84 other hand

HOW popular are we
“wretches of the ink,
inheritors of what in
‘Dr. Johnson’s day was
known as Grub Strect?

“Not very. Consider the
$700,000 libel award the
poor old Globe & Mailis
appealing.

It is the biggest hit a
‘Canadian newspaper has ever
taken and if awards of that
-kind are any measure of the
‘popularity of the press, the
‘press is not very popular.

One of its sports reporters
seems to have libelled a
‘Yawyer by the name of T.
‘Allen Eagleson.

‘In announcing its appeal

newspaper reprinted some
‘of the offending statements.

If those were the core of
‘che complaint, though, they
“would not have caused me to
gasp in astonishment had 1
read them the day they were
published. ;
What made me gasp in
‘astonishment was the size of
the award. Lo

‘The case was heard by a
jury, and in. its appeal the ,
‘Globe is claiming that the”

jury’s response to the com-
plaint was “perverse.”

Which brings me back to
how the public sees us
unhappy scribes, for whom
no news is bad news.

Polls taken last year show
that “journalists” were ranked
in the same low class as
lawyers. (Not surprising, real-
ly, considering how politically
correct most of today’s media
are.)

I put “journalists” in
quotes because the late, great
Bruce Hutchinson defined
journalists as former reporters
who hang around press clubs
in the hope of getting free
drinks.

An outstanding specimen
was the long gone D°Arcy
Marsh, a wonderful writer
who frequently wandered

bar-wise in his quest for hap- |

piness.

When working for, The
Province and having been
demoted to the restaurant
beat by a boss who should
have known better, he was
asked to make a speech at
some restaurant convention.

Rising to his full height of

' five-foot-six he grasped the

tablecloth, uttered the
immortal words: “What a
bunch of f***** fascists,”
and collapsed, taking the

‘¢loth, plates and cutlery with
“him.

| Now, of course, there are

“ao D’Arcys left. If you don't
“have a degree in political cor-

rectness you stand little
chance of getting a media

_ job. -

But I digress.

~~ Call

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The lawyers’ “respect rat-
ing” was 11%, ‘The “journal-
ists” 15%.

The only consolation to
be drawn from the poll was
that politicians got a mere
4h,

I’m surprised it was that
high. For the politicians, that
iS.

If there were ne media at
all, would we be missed?
Well, there would be less for
people to gripe abour and
perhaps the world would be a
better place, It would certain-
ly be a much quieter place.
And there would be fewer
wars.

You only have to show
Saddam Hussein on the box,
for instance, or put him on
the front cover of Time mag-
azine, for the Americans to
send planes to Kuwait‘in time
for the next election.

Even if we didn’t have

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fewer wars, the ones that are
being waged wouldn't get on
people’s nerves so much,

Mind you, it’s hard to
please everyone. Some people
complain that we don’t poke
our noses into other folks?
business as much as we
should.

An English columnist,
Minette Marrin, had a point
when she wrote that “disre-
spect is the first, best quality
of the journalist.”

Right. But she added that
today’s journalists and com-
mentatars are “astonishingly
incurious.”

Examples abound.

Today, we keep hearing
about the sins of the wicked
whites in pre-Mandela South
Africa. But no one ever men-
tions how the noble blacks
killed hundreds of their own
by “necklacing,” which was
putting a tire round people's

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Sunday, September 29, 1996 ~ North Shore News — 7

necks and setting fire to
them.

Nor did we ever see ition
television, even though the
films of it were available. Call
it conscious incuriosity. All
part of P.C,

Here in Canada the big
media have been astonishing-
ly incurious about some
things. But when Parliament

reopened they became aston-
ishingly curious about
Preston Manning’s hairstyle.
Oh well, as I keep saying,
no one's perfect. Except me.
Meanwhile, 1 wish the
Globe well with its appeal.

The North Shore News
believes strongly in freedom of
speech and the right of all
sides in a debate ta be beard.
‘The columnists published in
the News present differing
points of view, but those views
are not necessarily those af the
newspaper itself.

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