Fake News Friday ｜ Journalist compares her work to…performing surgery？？
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
200.93073
Summary
It's another Friday, which means it's another Fake News Friday. And this week, we're talking about a tweet from a Toronto Star journalist, Saba Itazaz, comparing journalism to brain surgery, and why you should support an independent journalist.
Transcript
00:00:00.700
Searchlight Pictures presents In the Blink of an Eye on Hulu on Disney+.
00:00:04.800
A sweeping science fiction drama spanning the Stone Age, the present day, and the distant future.
00:00:10.800
About the essence of what it means to be human, regardless of our place in history.
00:00:15.180
The film is directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton and stars Rashida Jones, Kate McKinnon, and Daveed Diggs.
00:00:21.840
Stream In the Blink of an Eye now only on Hulu on Disney+.
00:00:41.280
It is another Friday, which means it's another time for Fake News Friday, which means it's...
00:00:48.800
Yeah, it's Fake News Friday, December 9th, 2022.
00:00:51.940
I am Andrew Lawton, joined as always, or as usual, by Harrison Faulkner,
00:00:57.940
swimming through that blizzard of lies, debunking all that's wrong in the world,
00:01:02.200
and hopefully trying to make sense of it and make you laugh.
00:01:08.440
I have to say, usually you team me up with a little, how was your week?
00:01:11.840
And I was going to say that my week was great until I just read a Twitter thread, Andrew,
00:01:15.460
which really shook my confidence as a journalist.
00:01:17.740
I started to realize that, hey, these Toronto Star journalists,
00:01:20.840
these experts over there that take a bit of taxpayer money,
00:01:24.600
they have so much confidence and so much pride in their work
00:01:28.300
that they actually equate their journalism, Andrew, to brain surgery.
00:01:31.520
And I mean, when you put it in that sense, us lowly journalists at True North,
00:01:35.520
how can we possibly compete with the expert brain surgeon journalists over at the Toronto Star?
00:01:42.880
And a perfect segue into this thread that was written by one Toronto Star journalist
00:01:52.240
Now, I'm not familiar with Saba's work, and I have no idea how good she is as a journalist,
00:01:57.140
but it was an odd sort of comparison she made here,
00:02:01.800
imagine someone randomly showing up when you're sick
00:02:04.500
and saying they'll be performing surgery on you
00:02:06.600
without any training, accreditations, qualifications.
00:02:11.300
They're like, how dare you gatekeep this profession?
00:02:19.200
if someone knows how to merely point scalpels at things and cut them,
00:02:36.600
I'm told that people liked it when I did that last time,
00:02:45.380
I can't drop this mic because it's wired in there,
00:02:48.200
but if I were to drop the mic, that would be when I would drop the mic.
00:02:51.520
So the point is that journalism is like brain surgery,
00:02:55.480
and anyone who says you should support an independent journalist
00:02:58.380
is like saying that you want just some guy that lives under the bridge to do your surgery.
00:03:03.460
I don't even quite know the point that she's making.
00:03:11.900
And then I wondered, is she just saying that you have to go to journalism school to be a journalist?
00:03:16.560
Like, I wasn't even quite clear what the point was.
00:03:19.180
It just basically sounded to me like she was saying,
00:03:23.720
Anyone outside the club doesn't get to be a part of it.
00:03:27.920
I mean, it's not like it's a new opinion that this journalist is sharing.
00:03:31.480
We hear it constantly that unless you work for one of the big mainstream outlets,
00:03:35.360
one of the outlets in Canada that, you know, takes a bunch of cash from the government,
00:03:38.820
which is usually a sign that you're not really objective,
00:03:41.420
but nonetheless, that's what Toronto Star is doing.
00:03:44.980
They're saying that really, unless you work for one of,
00:03:49.640
well, then frankly, you're not even a real journalist.
00:03:51.560
And we can look, we can look at all these other examples,
00:03:55.400
we can even tie this into what happened to Blacklock's reporter,
00:03:58.060
the independent outlet at the parliamentary press gallery.
