https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/canada-open-letter-lobbies-journalists-how-cover-joan-ocallaghan/
A letter with nearly 1600 signatories was sent on May 14 to newsrooms across Canada, calling for greater “balance” (code for pro-Palestinian) in coverage of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. The letter began with the observation that covering events in the Middle East is “complicated” but then goes on to imply that newsrooms are cowed by pressure from “outside groups” into favoring the Israelis. This amounted to the latest iteration of the old canard that Jews control the media, a favorite trope of the world’s antisemites. It was rather befitting to the victimhood agenda that has grown steadily to morph real journalism into becoming woke activism over time.
An examination of the signatories of this “open letter” revealed that the vast majority of names have a Middle Eastern ring to them, and most were not media people, although several of the signatories did claim to work in the media.
The letter of course is ironic because–both nationally and internationally–most media outlets have found ways to present Israel as the villain, the bully beating up on innocent Palestinians, booting them out of their homes and dropping bombs on them.
The journalistic rot began a long time ago and is now in full flower.
Take for example, in his memoirs, Maverick Publisher – J. Patrick O’Callaghan: A Life in Newspapers (Carrick Publishing, 2015), O’Callaghan recalled an April, 1995 annual Canadian Press dinner, where Ralph Klein, former premier of Alberta, was the keynote speaker. Klein maintained that newspapers were obsessed with victim-of-the-week journalism. He cited the case of the Edmonton Journal, which in advance of an Alberta budget had prepared a document for reporters suggesting how they might contextualize the budget items. At the head of the list was the proposal to put the case for those who would be “victimized” by certain budget cuts. In other words, reporters were expected to go out and find “victims.”