The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Bad Journalism vs Fake News -- There Is A Difference.

Episode Date: August 20, 2020

Getting something wrong isn't the same as spreading deliberate inaccuracies. One is bad the other is fake. But neither should be forgiven. That and a lot more in today's pod.

and hello there peter mansbridge here with the latest episode of the bridge daily it's thursday of week 23 and i love thursdays love them them because Thursdays mean tomorrow's Friday which means the weekend is just around the corner now of course the last few months you never know really what day it is because they all kind of run into the other and there have been more than a few times where I've had to go to the calendar and look before I started the podcast to see what day was it. But we're at Thursday, which means Friday. The weekend special is tomorrow, which means if you've got something you want to say that's on your mind, or you just have a story you want to write about, send it along to mansbridgepodcast at gmail.com. TheMansbridgePodcast at gmail.com.

So I learned a lesson today. I learned a couple of lessons today, actually. Remember, I guess it was two nights ago when we did the new finance minister story, the Christopher Freeland story, which also included the Dominic LeBlanc story, because he was also shuffled around a little bit in the cabinet, in the cabinet shuffle that took place on that day. And I mentioned near the end of that story about Dominic LeBlanc, who is somebody I've known for more than a little while. He's from New Brunswick. I was Chancellor of Mount

Allison University for eight years in beautiful downtown Sackville, New Brunswick. And Dominic LeBlanc, because he's a member from New Brunswick, used to come by to many of the events at Mount A, and so we'd always have a chance to talk politics. Anyway, what I mentioned on the podcast the other day is that Dominic LeBlanc and Justin Trudeau have been friends since they were kids. And that was partly because their fathers were friends.

Their fathers held two of the highest offices in the land. Pierre Trudeau, of course, was Prime Minister. Romeo LeBlanc was Governor General, and I certainly left the impression that they held those two jobs at the same time. They didn't. And I was corrected by email by Jean-Luc Thomas of Saint-Albert, Ontario. And Jean-Luc, you're absolutely right, of course. Because Pierre Trudeau was Prime Minister of Canada during the late 60s, most of the 70s, and the early 80s.

Roméo Leblanc wasn't Governor General until the 90s. During a number of the Pierre Trudeau terms as Prime Minister, Roméo Leblanc was in the cabinet, I guess most remembered for his time in the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans. But they were never

PM and GG at the same time. And so I stood corrected there. Now, that wasn't fake news, that was just poorly researched news, right? There's a difference. Neither are excusable, but there is a difference. And the reason I tell the story, apart from crediting Mr. Thomas, Jean-Luc,

for correcting me, is that something else happened. You remember, if you listened to last night's podcast, the one with the podcast within a podcast, the race next door with Bruce Anderson, which I hope you enjoyed. Sure, the numbers were great for last night.

So you obviously were interested in listening to what Bruce had to say and you know I had a few comments too but at the end of that podcast I said make sure you listen tomorrow because I got something really interesting for you well I thought I did and I'm going to be careful here about discussing it because I don't want to fall into the trap

of fake news, but a well-intended person sent me a list that had come out that was being attributed to a certain public health official about things to keep in mind in the fight against COVID-19, how to deal with the coronavirus. What's true, what's not true. And I kind of skimmed the list, and I thought this will be great for tomorrow,

because it's fairly long. You know, I don't know, about 20 things in it. And it all seemed to make sense to me of what I'd skimmed. So I mentioned, we'll do that tomorrow. And I thought I could have, in a way, fun with it. So I got up this morning, and I thought, you know what? Before I do this, I probably should you know what, before I do this, I probably should check it out just to make sure

that what I've got here certainly looks official, but let me make sure. And you guessed it, when I checked it out, it wasn't real. It was not true. And I should have caught on to the potential problems with it earlier on because there was stuff in there that kind of goes against the flow of everything we've been told. And sure enough,

turned out it was fake news. Now, where did it come from? I don't know. I don't know where it initially came from, but I know how it was circulated. It was circulated through Facebook. And it's been all over the place through Facebook for the last few weeks, as it turns out. It's been around the continent and around the world, but it's fake. Okay? Just like lots of things

out there are the true definition of fake news. Not the term that a certain president uses and claims as his own. The term fake news has been around for a long time, for more than a century. It was used a lot through the 20s and 30s in Europe by certain fascist parties to attack legitimate news organizations for what they were saying.

