Thumbing through the New York Times today, I found a very interesting story with implications on both sides of of the Border, but not the Border we usually talk about. It also deals with our topic of discussion today about whether editorials/opinion columns are journalism.
You can read it here. (Hey! I learned how to hyperlink!)
The heart of the matter is cloumnist Heather Mallick. She usually writes for the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) website (http://www.cbc.ca/), and also for website for a paper in London, The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/). In editorial columns for each of these websites last month, Mallick expressed her strong dislike for Sarah Palin. The Guardian piece is available here.
Attacking Palin is nothing new, as we well know here. However, one of Mallick's columns drew the ire of Fox News' Greta Van Susteren, host of the show "On the Record". Van Susteren ripped Mallick's Sep. 5 column for the CBC site, which described Palin as having a "toned-down version of the porn actress look", and described her supporters as "white trash". Van Susteren called the column "beyond vicious".
As a result of the American publicity, in addition to over 300 complaints to the CBC ombudsman, Vince Carlin, the column was removed from the CBC site by publisher John Cruickshank. It is still readable on Mallick's personal site here. (Watch out! There's some language in there!)
Here's where it gets interesting: Carlin and Cruickshank said that, as a result of the column, the editing of opinion items would be more strict, and that columns like Mallick's would only work in the future if it was labeled as satire. Specifically, they stated:
“Even in a work of opinion, facts should be respected and arguments should reasonably flow from these facts.”
Mallick defended her column, stating that is was "straightforward political commentary, admittedly with jokes".
Again, interesting questions are raised:
Is this guideline necessary for opinion pieces to be considered journalism?
Would they be considered journalism if they weren't regulated?
Does Mallick really need to provide facts in order to claim that Republicans are "white trash"?
Should Mallick have to either label or justify/defend her column to get it published?
If it were an American journalist writing it, would the response be any different?
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1 comment:
Wow- she really lashed out at Palin and her followers. I feel like her article is more appropriate for a personal blog rather than an editorial read by thousands. While her disdain for the Republicans is obvious, there is a way of proving points and having a biased opinion without coming off as obnoxious and snotty. She didn't really do a great job of including facts and presenting both sides. I felt it would have been better if she had included both sides and then showed why her points/view is correct rather than just name calling. But I will give her this- she is a great sassy writer and some of the things she said made me laugh despite their provoking nature.
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