Those who read this blog with any regularity will know that I am a strong advocate of newspaper readership. Despite their flaws, mainstream media have something to offer that simply gleaning news from the internet lacks: reports and perspectives on a wide array of issues. Unlike the echo chamber
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Warren Kinsella: CBC vs. CPC: when bias isn’t just perceived anymore
A reasonable apprehension of bias — that’s what we learned to call it in law school. It’s the legal standard, in Canadian law, for disqualifying a judge or decision-maker in an administrative tribunal. Bias is prejudice, mostly. It’s an unreasonably hostile feeling or opinion about a person or group. In
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon #ERRE Links
A bit of electoral reform material for your weekend reading. – Nathan Cullen points out how the Special Committee on Electoral Reform’s report (PDF) serves as an effective road map to make every vote count in Canada. – PressProgress highlights how the Libs are attacking their own campaign promises in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On threshold questions
Althia Raj is predictably dispensing Lib talking points about the potential outcomes of the NDP’s leadership review. So to set the record straight, let’s examine what the numbers actually mean.There’s exactly one threshold which produces a binding outc…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On oversimplification
One could hardly design a more stark contrast between the complex realities of politics and the media’s tendency to portray them in appallingly simplified terms than Althia Raj’s report on the NDP’s conference calls with party members last week. But fo…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Linda McQuaig discusses how the interests of big banks ended the Cons’ willingness to consider postal banking which would produce both better service and more profits for the public: (C)ompetition is the last thing the banks want. And given their power (straddling the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Last Night’s At Issue Panel
The comments of guest panelist Althia Raj, from The Huffington Post, are worth the price of admission here as she declares, in no uncertain terms, that The Fair Elections Act is legislation aimed at voter suppression. In reaction, the attempt at stoicism by Peter Mansbridge, currently embroiled in his own
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
This and that to end your Saturday. – As pointed out by Paul Krugman, Kathleen Geier recognizes an obvious possible cause of a declining life expectancy for some less-wealthy Americans: I will offer an alternative hypothesis, one which is not explicitly identified in the Times article: inequality. In the U.S.,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Andrew Jackson thoroughly demolishes the argument that after three decades of wage stagnation and soaring corporate profits, Canada’s economy somehow needs to see workers suffer even more: The reality is that the pay of most workers has stagnated in real terms over the
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