Blog dummy!

Good Day Readers,

You know the routine follow the blue.

Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk

Mr. Pieuk:

You are becoming the media venue of choice for those with a story to tell.

Then CyberSmokeBlog has succeeded. It was originally set up to help those deserving individuals who need help getting their story out.

The Winnipeg Free Press, Globe and Mail, as well as, CBC have become timid - Canada and Canada's defamation laws, being from the 19th century, certainly do not help matters. So the old school media is no longer helping the public understand how the world works.

Perhaps this graphic says it best.

Traditional media is under ever increasing financial pressure like never before. Driven by advertising dollars, of which more and more are migrating to the internet, cutbacks can be found everywhere. Fewer traditional reporters with fewer dollars to do their work. But the "Blogger Advantage" goes deeper:

Mainstreamers are constantly running from story to story with an editor looking over their shoulder. Bloggers face no such restrictions free to spend as much or as little time following a story. While these are very talented, dedicated individuals who ply their craft exceeding well, they are limited in what they are able to say.

But one small example. When was the last time you read a politician who misspent from the public largess by billing taxpayers for a chauffeured limousine drive of a couple blocks referred to as "a lazy, fat arse" by traditional news outlets? We can and do. In short, more freedom to tell it like it is!

Oh jeez don't get us started on Manitoba's Defamation Act. For starters, it's over 30-years old so much so nowhere will you find the word "internet." It's in need of a major overhaul but that will not happen. Why? Perhaps a Crown in the Constitutional Law Branch of Manitoba Justice said it best. "It will take someone winning a Charter challenge before the province is forced to upgrade this antiquated legislation."

Old school media intimidated by defamation law? Oh for sure! In early March of this year the hacker group Anonymous released a YouTube video in which explosive, unsubstantiated allegations were made regarding Mr. Vic Toews and a sitting Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench Justice. Last time we checked it was still accessible on the internet. To date the media has yet to even acknowledge it exists (a zero risk scenario) much less detail its contents (high risk).

Could the narrative line become the question of whether judges and lawyers have the structural and cultural capacity to self-regulate?

Yes indeed. Look at the broken business model used by law societies the world's most powerful trade union. Lawyers investigate a charge, lawyers prosecute and lawyers judge it. Is that not tantamount to going to court only to discover the judge also served as investigator and prosecutor? Like the British and American models the regulatory function must be taken out of the hands of law societies.

And can social media do a better job? And to you I say, "Can you do a job that puts old school media to shame on this issue?

Last word on the subject goes to Pierre Trudeau. During the October 1970 Quebec crisis involving the Front de liberation du Quebec (FLQ) Mr. Trudeau was asked by a skeptical reporter whether he'd invoke The War Measures Act that declared martial law. He replied, "Watch me." Next day he did.

CyberSmokeBlog says the same. "Watch us."