News, Part II

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I guess we don’t have my cuz to kick around any more, eh.

The Canadian federal election was held on October 19. A huge plurality of Canadians (OK, 39.5%) gave Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party the boot after nine years and elected Justin Trudeau to head a new Liberal government. Mr. Trudeau takes office on Wednesday.

Canada has 25 different political parties, all contending for seats in Parliament. From the Alliance of the North to the United (neither of which won a single seat) plus the Animal Alliance, Bloc Québécois, Bridge, Canada Party, Canadian Action, Christian Heritage, Communist, Conservative, Democratic Advancement, Green, Independent and no affiliation, Liberal, Libertarian, Marijuana, Marxist-Leninist, New Democratic, PACT, Pirate, Progressive Canadian, Rhinoceros, Seniors, and Strength in Democracy, There were almost as many Parliamentary candidates as Republicans running for U.S. President.

Like Mr. Obama, Mr. Trudeau campaigned on “Real Change” and “Hope and Hard Work.”

Voters could make up pretty much anything they wanted to match those slogans and the press did the same. Mr. Trudeau has promised to raise taxes and spending, run a deficit, oppose the oil industry, and plans to embark on a vast program of public works spending. Pretty similar to his father. And Mr. Obama. Except he supports international trade deals and the Keystone pipeline project.

Last week, we looked at the quantity of non-news behind the Twitter or Facebook “headlines.” This week, we’ll pay attention to the quality of the news and commentary you get from any source.

Justin TrudeauAmericanthinkerdotcom says of the Canadian election, “the disasters have already begun. Fasten your seat belts, Canucks, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

The Canadian online conservative political and social commentary platform Rebel Media reported “The Canadian dollar dropped nearly two percentage points after Justin Trudeau’s Liberals swept to a majority in the federal election.

“That’s almost two cents in four days.”

Two whole cents!

Almost!

The pundits used the bumpy road to mean way more failures than successes ahead for our northern neighbors. I agree that Canada has more troubles ahead.

But these pundits want to stir you up about it by cherry picking a fact and spinning it. (And, yes, this column has picked just one reported fact for discussion out of the Americanthinker article.)

Rebel Media was founded in February by former Sun News Network host Ezra Levant.

Mr. Levant noted that the “precipitous drop” has a profound effect on Canadians. What Mr. Levant didn’t note is that the Canadian Dollar has fallen pretty steadily since 2011 and is now back down to about where it was from the 70s on.

“It’s like every Canadian just got a pay cut.”

               Famous Fakery
• Faked peer reviews prompted 64 retractions at Nature.
• 60 Minutes aired a story in 2004 that showed memos that showed then-1st Lieutenant George Bush had gone AWOL. Except the documents were obvious forgeries.
• Both New York Magazine and the New York Post reported on a Stuyvesant High School senior who made $72 million on stocks. Except that alluring story was, well, fake.
• The Rebel Media claim that the Canadian dollar dropped two points after Mr. Trudeau’s election. Except the election had little to do with it.

CBS rightfully fired Dan Rather over the Bush-National Guard story.

The Globe and Mail noted back in August that the Canadian dollar is under attack on several fronts, from the collapse in oil prices to the different paths being taken by central banks. “The loonie lost about 4% in July, sank to below 76 cents U.S. at one point [August 3] and again [August 4], and won’t stop there, according to analysts who expect it to tumble further to about 73 or 74 cents. It’s at 76 cents today.”

The loonie has been weakening for several years.

Editorial note: as a consumer of Canadian dentistry, I’m quite pleased in the return of the “weak” loonie. An exam and cleaning cost me $68 U.S. last month. The same service cost $95 U.S. in 2014.

So, the Canadian dollar did indeed drop a couple of percentage points after Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals won a majority in the Canadian elections but that’s probably not Mr. Trudeau’s fault. The two very real questions Canadian Conservatives should ask are
1. Why should we trust any media that cherry picks a few facts to lie to us?
2. What will Mr. T do to strengthen the loonie?

