So I know that headlines are not usually written by the authors of articles in The Record. The reporter writes the article and submits it. But while reporters should (or at least pretend to) simply report on a story and be neutral, the editors do not appear to be under any such constraints. For example, the lead story’s headline today reads: “Defunding would cut 216 officers: chief”. But the sub-headline, in red ink of course, states: “Police propose increased budget with no reallocation of funds as called for by activists”. So it appears that this story is going to be about the Police Chief and “activists” arguing over next years proposed budget. But, the only time “activists” are mentioned in the article is in the first line: “Taking $29 million out of the police budget and redirecting the money to social and mental health programs – as Black activists have called for – would mean getting rid of more than 200 officers, said Waterloo Regional Police Chief Bryan Larkin.” That’s it. No names of “activists” groups, no “activists” spokespersons, no “activists” quotes, no “activists” nothing. So why even have this sub-headline and not even the mention “activists” at all?
A number of years ago, the Business Section used to be almost an entire section in The Record. Now, it’s a page. Nice. However, there is an interesting article today regarding “For many workers, earning more doesn’t pay”. The article is a summary of Finance Department documents from last November – but just released to the public a few days ago. It compares what happens when various groups earn an additional $1,000 and how much of that money is clawed back through the reduction of benefits or increased taxes. Result: “Workers with modest incomes, between about $25,000 and $34,000, lost $413 for every $1,000 in extra earnings, the highest clawback of any income level. Just behind them were the top 10 per cent of workers, with incomes over $114,570, who gave up $402 for every $1,000 of additional earnings.” Ouch. But we all know what they say about lies, damned lies and statistics. And I don’t trust Jordan Press since he like most other CP journalists tend to slant their articles to the left. So I wanted to look up these documents – but of course, Press didn’t point to the article or the website where it’s located. Why not? So I went to the Department of Finance and checked out their site – basically useless. A google search of the quoted words in the document brought up nothing but links to his article in tons of other papers, CTV News, the CBC etc. but nothing about where I could find the document. Strange. How easy would it be just to include the website where the article was located if others wanted to view the original DofF papers? Dumb.