.

Reader-submitted complaint: Terry’s threatening tone has scared me into sending this to you anonymously. He should be deleting irrelevant and offensive blog comments. But by your estimation, he responds to people inappropriately, because you say that you object to name-calling and personal insults, especially when that’s all a person has to say.

Uhhh…OK.

I’ve been responding to reader-submitted complaints for a couple of years, but this is the first time anyone’s complained to me about someone else’s blog. I’m not sure whether this came to me because I agree with Terry about everything (this would explain the anonymity) or because I disagree with him about everything (this would explain why someone would complain to me about him).

I really can’t speak to the reasons an individual would allow irrelevant and offensive comments to be published, but I can tell you that this is something that bloggers spend a lot of time thinking about. We all get irrelevant comments — heck, I’ve been known to leave irrelevant comments from time to time — and every once in a while we’ll attract jerks. There is no consensus on how to deal with offensive comments. Trolls don’t know they’re trolls; they just think they’re crusaders for the truth.

Here’s a handy guide: If everyone on a certain website seems to dislike you, you’re probably a troll.

In general, I think offensive comments say a lot more about the person who leaves them than about the person they’re directed to. I don’t really pay much attention to them. Still, there may come a time when they’re creating a distraction and need to be deleted, and that’s a decision for the individual blog owner to make. My blog has a different tone and style than Terry’s does, and so do my comment sections. That’s not to say that one of us is better than the other; we’re just different. He moderates comments, but he appears to moderate with a fairly light hand.

As for inappropriate responses, well, I’m not sure how appropriate it would be for me to get into that. I don’t agree with everything on his site, and I’m sure he doesn’t agree with everything on mine. The real question would be whether a particular response is in keeping with his typical style: if something seems out of place, perhaps that’s something to bring up with him.

Terry and I both often blog about journalism, but I usually write about ethics and trends, and when I use examples, they’re usually from the national media. His focus is usually on northern media: the news sources that are most important to people in our region. (Again, neither is better; they’re just different.)

Thanks for your complaint.

I travelled in a small plane the other day, and I couldn’t stop myself from taking a picture of this sign. They were ALL like this: every row had a window seat and an “asile” seat.

Reader-submitted video: I saw this on TV this week and naturally thought of you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, although I think you’ll enjoy it more.

Reader-submitted question: I am taking a trip to Yellowknife. Do you have any suggestions (or even links) on what I should see or do? I like photo opportunities, museums, and short hikes.

You are in luck. Yellowknife is a great place to go hiking. My favourite trail is the one that goes around Frame Lake. Bring your camera. You’ll climb over the oldest rocks in the world and run from mosquitoes in the wooded areas. Part of it is paved, too.

The trail is easy to reach from the downtown area and goes right past the visitors’ centre and the museum. I’ve always thought that our museum is especially nice considering how small our city is. You should definitely check it out.

You might also be interested in visiting our legislative assembly building, right next to the museum. They offer short guided tours.

Old Town would probably be a great place for a visitor to hike. Check Natalie’s blog for a review of the Wildcat Cafe and Jason’s tips for getting the most out of your trip to Bullock’s.

Remember that you’ll need sunscreen and bug dope. The sun is up almost all the time, and the bugs are really vicious.

Readers, can you suggest other things for this fellow to do while he’s in town?

(via Stevie Nicks News)

Today’s episode of Little Miss Know-it-All: How to read a news story.

Most people don’t really read news stories. (Shhh, don’t tell the media.) They read the headlines and look at the pictures. They skim most stories. If something looks really interesting, they’ll read that story and then forget most of the details.

Readers usually do very little analysis of news stories. They typically don’t check to see if the headline is correct (sometimes it’s not). They don’t think about whether the quotes make sense (sometimes they don’t). They don’t take the time to wonder whether the story itself is plausible (sometimes it’s not). Their analysis usually goes like this:
1) Does this match my existing opinions?
2) If so, accept without question. If not, reject as biased.
3) Go on to the next headline.

(In case you were wondering, this is also the way people read blogs.)

I’ve already told you how to check a journalist’s facts. But sometimes there’s a bigger issue: the entire focus of the story is incorrect.

My blog buddy/thug sistah Jackie is dealing with this problem this week. Jackie is the MotherCorp’s reporter in Rankin Inlet. The headline on the local paper was “Hotels say radio report may harm business”, and she has blogged about it here. The story itself is behind a pay wall, but I can summarise it:
1) Jackie did a story about hotels that were full in 2008 because of a busy construction season. The story mentioned that this year’s construction season will be starting soon.
2) There is not as much construction in Rankin Inlet right now, so there are fewer construction workers who need hotel rooms.
3) This is Jackie’s fault.
4) One construction company is breaking the terms of its contract by not putting its workers in a licensed hotel.
5) This is also Jackie’s fault.

Did that make you shake your head a bit?

Yeah, I hope so. Sometimes, summarizing a news story will help you to identify the problems with it.

Now, from my summary above, it might be clear that the real news is in line #4. Sadly, that is not the focus of this story. Neither is the story about how a mere reporter might be powerful enough to take down an entire industry with a single news item.

Perhaps there’s some wishful thinking going on here.

So now we have an obvious story about a contract issue that is having a ripple effect on the hotel business in Rankin Inlet, but as presented in the paper, it’s all about a bad, bad competing reporter who is the entire reason nobody’s staying in Rankin hotels.

Now, ordinarily this is where I would probably be generous and assume that Jackie’s original radio story was at least partly incorrect, but the hotel owner told her that it wasn’t. The only thing here that has anything to do with Jackie, from what I can tell, is that the company with the contract dispute chose to misinterpret her story.

So this, dear reader, is where your responsibilities kick in. Reading the headline isn’t going to tell you about this contract issue. Sure, you could shrug and mutter to yourself that the CBC ALWAYS gets things wrong, but if you do that, you’ll never know what the real news is.

You don’t need a journalism degree to find the news in a badly written story; you just need to pay attention to what you’re reading. You’re going to be looking for the thing that makes you shake your head. It’s that hold on — what?? revelation that’s not in the headline and seems somewhat out of place.

When a reporter has missed the real news, it’s usually buried in the back half of the story. (This is the point where people who actually know something about the issue throw up their hands and shout that THERE IS NO POINT IN TALKING TO REPORTERS ANYWAY.) It’s still there, because whoever did the original interview was very careful to mention it several times. It didn’t fit with the sexy story (RADIO JOURNALIST DESTROYS LOCAL BUSINESS) but there was still a hole in the paper, so the reporter stuck it in to fill space.

When you read the newspaper or watch the news, pay attention to the last half of every story. That may be where you’ll find the real news.

Here’s a review from the Edmonton Journal.