This is a follow-up to Journalism must address “an elite power game”, which focuses on political accountability and the need for journalists to demand it. The main objective of news people is to provide the public with useful information. Thorough reporting on government should involve facts that politicians want to promote and facts they wish to demote and keep out of the public eye.
We need interpretive journalism from political pundits that educates the public about failures in political and corporate accountability. Authoritarian threats to democracy should be the primary concern.
Global Investigative Journalism Network — Understanding the Authoritarian’s Playbook: Tips for JournalistsPulitzer Prize winner Wesley Lowery said, “The act of journalism, no matter how much we may fetishize the idea of objectivity, requires a series, a pyramid, of subjective decision-making.”
Unfortunately, mainstream media is owned by the super-rich. To stay in their jobs, journalism’s decision-makers must avoid offending the owners’ political positions. Inevitably, this involves compromising basic principles.
I recall an article written here more than a dozen years ago. It was directed at Bill Good, then Vancouver’s lead talk radio host. The subject was the delay in re-implementing provincial sales tax following the BC Liberals’ HST debacle. Bill had stated:
“For months, I’ve been getting questions about why is it taking so long, how is it so complicated. And, frankly, I’ve felt ill equipped to answer.”
My response:
Well, Bill Good, you are not supposed to answer. Answering for Liberal policy is for Liberal politicians. It is not the role of a news reporter or commentator.
You are supposed to give politicians a forum to discuss and explain public policy while you hold their feet to the fire, asking questions about issues they want to skate around. You should be an informed and non-partisan interrogator, a seeker of information about all sides of a story.
In British Columbia, we’ve had a serious shortage of brave journalists. None were braver than Rafe Mair. Read Rafe’s 2013 article and see if you agree.
Categories: Journalism
in-sights.ca 
There is another area where the major media outlets refuse to be open – treatment of children who identify with gender dysphoria. See if you can find any balanced reference to the Cass Report, the change in policy to treatment of children in Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK. Major changes are occurring worldwide due to careful examination of research on the dangers of puberty blockers, but it’s crickets in Canada news outlets. Why?
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Maybe it is because journalists are not obsessed with the private lives of families with gender-diverse children, in the same way as some individuals. Most people recognize this is an issue that should be left to families and their medical professionals.
Mayo Clinic says:
For transgender and gender-diverse youth who have gender dysphoria, delaying puberty might:
– Improve mental well-being.
– Ease depression and anxiety.
– Improve social interactions with others.
– Lower the need for future surgeries.
– Ease thoughts or actions of self-harm.
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Crickets; you must be deaf.
It’s been on the CBC National Post, the Rebel ,Globe and Mail and many others.
Apart from the CBC ,Canadas media is Conservative, just how much Conservative news do you want?
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In his recent book “Nexus – A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI”, Yuval Noah Harari makes the point that truth and reality are different things, because no matter how truthful an account is, it can never represent reality in all its aspects.
He uses the example of a spy reporting in 1917 that there were ten thousand Ottoman soldiers in Gaza. The account was true, but neglected many other aspects. How many were hardened veterans, and how many were green recruits? How many were healthy, and how many were sick? What was the ethnic makeup? How many were brave, and how many were cowardly?
Harari maintains that information sometimes represents reality and sometimes doesn’t. But it always connects. This is its fundamental characteristic. He concludes the first chapter titled, “What is Information?” with this:
“While information always connects, some types of information – from scientific books to political speeches – may strive to connect people by accurately representing certain aspects of reality. But this requires a special effort, which most information does not make. This is why the naive view is wrong to believe that creating more powerful information technology will necessarily result in a more truthful understanding of the world. If no additional steps are taken to tilt the balance in favor of truth, an increase in the amount and speed of information is likely to swamp the relatively rare and expensive truthful accounts by much more common and cheap types of information.
When we look at the history of information from the Stone Age to the Silicon Age, we therefore see a constant rise in connectivity, without a concomitant rise in truthfulness or wisdom. Contrary to what the naive view believes, Homo Sapiens didn’t conquer the world because we are talented at turning information into an accurate map of reality. Rather, the secret of our success is that we are talented at using information to connect lots of individuals. Unfortunately, this ability often goes hand in hand with believing in lies, errors, and fantasies. This is why even technologically advanced societies like Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union have been prone to hold delusional ideas, without their delusions necessarily weakening them. Indeed, the mass delusions of Nazi and Stalinist ideologies about things like race and class actually helped them make tens of millions of people march together in lockstep.”
It seems to me that even the “relatively rare and expensive truthful accounts” have been hijacked by the billionaire class and they’ve succeeded in getting tens of millions of delusional people to march together in lockstep in the USA by using much more common and cheap types of information, like social media.
MAGA anyone?
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The Mayo Clinic is one of the institutions relying on research has been debunked. This information is being kept from the major media in order for parents to actually seek out options for their children. What you have quoted from the Mayo is exactly opposite of the Cass report. You have illustrated my point exactly.
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The issue is certainly controversial in certain circles, but to say that information is being deliberately withheld from the public is nonsense.
What seems to have happened is that the Cass Review sparked attention in the press, and then faded because there was not widespread interest.
In terms of debunking, there are many articles and opinions that “debunk” the Cass report itself. Does that mean it’s worthless? No, it just means that there is continued debate on an emerging issue. The Wikipedia link summarizes worldwide opinion from dedicated interests, pro and con.
I suggest that anyone with an axe to grind on this issue will be able to find information to support their case. Whether the information is accurate is another question.
The reason the issue is not covered daily in the press to the liking of those fervent few with a burning interest is the same as why there is not daily coverage of the differences in mating habits of ocelots in the wild vs those in captivity. Lack of interest on the part of the general public. Not censorship. The information is available to those who want or need to seek it.
What Canadian doctors say about new U.K. review questioning puberty blockers for transgender youth | CBC News
A major UK report says trans children are being let down by toxic debate and lack of evidence | World News | thecanadianpressnews.ca
Opinion | How the Cass Report Became a Weapon in the War on Trans Kids – The New York Times
‘Extreme caution’: U.K. review of trans health care lessons | National Post
Adam Zivo: Danielle Smith embraces science-based transgender policies | National Post
Opinion: Trans youth deserve better – The Globe and Mail
Cass Review – Wikipedia
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