But there is a kind of fake news as well, which is news that is pushed by special interests, and those special interests could be a government, they could be a company, they could be any number of different things, individuals.

This was one of them. For what purpose? It's unclear, but it's to throw doubt into the way that COVID-19 is being fought. So what's the point of me telling you this story? The point is you've always got to be on the lookout. You've always got to be checking what you're putting forward, whether it's on your Facebook, whether it's on Twitter,

whether it's on the phone to a friend, whether it's in a letter to your parents. You've got to make sure you're dealing with the real news before you do that. Because then you're just becoming part of the problem, right? Which is exactly what I was about to fall into the trap of today. Now, I'm not perfect. Nobody is. And that's why I started with the admission that I got the story wrong about Dominic LeBlanc and Justin Trudeau, but that was just poor research. I was not checking the facts, which is a little different than falling prey

to organized fake news. So, there's my little lesson for today. A couple of things I want to mention. We have talked quite a bit in the last few weeks about the whole back-to-school question. And once again, you know, I was talking to my friend John Moore at 1010 News in Toronto earlier today for an interview that he wants me involved in his program. I think it's tomorrow.

And this whole issue about school came up. And, you know, it's a tough one. And I've mentioned this to you before. I can see arguments on both sides. I've had parents who are desperate to get their kids back into school for the kids' sake, for their sake. But at the same time, they are just totally concerned about the safety of the issue. You know, where are the windows going to be open?

Are the doors going to be open? If the doors are open, does that make a less secure school for other reasons, not just COVID? The school's not air conditioned, so the windows should be open so they can move fresh air in and out. Even if it is air conditioned, is the system up to date? How big are the class sizes? You know, there are so many issues at play there and concerns. You know, I was on a board meeting, which I'm on a number of boards. I was on one yesterday. The board meetings are now all held by, most of them anyway, by Zoom calls.

And one of the people on the call was an executive. One of the other board members is an executive with a major theater company, a movie theater company. And this person said, you know, we've been trying to convince the provincial government and other provincial governments, because this is a chain that goes right across the country, and other provincial governments that they should have, you know, consider using our theaters. We're going to open for movies once again. I think he said this week. But movies won't start until after 3 o'clock.

So we've got the full day. We've got all morning and the first couple hours of the afternoon. And the big theaters may be better used as classrooms than some of your own classrooms. And that's a heck of a nice offer. I guess the arguments from the other side are, not arguments, but concerns from the other side are the safety of the building, how fresh is the air, security, cleanliness, all kinds of things.

So every time you look at the school issue, there are multiple angles to consider. And so I feel for parents of school-age kids, I feel for teachers, I feel for the kids themselves, and I feel for the administrators who are having to make these kind of decisions. It's tough all around. Now, my point on education and going back to school is none of those right now. It's something I saw on Axios, the news service in-class.

All online. But it says 20% of its incoming freshman class are deferring their year. We mentioned this potential problem the other night. One in five college students don't plan on going back this fall. A new College Reaction Axios poll also found that of those not returning to school, 73% are working full-time. Okay, so these are kids who could get into college or university. One-fifth of them have decided they're not going back, and of that one-fifth, three-quarters of that one-fifth are working full-time.

And you know what that means. That means some of them will never go to university or college because they will find the job they're doing exciting, rewarding, and they're good at it. And their employers want to keep them. Now, who's to say who's right on that? Not me, for sure, seeing as I never got that far. But it's another result of the pandemic. You got one in five who had already been accepted,

deciding not to go for a number of reasons, including they're not going to have the actual college or university experience that they thought they were going to have. They're going to be sitting at home with their laptops, looking at Zoom calls. And they're going, you know what? Not me. I'm not interested.

