By Judi McLeod
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Like many other electronic newspapers, Canada Free Press has a dim view of the mainstream media that some pundits increasingly ridicule as the "drive by" media.
But the problem caused for CFP by the mainstream media on Wednesday night could have sent the RCMP to our Elm Street office.
Incredibly, 680 News, self touted as "all NEWS Radio" carried a story naming CFP as the website that originated the football stadium threat identified as a hoax from its inception. The 680 News story sourcing CFP was repeated every half hour all of Wednesday evening, and continued in a slightly changed version the following morning.
a friend, tuning in his car radio for the station's traffic and weather reports on his return from a long business trip, was the first to call to alert us that he had heard 680 say the football stadium hoax had originated with CFP.
Thinking that the friend must have been mistaken, CFP business manager Brian Thompson and Yours Truly tuned in to hear it for ourselves. Sure enough the radio station was reporting that the hoax had originated in a CFP chatroom.
Not only did CFP not run such a story on its daily website, it does not have a chat room.
after checking to assure ourselves that our site had not been hijacked, we immediately telephoned the radio station to set the record straight. Most frustratingly we could not get past the station's cheerful voice mail to get a live voice on the phone. at 10:20 p.m., having heard the story repeated on several newscasts, our first email was sent, informing 680 they had identified the wrong source.
Not having our email acknowledged an hour or so later, we sent a second email that had attached an aP story, which clearly indicated that the threat, dated Oct. 12 appeared on a Web site, The Friend Society. Its author was identified in the message as "javness" and its server had been tracked to Troy, New York.
according to the message, trucks would deliver radiological bombs Sunday to stadiums in New York, Miami, atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Cleveland and Oakland, Calif., and Osama bin Laden would claim responsibility.
By early the next morning, the FBI announced that agents had questioned a 20-year-old Milwaukee man in an effort to determine who made the threats that were posted on the Web site.
CFP associate Editor arthur Weinreb checked in to inform us that 680's "all NEWS radio was now running a story that said the hoax had originated with a "Canadian Website".
By Friday morning, the FBI reported that the hoax was actually a contest between two men to see who could come up with the scariest story on the Internet.
Later in the day came the news that charges had been laid.
Still no letter of response let alone one of apology to CFP from 680 News.
By this time other people were calling to report what they had heard about CFP on 680 Radio on Wednesday night.
Being falsely accused for an irresponsible hoax and not being able to have the misinformation corrected came all the harder to CFP, whose breaking stories on international terrorism are picked up worldwide. Canada Free Press is home to terrorism investigation experts like Doug Hagmann whose web site, Northeast Intelligence is a regular CFP feature. Celebrated Pakistan-based journalist Hamid Mir, author/journalist Dr. Paul L. Williams and Polish based journalist and former CIa operative David Dastych file stories on terrorism, on a regular basis to a grateful CFP.
680 is owned by Rogers Cable, a television cable company that dominates the industry. CFP is a Rogers client. So flush with clients are Rogers that some folk claim trying to reach them in a hurry is akin to trying to flag the government. It seems that the bureaucratic stage of Rogers began with the departure of "Cable Guy" John Tory who was the corporation's CEO. Tory, now leader of Ontario's Conservative Party, does the much more important and impressive job of keeping the Dalton McGuinty Liberals honest.
The deafening silence from 680 Radio makes you wonder if they refuse to respond to a media outlet quite able at defending itself, how must the little guy fare under similar circumstances.
Not responding to a story that is patently untrue is irresponsible journalism, and its parent company should look into the reporting style of 680 Radio.
Meanwhile, it's little wonder that so many Canadians are bypassing radio stations like 680 News to tune into Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and Buffalo WBEN 930 aM's Tom Bauerle.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2024 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2024 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement