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A Blogger Who’s a Court-Approved Journalist
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By IAN AUSTEN
Published: November 27, 2006
Many bloggers describe themselves as journalists. Last week Charles LeBlanc, a rooming house resident who lives on social assistance in Fredericton, New Brunswick, received a court decision establishing his journalistic credentials.
The confirmation came last Friday when a judge dismissed charges against Mr. LeBlanc of obstructing a police officer.
For the last two years, Mr. LeBlanc has been expressing his views on poverty and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder through a blog (oldmaison.blogspot.com). The idea, he said, came from benefactors who also provided him a small digital camera and a computer.
He declined to name the people, however, partly because at least one of them is employed by his favorite target: the many companies in New Brunswick controlled by the Irving family, which owns, according to a report on media ownership released by Canada’s Senate earlier this year, all the English-language daily newspapers in New Brunswick.
In June, Mr. LeBlanc went to Saint John, New Brunswick, to report on a protest against a meeting of chamber of commerce and board of trade members from Atlantic Canada and New England. Protestors stormed the meeting. Mr. LeBlanc was among those arrested.
Officers from the Saint John police testified they are regular readers of Mr. LeBlanc’s blog as part of their effort to gather intelligence on protests. William J. McCarroll, the provincial court judge who heard Mr. LeBlanc’s case, wrote in his decision that “Mr. LeBlanc is a ‘blogger.’ I’m sure that many, if not the majority of Saint Johners, are not familiar with this word.”
After reviewing videotape from a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation crew at the scene, sometimes in slow motion, the judge found that it contradicted testimony of the arresting officer, Sergeant John Parks.
“Members of the so called mainstream media were taking photographs and filming in the same area without interference from the police,” the judge wrote in a 20-page decision. “I believe it’s fair to say that the defendant was doing nothing wrong at the time he was approached by Sergeant Parks and placed under arrest. He was simply plying his trade, gathering photographs and information for his blog alongside other reporters.”
The judge also said that the police had no right to delete about 200 photos stored on Mr. LeBlanc’s camera.
Mr. LeBlanc said he had considered improving his skills by studying journalism at a local university. That is, until its journalism department accepted a donation of 1 million Canadian dollars from the Irvings. “Do you think I could study in a classroom listening to an Irving employee?” he asked. IAN AUSTEN
17 comments:
When's Fox News calling Charles? LOL. Actually that was a pretty good story. Nicely done.
Surpise, surprise. The new york times is sympathetic to an anti-social leftist.
Yeah, lord knows the New York Times is run by the international socialist party! Of course if all your news is from the rabid fox then anybody who doesn't end sentences with curse words at democrats is 'sympathetic'. Get a grip pinheads, The Times is the most respected paper in the world next to London's. And by the way, 'leftists' actually talk about policies for people, they are the only ones who do, so I think its others that should be called 'anti social'. How about those juicy capital gains tax cuts. Only 25% of New Brunswickers even have an RRSP let alone benefit from capital gains.
What was interesting about this story are the policies of the media. You will notice that the NY Times gives charles blogsite. Of course the Irving papers never mention his blogsite, in fact there's a reason they always call him an activist and rarely even mention he's a blogger-because they know people will start listening to his blog.
But it's bigger than that, because Irving reporters aren't allowed to give any website addresses-just go see how many you can find. They need special approval from editors, and only if the website is geared only towards a specific cause (and then only rarely, just go count the number you see)
Great story by the NY Times. Anonymous 8:07 am, obviously you are not very media-saavy. This is one of the more objective newspapers in the world. Unlike the Irving papers which are completely contradictory of each other on most days (to keep appearances, I would guess).
Actually 8:07 called their number good. There are numerous examples of the NY Times leftist leanings. The "Paper of Record" has a great history but these days its biases are legendary. Still, in this particular case, a good story.
Jayson Blair
Congratulations.
I believe that Judge MacCarroll ruled on the fact that Charles was not obscruting justice and had as much a right to be taking pictures at the protest as anyone.
No ruling came down about whether Charles was a journalist or not.
Did the judge really give Charles press credentials or merely afirm that bloggers have the same rights as all people to be in public places without arrest. The judge said Charles was allowed to ply "his" trade, not the journalistic trade.
Heres' from the NY times homesite:
"Lure of Great Wealth Affects Career Choices"
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
The opportunity to become abundantly rich is a recent phenomenon in a growing number of professions and occupations.
Yeah, doesn't that sound like the NDP! Get a grip Spinks, the NY Times is the voice of big business and is known as the american 'paper of record'. In fact numerous studies have shown just how 'right' of centre they are. Take for example when the MAI was being debated by the White House, blatantly breaking congressional laws (international trade is the jurisdiction of congress, not the White House).There was not a single report on it. That list goes on and on , so to describe them as 'leftist' is like saying that Fox is is run by the Green Party.
Do you think the Irvings are crawling out of their skins trying to figure out who is the WCIE? It amazes me if they aren't. If I owned a company and there were traders inside I would go nuts. Who is the WCIE Charles?
hey 7:38 pm ,WCIE stands for White Collared Irving Employee-it's an oxy-moron on here, don't you see, Charles "nemesis" if you will.
Irvings aren't crawling out of their skin trying to find out what it is. We all know what it stands for.
Get with it butthead.
And will everyone lose that word LOL. It is such stupid lingo.
Congratulations on the court victory for bloggers across Canada.
I don't get how that is an oxymoron, but I know there are plenty of Irving employees posting around here. The actual secret is that old KC faked his death and is living in the south end feeding Charles cameras and smokes eh:)
Hey 9:39pm I think maybe you must be new to this blog or have the wrong understanding. The WCIE is an actual person that started the blog for Charles and I think still helps him with behind the scenes stuff. Any comments Charles?
Who cares how it was started. This blog is what people need right now. We have no news just a little to make people think they care in the news.
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