crown lawyers in court, suddenly became legitimate and relevant in CBC's eyes—which is not a totally unreasonable approach, but begs the question whether, with regard to the leaked tape, the CBC took greater issue with the message or the medium.
Photo of an RCMP car by QuickLunarCop. Capture of a reporter doing a hand gesture to indicate "a piece of a lip" from this CBC video.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
The expression "crazy f----ing incident" mars an otherwise thorough and thought-provoking post.
I had seen reports of the cannibalization the day of the attack, but because it was only in small town papers from far away places, I assumed they were wrong.
I'm kind of surprised, because CBC had some of the best, most thorough coverage of the incident, but on the other hand, cannibalization just makes the incident that much more "fucking crazy," and even more disturbing.
That poor guy's family, to have to hear all of this on the news.
What's worse is that the Westboro Church is coming down to protest at the funeral.
The daughter of the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Ka., told CTV.ca she and several other church members will go to Winnipeg on Saturday to demonstrate against what she described as McLean's "filthy way of life." Shirley Phelps-Roper said his life was emblematic of Canada's moral decay.
WTF
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080807/funeral_protest_080807/20080807?hub=TopStories
What did McLean do that was so, uh, "sinful"? I realize the Westboro nutbags probably think all 7 billion people who don't go to their cult meetings are evil sinners deserving of brutal deaths, but what specifically did this guy do?
And I can't help but keep coming back to this and one of the tell-tale signs of an impending outbreak. Ok, so zombies don't use knives but whatever, they didn't used to run either.
Hrm. Given the kind of baiting and calls to action Phelps and his Westboro progeny are classically adept at doing, one would think that Border Services might wanna have a look-see on how many from his family/church have a rap sheet from past arrests due to disturbing the peace and trespassing other funerals (or private property generally). I'd be shocked to hear that any of them have valid passports. The acorn don't fall far from the tree, as they say.
They singled out McLean because A) it's high-profile and B) Winnipeg isn't that far from Topeka. It's a day's drive to them to whine and bellyache that their divine plight as shepherds in a sinful world all gone to hellfires must be heard (that's complete sarcasm, of course). But if they still train their children real good now like they've done in the past, then the last thing we need are them all piling into a van, coming into Canada, and harassing both the McLean family and the public expressing their condolences to his family.
"The expression "crazy f----ing incident" mars an otherwise thorough and thought-provoking post.
"
Don't tell me...its the word "fucking" you take exception to right? I don't mean to change the subject or anything but the story is about a guy that killed and ate another guy and it's the word "fucking" that you find obscene....
Actually, I think "crazy fucking incident" is a vast understatement.
Guys swearing is immoral!
accozzaglia allready said it but it bares repeating, Fred phelps and his church are media whores. And thats pretty much it. Think about it, every couple of months or so he manages to make international news by protesting something already in the news and thereby attaching his name to whatever the latest tragedy is. Fred Phelps may be a nutcase but hes a genius at manipulating the media, he's a real life troll
The word in question is a perfectly valid one and useful in certain contexts, especially when referring to copulation. I don't find it obscene or immoral.
It's pointless in context of this article, because it distracts attention away from the otherwise solid work, and toward the writer's own stylistic gesture.
This isn't an issue of obscenity. It's an issue of appropriateness to the work at hand.
Goldsbie's good. He doesn't need cheap tricks.