00:04:00.740
They were, they were kicked out of the parliamentary press gallery because,
00:04:03.660
what, one of the journalists was supposedly not wearing earphones in the,
00:04:09.040
I think it was, it was, it was deeper than that.
00:04:10.920
Of course, they don't take money from the government and the rest of them do.
00:04:18.220
there's a little club and you're not in it unless you work for one of these
00:04:25.840
It doesn't even take very much, very much analysis.
00:04:29.580
Unless you, unless you are part of their club, you're not,
00:04:33.720
All of these outlets that do take money from the government,
00:04:35.720
all of these journalists that do work for these outlets,
00:04:40.940
And that's exactly what they're going for here.
00:04:42.700
They are basically saying that unless you went to journalism school,
00:04:45.540
unless you are a part of our club, you're not a real journalist.
00:04:49.680
this woman on Twitter responded back and just said,
00:04:52.480
so am I not a reporter because I started stringing with only an English degree?
00:04:57.900
then she responded back and said, well, there you go.
00:05:01.820
I find this hilarious since I'm a refugee journalist,
00:05:04.480
not even from here and don't have a Western J school degree or any privilege.
00:05:10.500
So again, it's all, it's all part of this sort of backtracking.
00:05:13.960
She ended up deleting the tweet because I think she realized how insane it was,
00:05:17.000
But even when she faced backtrack, even when she faced criticism, sorry,
00:05:30.500
There was another tweet in that exchange though,
00:05:32.540
that I found even more amusing because the person says to her, well,
00:05:38.220
And she said that it's good enough to serve me fine.
00:05:42.060
I don't follow a colonial syntax and I don't need to cheers.
00:05:47.380
So that's basically like your cover letter for a Toronto star job.
00:05:52.100
You use a phrase like colonial syntax and you are absolutely in the clear.
00:05:56.640
And I have to bring this up because there's this new thing going around.
00:06:03.380
And it's basically this open AI service that you can use.
00:06:14.260
And you can actually give this little bot a prompt and ask it to do something for you.
00:06:23.260
I was playing around one night when I couldn't sleep.
00:06:26.060
And I said this, I gave the prompt this exact thing.
00:06:30.300
I said, please write me a Toronto star column about how power tools are racist.
00:06:40.160
Lo and behold, it gave me one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight paragraphs that
00:06:46.040
I think you could copy and paste and put into the Toronto star.
00:06:54.320
It may seem strange to suggest that power tools, inanimate objects used for construction
00:06:59.160
and repairs could have any connection to racism.
00:07:01.800
However, when we examine the history and current use of these tools, a pattern emerges that reveals
00:07:13.780
And then at the end of it, in conclusion, power tools may appear to be neutral objects,
00:07:18.960
but the history and current use of these tools reveal a pattern of bias and discrimination
00:07:23.920
from their association with traditional gender roles and whiteness to the potential negative
00:07:31.520
It's clear that power tools are not as neutral as they may seem.
00:07:35.420
It's important for us to recognize and address these biases in order to create a more equitable
00:07:42.080
Did I just result in a Toronto star reporter getting laid off?
00:07:49.300
It's free of all colonial syntax and it's right on the money.
00:07:52.300
That's really, that's really what I think is going on here.
00:08:00.460
You know, I hope that you never know though, because, because if it didn't go to, if it
00:08:04.640
didn't go to J school, Andrew, it's maybe not even part of the club.
00:08:07.280
I mean, maybe we have to, maybe we should bring in the AI bot as, and publish it as,
00:08:12.080
as sort of like a joke column in true North has, has basically like the most absurd take
00:08:21.980
I won't read it cause it wasn't exactly PG, but I did another one later.
00:08:25.140
I asked it to write me a love story between a Twitter doctor and a mask.
00:08:31.760
So, uh, we, that one's for the after hours edition of the program.