The rest of us have just one very real question to ask of the Twitter or Facebook or even our traditional news feeds:
Why should we trust any media that cherry picks a few facts to lie to us?

 

News, Part I

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I guess we won’t have my cuz to kick around for a while, eh.

A plurality of Canadians have given Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party the boot after nine years and elected Justin Trudeau to head a new Liberal government in Canadian federal elections held two weeks ago. Mr. Trudeau takes office November 4.

I didn’t learn that on Facebook. It was probably tweeted but even the curated Twitter feed is too congested to pick out that tidbit.

In fact, I don’t get my news from Twitter or Facebook. Here’s why.

Here’s what is trending this morning on Facebook:

• Clear Food: Report Finds Some Vegetarian Hot Dogs Contain Meat, Traces of Human DNA
• Maureen O’Hara: Actress Known for Role in ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ Film Dies at Age 95
• Vancouver Island: Whale Watching Boat Sinks With 27 on Board, Killing at Least 5
• Jimmy Morales: Former TV Comedian Elected President of Guatemala in Landslide Victory
• Chris Christie: Governor of New Jersey Kicked Off Amtrak Quiet Car for Talking on Phone
• Comet Lovejoy: Researcher Says Comet Is Producing Alcohol and Sugar
• Germaine Greer: Feminist Writer Says Transgender Women Are Not Women During ‘Newsnight’ Interview
• Florida Bear Hunt: Federal Agency Ends Hunt in Central Florida After 207 Bears Get Killed

Truth? I don’t care if Amtrak kicked Chris Christie off the quiet car any more than I care that American Airlines kicked Alec Baldwin off a plane for playing games on his own cellphone. It was boorish behavior but it wasn’t news.

“I am more inclined to follow it on the internet. TV news is too slanted. Reporters deliver the news with political slants to the left or right and they dilute the actual facts of the event,” wrote a Yahoo forum correspondent.

I’ve watched plenty of people click every link in the “Trending” column of their Facebook feed. That, of course, pleases Mr. Zuckerberg. But they made the same fundamental error as our Yahoo correspondent.

That Yahoo correspondent thinks that Internet news is less skewed and is more fact-checked than other sources. We “drink from the firehose” of “information overload” in the best of times. Probably better that our firehose be pumping something of substance.

This is news, as reported this morning in the NYTimes:

• Health Care Co-op Closings Narrow Consumers’ Choices
• Criminal Charges and $50 Million Fine Expected in Goldman-New York Fed Case
• Afghanistan and Pakistan Hit by Huge Earthquake
• Right-Wing Party Roars Back in Polish Elections
• Broadband: New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Launching Probe Into Internet Speeds
• General Motors and the United Automobile Workers union [that owns 8.7% of GM stock, down from 17.5% in the 2009 car theft] reached a tentative agreement
• The Obama administration called for a testing cap so that no child spends more than 2 percent of classroom instruction time taking exams.

Every one of those stories has an impact on your life and mine.

The truth is that most news isn’t all that important when counted against your day-to-day life or mine. Facebook might argue that the “ambient engagement” and “community awareness” their Trending line offers provides the context we need to get through the day.

Really?

So, knowing that Germaine Greer thinks transgender women should use the men’s room helps me put food on the table?

I’m all for absorbing data by osmosis but the way we actually answer the questions of whether we can afford a new car this year or if it is safe to walk the street after dark rarely comes from the fake reports; it comes from the hard news of consumer prices, the Cleveland Clinic’s new mobile stroke unit, and what laws (if any) Congress passed last week.

News is more accessible than ever, but it’s up to us to find it. There’s more information in one daily NYTimes or Wall Street Journal than I can digest and the Internoodle just compounds the problem. The Interwebs deliver little but what you want to hear, not what you need to know.

Next week, we’ll look at the quality of the news instead of the quantity and the headlines.

As a side note, anyone who thinks hot dogs don’t contain stuff you don’t want to know about including traces of human and rat DNA, also believes their favorite politician told them the truth today.