This week, as I spent time organizing the vast amount of materials to prepare for the story, many times I had to stop, shake my head and ask myself: "Is it really necessary to include him or her in my story?"
It's really depressing to look at the behaviors of the creme de la creme of Canada journalism.
Take, for example, William Watson. Besides being a columnist for CanWest newspapers, isn't he a professor, too? As a Chinese, it's in my genes to respect a teacher. And I am going to expose him cracking nuts? Gosh, this is awful.
Greg Weston. I used to have high hope for him to eventually help me with publishing my story, most because he wrote pointed columns for the Conservatives. – I mean, if the Ottawa Bureau of the Sun newspaper chain would not help me, who would? -- But I can't believe the kinds of nuts he has been cracking lately. I feel really bad to have to write a profile on him.
And then there is Andrew Coyne, most of whose columns I enjoyed reading. They are always intelligent, persuasive, with the right character. Read his take on integrity:
"Integrity, whether in countries or individuals, depends not only on the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, but on the conviction that right and wrong matter, that it matters whether you do the right thing or the wrong thing." (National Post, February 9, 2005)Bravo! Do words like these not make you think that he is just the kind of journalist we need? But, unfortunately, he engaged in sporadic nuts-cracking, too. Why was that?
Oh, Pat MacAdam, of course. You know, he has been batting for me through his weekly column since last summer. When I was blogging with Warren Kinsella, he cheered me on from the sidelines. When I was down, he encouraged. And now I have to reveal what was behind his change of attitude toward me? It's awful, indeed.
Don Newman. I feel bad to have to mention him here. I mean, isn't he a member of the Order of Canada? And doesn't he always wear good suits? I really wish I didn't have to do this.
However, MSM is an integral part of my story. As such, I will have to do this and in fact, will need to create a (or, maybe two) seperate blog just to profile them.
Are there good guys in Canadian MSM? Of course, there are. But they are in the minority and I don't believe their lives have been easy.
Final words of clarity: Due to the lack of better expression, I use the phrase "nuts-cracking" here to describe journalists' behavior of intentionally making a reference to my story. Of course, the real issue is: Have they abandoned their journalistic duty when they knowingly ignored my story, and that of Cecilia Zhang's? If so, why?
Update 01/10/2006: Hyperlinks to William Watson and Don Newman added.
