Media / Media Bias

Linking hard news with blogs

By arthur Weinreb

Tuesday, March 8, 2005
Last Thursday, four members of the RCMP were ambushed and shot to death by James Roszko on his rural alberta property. Not since the Northwest Rebellion in the 1880s had so many police officers been killed at the same time. The police were guarding part of Roszko’s property as a crime scene because it contained a marijuana grow op and automobile parts that were believed to have been stolen. The deaths sparked an immediate debate about the government’s plans to decriminalize the drug and penalties for marijuana grow operations.

It was not surprising that the news of the murders constituted headlines in all of Canada’s major newspapers as well as internet sites that link to news. Bourque.org, a Canadian site that provides news links was no exception. What was unique about the way that Bourque reported on the tragedy was that directly underneath a link to the story was a link to a blog site, cannibisculture.com. By going to the second link, the reader could immediately get the response to the shootings by some of those involved in the so-called marijuana culture.

Some of the comments that were posted on cannibisculture.com were sympathetic to the officers and denounced the murders. Others contained such phrases as "good riddance to the scum" and one blogger compared the slain officers to thugs who were "stealing other people’s property." Then were some insightful comments about the quick politicizing of the tragedy by those who immediately began a crusade to increase the penalties for growing the drug. One person wrote that if the Mounties had been murdered at a "chop shop" instead of a grow op, would there have been immediate calls for tougher penalties against theft? We all know the answer to that and the question was no doubt rhetorical.

The comments that were posted on cannibsculture.com were hardly a scientific sampling or representative of how people felt about the tragedy. But those who chose to anonymously post comments onto the website were able to be more honest than if they had been interviewed by a reporter or had had a microphone shoved in front of them while walking down the street. The print, radio and television media interviewed representatives of groups that are advocating the legalization of marijuana but were met by political spin; the spokespersons made statements to the media that they felt would best advance their cause.

The speed of the internet allowed visitors to Bourque to read a wide range of comments from those in the drug culture in less than 24 hours after the horrific killings occurred. Bourque.com deserves credit for adding the cannibisculture.com link right underneath the link to the main headline.