00:08:36.040
Uh, I'm going to like, this AI writing stuff is supposed to save time, but I think I'm just
00:08:40.640
wasting time because all day now I'm just going to be putting in these, these different
00:08:44.600
Uh, let's talk about a, uh, walking, talking AI machine.
00:08:48.080
Actually, no, I don't think there's any I, which is, you know, intelligence.
00:08:51.080
Uh, but, uh, this is from Jagmeet Singh, who has said that he is confronting the genocide
00:09:06.580
Uh, Jagmeet Singh quote tweeted an MP and he wrote this white supremacy, misogyny, race
00:09:13.040
and racism continue to contribute to this ongoing genocide of MMI WG two S.
00:09:22.220
So the MMI WG missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, um, that is under the, uh,
00:09:28.780
you know, in the eyes of Jagmeet Singh, in the eyes of some, uh, you know, even Justin
00:09:32.500
Trudeau, that is supposed to be a genocide in Canada right now.
00:09:36.140
Uh, and he tacks on the two spirit, uh, to the end of that, which I wasn't aware of.
00:09:41.160
I didn't know that actually the, there was a genocide, uh, being perpetrated by white supremacists
00:09:45.700
against two spirited indigenous women and girls.
00:09:48.460
But nonetheless, apparently Jagmeet Singh thinks it is, um, but yes, anyway, so he writes
00:09:54.800
this tweet basically saying, Andrew, that the government that, you know, he is propping
00:09:59.440
up as, uh, as a part of this coalition is contributing to genocide, which is a very strange
00:10:06.200
You're, you're basically making that accusation against yourself too, in a way.
00:10:10.240
Uh, he's talking about what took place in, uh, he's talking about basically the murder
00:10:17.420
Um, and actually it's four, one woman has yet to be identified by a serial killer in
00:10:24.720
And he jumps at the opportunity to say, it's a white supremacy.
00:10:34.820
Andrew, he was the winner of the ratio of the week award, the prize ratio of the week award
00:10:43.360
He says, so there's an ongoing genocide being conducted by the Canadian government, the same
00:10:47.420
government that's been in power for seven years, which you and the NDP are now propping
00:10:52.840
What are you and your whole genocide air caucus going to turn yourself into the Hague?
00:10:57.600
It's a funny way to look at this situation because why would Jagmeet Singh be so, uh, willing
00:11:02.620
to label the government he's propping up as genocide?
00:11:05.640
I mean, I, I think this is a very real issue and I think it's a very tragic issue and what's
00:11:10.900
happened in Canada with these indigenous women, what's happened with the range of indigenous,
00:11:14.540
uh, women and girls that have gone missing, that have been killed is absolutely horrific.
00:11:18.680
But you cheapen these things when you start trying to score political points on them, which
00:11:23.780
is what happens when Justin Trudeau gets up on stage and accuses his own country, his
00:11:28.460
own government of perpetrating an ongoing genocide.
00:11:31.140
And then we'll, when it comes to accusing China of genocide, it's well, uh, uh, you know,
00:11:39.980
It's like you called yourself the leader of a genocidal nation and, and Jagmeet Singh,
00:11:45.400
You are propping up a genocidal government or are you just accusing Canadians of genocide?
00:11:52.080
If you believe genocide is happening right now, what are you doing about it?
00:11:58.360
If you're sitting on your computer right now doing nothing and you think genocide is taking
00:12:07.700
And instead of doing anything about it, it's not like, it's not like we're seeing even the
00:12:11.500
Canadian government, Justin Trudeau, as you said, labeled this a genocide as well.
00:12:15.940
It's not like we're seeing really the Canadian government do much about it either.
00:12:18.660
Uh, let alone Jagmeet Singh, who's propping up the government.
00:12:24.120
They believe there's an ongoing genocide in this country.
00:12:27.040
They have no willingness to actually call out a legitimate genocide that has taken place
00:12:31.340
in China, yet they're not doing anything about it.
00:12:34.100
And they're just trying to use it to score political points.
