Gotcha!

by Bain, George

THERE IS ONE VIEW OF journalism, generally accepted by reporters, that portrays its practitioners as the objective guardians of the public trust, as writers who are almost always on the side of "right," and as professionals who do not "make the news," only "report it."?Then there's the other view, which paints a slightly different picture. According to this way of thinking, members of the media do indeed play a significant role in shaping the public's opinions, particularly about politicians, and are often biased and judgemental in their daily assessments of these leaders; and they also refuse to take full responsibility for their errors, inconsistencies, and distortions of the truth.?It is this latter perspective that is represented in Gotcha!, a hard-hitting expose of the Canadian media by the journalist George Bain.^ A veteran of the Ottawa press gallery, where he covered politics for the Globe and Mail for many years, and now a columnist on the media for Maclean's magazine, Bain ha