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10/31/2006: "Incidents grab headlines?"

In today's paper, there is yet another article bemoaning Conservative MP Peter MacKay's alleged slur against his ex, Liberal MP Belinda Stronach. In the article, the reporter says that the incident has "grabbed national and international headlines." This statement is somewhat misleading, trying to imply that stories just make themselves up and push themselves onto prime placement in papers and journals.

No, the reality is a journalists have had to write the articles, and editors have had to make decisions about what they think is most important for the public to read about from their newspapers. Evidently, these people have decided that this nearly inaudible comment is worth more attention than (for example) Minister of International Co-operation Josee Verner making a surprise visit to Afghanistan.

Amusingly, the article ends with a quote from another Liberal MP judging MacKay's attitude based on this incident and concluding that "Canadians will draw their own conclusions on the basis of [the public record]." Well, apparently the readers of CTV.ca have drawn their conclusion, and decided (mostly) that it should just be ignored:

What do you think of the latest MacKay Stronach dust-up?

Apologize. Sexist behaviour which must be addressed. (32%)
Ignore it. Typical of workplace romance gone bad. (68%)

(The original poll is no longer available, but I've found it reported here and here.)