#376 What Is Black Press, And Did Victoria Police Re-Write Its News Story?

July 5, 2021

CANADALAND

News stories are frequently updated, clarified or corrected online, after they've been published. But when there's no disclosure that a story has been changed, something's usually up.

Jesse Brown

Host & Publisher

Tristan Capacchione

Audio Editor & Technical Producer

Producer/reporter Alex de Boer digs deep into one such case, when an article in Victoria News about a demonstration in support of the Wet’suwet’en protests originally centred an Indigenous land defender. That version disappeared without explanation, and a new, drastically different story suddenly appeared in its place, along with a video from Victoria’s Police chief, containing claims of violence that people present say, are simply not true. How and why were these changes made? Why were they not explained? Did the police demand, and receive, a re-write? And what can we learn about Black Press, the newspaper chain that publishes Victoria News and many more B.C. papers?

More from this series

Is Jesse a Zionist? (editorial)

Canadaland publisher Jesse Brown has been asked to stop talking about antisemitism.

November 29, 2023

#940 How Flacks Spin Hacks

Journalists report the news. They hear about a story, write it up, verify the facts, and then hit “publish”. Except for the times when they publish someone else’s story…

November 27, 2023

#938 Thunder Bay: Post-Mortem, Part 2

Nine sudden death cases of Indigenous people in Thunder Bay, Ontario were investigated so poorly that they had to be reinvestigated. But were they able to get it right this time?

November 20, 2023

#936 Thunder Bay: Post-Mortem, Part 1

For over five years, Canadaland has been investigating Thunder Bay, Ontario. Specifically, we have been trying to figure out why there were so many unanswered questions around the deaths of Indigenous people in this one Ontario town.

November 13, 2023

#934 The Aquanaut

It’s easy to imagine medical science and research being done from the safety of a lab with all the proper controls in place. But sometimes, it all starts with one person, going underwater, and exploring caves for unique and mysterious sea creatures.

November 6, 2023

The Newfoundlander: Chapter 1

While at a production of the hit Broadway musical Come From Away in 2019, reporter Justin Brake is confronted with an old story about his family’s history, a story that challenges his sense of identity. He decides to find out what was true in that story, and what was false.

October 30, 2023

#930 Alive At Ten

Canadaland’s official tenth anniversary celebration took place last Thursday at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, as part of the Hot Docs Podcast Festival. Today we bring you a condensed version of that event. Featuring appearances from all of the Canadaland hosts you know and love. Oh, and Jan Wong interviews Jesse for once… wait for it.

October 23, 2023

#928 How Connie Walker Won

The CBC once produced a podcast series that was an international hit. The broadcaster-turned-podcaster who made it, Connie Walker, recently won a Pulitzer Prize and a Peabody award for her work. Except she won those awards NOT for the CBC, but for Gimlet and Spotify. What happened?

October 16, 2023

All Podcasts

CANADALAND