It boggles the mind how, with negative Twitter comments making the news, a Canadian newspaper's city editor could joke about Jack Layton's death from cancer Monday.
But joke he did and while Dave Naylor later deleted his offensive Tweet and apologized -`"I apogize (sic) for my earlier tweet. It was insensitive and uncalled for" - his original comment was screen-captured.
We won't repeat the original comment, but it can be found at goo.gl/v3yfW
The reaction can be found here https://twitter.com/#!/Nobby7694
A serious lapse in judgment, no doubt fed by Sun Media's disgraceful cross-Canada front page pre-election Layton massage parlour story 20 years after the non-event in Toronto
Naylor says in his Twitter info that "the views are mine and not my employer," but he also states he is "Calgary Sun city editor."
Does he seriously believe his association with a major Canadian daily newspaper is erased by saying the views are his own?
One Tweeter tells Naylor: "Somehow I think your employer will care about the views you expressed today."
All the while, editors at the Calgary Sun were assembling Jack Layton stories and tributes from near and far for their online and print editions.
Are Naylor's Tweet retraction and apology sufficient?
Stay tuned.
Stay tuned.
A week's suspension without pay seems about right, but then, how can the chain which published that story have the moral authority to do that? -- N.S.
ReplyDeleteRe: serious lapse in judgement by Sun Media:
ReplyDeleteWhat the heck went wrong with today's Toronto Sun front page?!? With the death of Jack Layton, every paper in the country had an easy front page. It should've been a slam dunk.
The Toronto Sun's front page was a badly edited picture showing Layton's(?) back as he's walking into a store to buy a lottery ticket???
Layton never met a camera he didn't love. The Sun has many hundreds of pictures of him. And yet, they chose this weird image?
This picture was so poorly edited, it shows (yet again) that the Sun has no idea how to use Photoshop properly. Obviously, the Sun doesn't have a clue how to brighten a picture without causing a shift in colour or changes to colour and contrast. Or maybe the picture was grossly over-sharpened?
The Calgary Sun ran the *identical* front page but Layton is apparently buying new dentures.
The Edmonton Sun ran the *identical* front page but Layton is shopping for a mortgage.
The Ottawa Sun ran the same front page but at least it tried to make the best of it with a slightly different crop and better headline.
Now turn to page eight in the Toronto Sun: a full-page picture of Layton that's totally out-of-focus?! Again, there are many hundreds of pictures of Layton available and yet the Sun decided to go one that's out-of-focus?! WTF is that?
Go to Newseum and compare Canadian front pages. Some newspapers absolutely nailed their front page. Bravo! Other papers completely missed the boat. Guess which papers sold out today and which ones didn't.
4:33-
ReplyDeleteYou're apparently the only person in the world who took issue with the cover. The photo is actually of Layton walking off-stage after announcing he was taking a leave from the NDP to try an fight cancer a couple months ago.
Not only did you not 'get it' but you're in the minority. Even Maclean's writer Andrew Coyne said it was the best of the Toronto dailies.
Well, for the uninitiated, the front page photo is selected by people with absolutely no background in photography ( Jamie - take a bow here). But somehow if you are the 'News Editor' or 'FrontPage Layout Guy', (you know who you are) it is assumed that you must know what you are doing. In the real newspaper world (anywhere else other than the Sun chain) the photo dept has a direct influence on what pictures are used in the paper. This has never been the case at the Sun and almost certainly never will be!!
ReplyDeleteRE 4:33 PM. Wouldn't shock me if that was a PKP (or one of his 'yes' cronies) mandate to use that photo chain-wide.
ReplyDeleteThe paper stabbed him in the back when they ran that massage parlour incident story before the May election, to of course get more cozy with the Harper government. Now by running that pic of Layton's back you mentioned, the paper appears to be almost doing the same thing to show more of its pro-Cons bias -- at the expense of Layton's passing.
Just throwing that theory out there.
@Anonymous 8:45 PM -re: "The photo is actually of Layton walking off-stage after announcing he was taking a leave from the NDP to try an fight cancer a couple months ago."
ReplyDeleteNo it's not because I was there at that press conference which was in held here in Toronto. That photo was shot in Vancouver during the federal election campaign. I was assigned to Layton during the campaign.
Obviously, you didn't get it.
I felt the same way with the Sun cover — I was disappointed. The photo was too blurry. I get what they were trying to do, and they could have done it with a better photo that was in focus, this one just fell flat.
ReplyDeleteSun Media lapse in judgement: this is too easy. Today's Toronto Sun front page is a giant giraffe floating in the sky above Casa Loma. No, really.
ReplyDeleteAgree with previous post: The giraffe was far, far worse. At least with the Jack cover there was a semblance of an idea, however poorly executed. Today's was a complete disaster. I feel sorry for the graphic artist tasked with rendering such a flimsy notion.
ReplyDelete