00:12:43.740
We can't just go around, Andrew, and call ourselves genocidal because if you're not going
00:12:47.840
to do anything about it, if you're not going to actually address the root cause of the
00:12:50.440
problem, there was an article in 2015 from the Globe and Mail which said 70% of these
00:12:55.100
incidents are take, are being, are being perpetrated by indigenous men.
00:13:02.000
But what we are saying is if there's a real problem going on, if it is really a tragedy
00:13:05.880
as these politicians say it is, which it obviously is, then do something about it.
00:13:10.520
But don't just go around saying it's white supremacy.
00:13:19.120
You're basically just doing governance by the AI machine that I wrote the Toronto Star
00:13:24.960
Why don't you take this next story, which actually I think is also a contender for having
00:13:31.860
This is yet another example of some great surgery-like journalism here from the Ottawa Citizen.
00:13:36.580
Also a, a taxpayer funded, receiving, a taxpayer receiving journalism outlet.
00:13:42.820
They wanted to sort of expand their, expand their pool of writers.
00:13:59.180
And I'm just going to read to you some of these lines because, again, this is just an
00:14:04.080
Andrew, really hitting the, hitting hard and really kind of going right at the issues here.
00:14:18.780
Do we know any identifiable details about the author?
00:14:22.580
My, my, my first read on it, Andrew, is that it's one of those blue medical cloth masks.
00:14:29.060
So it really, it's not up to the real standard.
00:14:36.640
It's not, as Dr. Tam says, it's not one of those well-fitting medical masks.
00:14:43.440
And he's feeling, this mask is feeling really left behind.
00:14:58.940
Well, I'm being safe and I'm going to go with they.
00:15:12.420
I'm here in between the cushions of your couch.
00:15:21.500
There's some incredible, incredible lines here.
00:15:23.860
As people continued to get sick and die, we got over that.
00:15:26.960
And pretty soon you wouldn't go anywhere without me.
00:15:37.380
And as autumn rolled into winter, you remarked more than once how I felt a nice warm scarf.
00:15:50.760
And then, of course, they had to kind of, the mask sort of broke out.
00:15:54.100
It's medical knowledge because, as we all know, a very smart mask here.
00:15:58.880
Remember that BMJ, formerly British Medical Journal, analysis, last November, more than
00:16:03.300
70 studies worldwide looking at public health measures, it said mask wearing accounted for
00:16:13.260
Not, you know, I mean, 50% of them didn't, 50% of them didn't work, but I guess 50% of
00:16:23.680
When Ontario Premier Doug Ford said, we've got to move on, that was all you needed.
00:16:29.300
Without even a last kiss goodbye, you discarded me as quickly as Andy threw Woody into his
00:16:37.300
Oh, Andrew, it's a love story between a mask and a forgotten friend.
00:16:46.240
I mean, where does a mask get off thinking it's so special?
00:16:50.600
But look, this is the kind of stuff you get when the taxpayers fund your journalism.
00:16:56.280
And I don't even know if our AI bot friend would be able to pull off something as incredible
00:17:01.580
Yeah, I wonder if the mask is a recipient of the local journalism initiative funding or
00:17:10.880
Maybe this was an advertorial by the Public Health Agency of Canada.
00:17:14.700
Well, if it's not, then we do have the independent press gallery to back up the mask too.
00:17:19.920
We'll have to check if a mask has applied for accreditation with the IPG.
00:17:27.020
Well, we'll have to leave that up to the experts.
00:17:32.280
But I got to say, I mean, like I said, this is the kind of stuff that probably without taxpayer
00:17:39.460
This is a perfect example of why this sort of stuff in the Ottawa citizen is very important.
00:17:45.500
They do end up telling us who might be behind the mask at the end of the story.
00:17:50.520
The guy's name, I hate to burst our bubble here, but it turns out the guy might be named
00:17:56.760
I wouldn't be bragging about that if I were you, Bruce.
00:18:01.500
But nonetheless, he didn't put his name in the byline.
00:18:05.440
I wonder how many people actually got to the bottom of that article.
