Life as a Perfectionist in an Imperfect World

“Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks.”

That was the order given to journalists at Canada’s taxpayer-supported CBC broadcast network as the 25th anniversary of 9/11 approaches. The ensuing backlash forced CBC to reverse course.

The leaked directive wasn’t an isolated lapse. It reflects a troubling institutional record that extends from CBC’s coverage of the October 7 Hamas massacres to its reporting on the Nazi past of former Liberal cabinet minister Chrystia Freeland’s maternal grandfather.

NBC News deserved the humiliation it suffered after General Motors revealed that Dateline had rigged its infamous 1992 pickup-truck explosion with model rocket engines.
What history largely forgot is that GM’s trucks really did pose a serious safety hazard—and that the automaker had a documented history of punishing major publications whose coverage it didn’t like.
Three decades later, as federal regulators scrutinize safety issues involving more than two million GM vehicles, that forgotten history offers an uncomfortable lesson about the state of automotive journalism.

Journalists have long insisted that credible news organizations aren’t bought and paid for.
The Randall Lane controversy at Forbes makes that argument much less convincing.