#135 It's Important To Kick These People When They're Down

Short Cuts

#135 It’s Important To Kick These People When They’re Down

Some unsolicited advice for This American Life. And the Globe and Mail launches a project to teach kids about media manipulation... through media manipulation.

September 27, 2017

This American Life’s lead story this week was about the Proud Boys, a group started by VICE co-founder and former Rebel personality Gavin McInnes. They ponder whether McInness is actually racist. We help them find the answer. Read more about that here.

The Globe and Mail has teamed up with the We organisation to teach media literacy to kids. They could begin by unpacking their relationship with the Kielburgers, the powerful family who they not only partnered with, but also publish and cover.

Freelancer David Berry co-hosts.

CLARIFICATION: in this episode Jesse describes Gavin McInnes’ comments regarding the Holodomor genocide as false and inaccurate. He was referring specifically to McInnes’ assertion that Jews were responsible for the Holodomor, and was in no way was contesting or denying the existence of the Holodomor itself.

More from this series

#720 Fine Dining Struggles

The woes of fancy restaurants across Canada have been percolating - Who are we supposed to relate to? And the saga of the New York Times hit podcast comes to a close. Writer and restaurant-owner Jen Agg co-hosts.

October 14, 2021

#718 Truth And Recreation Day

Jesse was not on board with #CdnMediaFailed when it came to the story on Trudeau in Tofino. And attacks on journalists might be more of a Canadian problem than we care to admit.

October 7, 2021

#716 Michaelmania

The release of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig shows what China really thinks about Canada. And Maxime Bernier asks his followers to "play dirty" with reporters. Jan Wong co-hosts.

September 30, 2021

#714 Norm Macdonald Called Me a Motherf*cker

We look back on the coverage of an absolutely underwhelming, demoralizing election. And we contend with a troubling aspect of Norm Macdonald’s legacy.

September 23, 2021

#712 We Get What We Deserve

Trudeau is getting upset and it seems to be working for him. And the English leaders' debate was widely derided. Was it deserved?

September 16, 2021

#710 Semen Retention Soldiers

After protestors threw gravel at the Prime Minister during a campaign stop, we ask: has this gotten too much coverage, or not enough? And we scrutinize a budding conspiracy about Michael Spavor, the Canadian entrepreneur detained in China.

September 9, 2021

#708 Angry Idiots, Explained

Many journalists are condemning the unruly protestors following Trudeau on the campaign trail. But is that our role? And co-host Jen Agg talks about how she became the centre of a major story after dealing with her own unruly protestors at her restaurants.

September 2, 2021

#706 Chopped And O’Tooled

Twitter became the centre of the election this week when they put a "manipulated media” tag on one of Chrystia Freeland’s tweets, which contained an edited video of Conservative leader Erin O’Toole. And is science journalism at a crisis point in Canada? An analysis finds Canada’s biggest newspapers gave about half as much coverage to the IPCC’s major recent climate report as US ones did.

August 26, 2021

All Podcasts

Short Cuts