00:18:07.660
Yeah, he kept up the illusion until the bitter end.
00:18:17.600
Yet another example, Andrew, of great surgery-like precision when it comes to journalism.
00:18:30.900
Over-represents men named Mike, scientists say.
00:18:36.120
When the Washington Post is not going after systemic racism, when the Washington Post is not
00:18:40.040
tracking down Donald Trump's nefarious activities, the Russian connection, all of that
00:18:44.340
nasty stuff, they're going after the Shark Week, Discovery Channel's lack of diversity.
00:18:51.300
Researchers say Discovery's programming overwhelmingly featured white men as experts while emphasizing...
00:19:00.880
While over-emphasizing negative messages about sharks.
00:19:04.760
So we're being too nasty to the great white shark.
00:19:06.940
We're being too preferential to scientists named Mike.
00:19:10.560
And we're being too preferential to experts who are white males.
00:19:14.180
Now, I can absolutely understand that this is the kind of stuff Jeff Bezos was hoping to uncover when he bought the Washington Post.
00:19:21.300
You know, he was probably looking to get maybe some favorable headlines for Amazon.
00:19:28.460
Again, let me just go back to the original point, which we touched on at the beginning.
00:19:32.920
These journalists here who are such experts, who are such giants in the field, Andrew.
00:19:37.100
Us at True North, we can never reach these heights.
00:19:39.200
The journalist who wrote this is a Stanford graduate.
00:19:42.120
You know, really, absolutely hard-hitting stuff.
00:19:47.000
It's humbling to me to read something like this and realize I'm not even close.
00:19:55.700
Like, where are all the Mikes coming from in Shark Week?
00:19:58.660
The Mikes are the white scientists on the show.
00:20:02.520
So, they did this really hard-hitting analysis stuff here.
00:20:07.560
So, there are too many marine biologists named Mike.
00:20:12.940
So, from 1988 to 2020, in a study which was completed by the Public Library of Science,
00:20:20.000
which I think just included watching TV, watching endless hours of Shark Week content,
00:20:25.220
which, you know, is actually a good way of getting some grants.
00:20:31.160
we're going to track down the lack of diversity on Shark Week,
00:20:34.100
and really all you get to do is just watch TV for hours and hours on end.
00:20:37.660
It turns out that actually there's too many white Mike men,
00:20:41.080
white men named Mike, on the program, and not enough black women.
00:20:45.200
And all of the Mike content on Shark Week is nasty towards Shark.
00:20:49.380
We're not portraying sharks, Andrew, as these great beings of oceanic art.
00:20:56.020
You know, we're painting them as nasty, scary creatures in the depths of the oceans.
00:21:03.560
How dare you take aim at over-representing Mikes when your name is Dave?
00:21:10.800
That's like one step short of John Smith, and he's like,
00:21:14.700
It's like Dave's supremacy is coming to roost here.
00:21:17.920
Even better, Andrew, there's another study in that they sort...
00:21:22.720
and the last name of the person who created this other study,
00:21:34.420
Is this like a big display of white shark, great white privilege?
00:21:39.620
So it's Lisa White Neck and Dave who are talking,
00:21:44.340
who are doing this deep, hard-hitting analysis on too many Mikes,
00:21:48.180
too many white men talking too many nasty things about sharks.
00:21:53.080
I'm getting the AI thing to do the show next week, so have at it.
00:21:56.920
This has been another edition of Fake News Friday.
00:21:59.840
Harrison Faulkner, you can catch him at Ratioed,
00:22:02.900
and you can catch me at The Andrew Lawton Show,
00:22:05.540
and you can catch all of our colleagues at tnc.news,
00:22:08.780
where I hope you can chip in a few bucks for the stellar news
00:22:16.100
about, you know, white sharks named Mike or whatever.
00:22:34.060
How about they're supposed to give you a ratings break?
00:22:39.020
I rely on you and your票 at руки and your neighbors.
00:22:43.660
Builder andWatch with my colleagues at the fasten円.