Our son, Will, who's a mainstay of this podcast and helping me out every once in a while, he's in fourth year at University of Toronto. Final year. Big year for him. He's excited about final year. He's excited about graduation. But he's going to be sitting on his laptop. Even if there are classes that he could attend,

he's not going to because he doesn't feel good about it. So he'll be taking them online. But that's not the way he dreamt the final year was going to be at university. Here's something about the way we use words and phrases during this pandemic. Reassuring words are everywhere, probably because people feel compelled to say them. You know, you do. I do. We feel compelled to say things that reassure others.

But the Washington Post notes that platitudes like, everything's going to be fine, or it could be worse, or let's look on the bright side. Those kind of phrases are too forced and ultimately leads to toxic positivity, says the Post, that fails to be empathetic to people's emotional responses to crises. Toxic positivity results from our tendency to undervalue negative emotional experiences and dismiss them. But people are encouraged to tap into those unpleasant experiences for further contemplation and processing. In other words, to steal a phrase,

it's okay to not be okay. I don't know, some of us just want to feel that we need to share being positive. And I guess all this is telling us is, you know, be careful about how far you go on that, because we are in a real situation here. So sure, we can reassure our family and friends, but let's be careful about how we do that and ensure that we don't ignore reality. All right.

To end today's podcast, we go to the same card that we went to last night. Last night we ended the podcast with talk about pizza and the pepperoni shortages. Now, as I think I said, I'm not a big fan of pizza. I never have been. But I kind of have been during the pandemic. For some reason, I've actually enjoyed. I've had some great pizzas.

Surprise me. Shock me. Shocked me. You know, I've told you before that Cynthia is gluten. She has gluten issues. Serious gluten issues. And therefore, she you know, this is a gluten-free household and you don't want to bring anything with gluten into this place

or you're going to be out on your you-know-what. So we have pizzas, though, in here, and they're gluten-free pizzas. And you know where they come from? Like, I couldn't believe it. They come from Costco. My buddy Keith Whalen, who's a cameraman at CBC, said, Peter, he also has gluten issues, he said, he's from Newfoundland. Gluten-free.

Gluten-free pizzas. From Costco. They are the best. That's a really bad Newfoundland accent. But anyway, so Cynthia said, okay, you know, we were not exactly people who shopped at Costco very often, but we went and I bought so much junk my first trip to Costco, I couldn't believe it. I've got, you know, like shaving cream that'll last till the end of my time anyway because there was one of these packages with a gazillion things of shaving cream in it. And now I don't even shave, so they'll really last a long time.

Anyway, we found the gluten-free pizzas, and they're great. They are actually great. Now, this is not a plug for Costco, although Costco is going to plug my book, the book I've written with Mark Bulgich, Extraordinary Canadians. They're doing a big thing on it this fall. Doesn't come out until November, so be ready for it. But you can pre-order

on my website at thepetermansbridge.com thepetermansbridge.com Look for the book section. Extraordinary Canadians. You can pre-order. Where was I going on this story about food? What's the hottest food right now? And it's all a result of the Democratic convention. Two nights ago when they did the roll call from the states and they had, it was great. As I mentioned last night, you know, because there's no convention

as such and then where we had to go through those hours of boring roll calls on a convention floor, the Democrats went around the country to great locations, visually. And one of them was in Rhode Island. One of the unlikeliest, I'm reading from The Guardian, one of the unlikeliest social media sensations to come out of the DNC convention was the proud appearance of a dish of fried seafood during the roll call on the second night of the convention. Rhode Island trended for hours overnight on Twitter due to the scene of a lawmaker and a muscular, silent, masked

restaurateur with a heaped plate of calamari standing on a beach where they proclaimed Rhode Island the calamari comeback state while also nominating Joe Biden for president. And ever since then, people have been talking about calamari. I love calamari. I love it. No matter how you cook it. No matter whether you slice it and dice it or whether you have it in the kind of original form.

Love calamari. So there you go. Tonight's podcast brought to you by calamari and the comeback state, Rhode Island. Got to love it. Okay. Okay. Remember, tomorrow, the weekend special, number 23. And if you've got some thoughts, let's hear them.

Write them down. Send them in to the Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. That's been the Bridge Daily for this Thursday. I'm Peter Mansbridgebridge you know it we'll be back in 24 hours Thank you.