Student Karla Krahn, at the University of Calgary Student Union building, in the Women’s Collective and Resource Center, in a conversation with Sean,
“Once you start accepting responsibility, there’s no going back.”
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For 2025, I know only three things for sure:
One: If laboratory rats can eat it, then it may cause cancer.
Two: If any reporter shows “journalism ethics” then that is merely by accident—or else the reporter is a time traveler from the past.
Ya, I know MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell has ethics—But no doubt his time machine broke down, stranding him here. If you see that poor man, then please buy him a beer, because he must be homesick,.
Three: Anything Donald Trump does or says, by the simple fact of him doing or saying it, is perfectly normal to a journalist: “Move along, nothing to report here.”
Ya, I know Trump is being reported on as news, but as normalized news. No editor, nor any senator, expresses horror as they would for Obama. Nobody falls on their back and waves their arms and legs in helpless laughter as on the children’s show Peppa Pig.
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You might ask me, given that I’ve been gritting my teeth ever since January at how so many “journalists” have all the ethics of a MAGA-hat town gossip, “What new thing pushed you into writing this?” Easy: This new piece entitled The Mainstream Media is Catastrophically Failing to Meet the Moment
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Idea for campus volunteer journalists: At one of your Canadian University Press (CUP) regional or national weekend conferences (with seminars) have a student at the front of the room act out what Trump has actually (either on camera or from a transcript) said. This gives the rest a common, concrete experience to discuss. Then break into groups to workshop how you might report it.
Do you, as student reporters, agree with the 2025 “established journalism industry practices”? Including (but not limited to) normalizing and sanewashing? What might be the alternative? How would a time traveler from 1984 respond?
Bonus seminar: We know that, historically, muskets and rhetoric are neutral, to be used by both sides. Regarding something related to rhetoric, Steve Bannon has said that Trump avoids accountability by “flooding the zone.” Trump (starting before his first term in office) is like an animal being constantly struck with criticism-arrows who keeps rotating so that no arrow is ever in view long enough to be remarked upon.
Question: Is there a way to “fight fire with fire” by flooding the zone for opposing purposes?
Related: Could an arrow that is no longer up to the minute“new,” during newer constant arrows, still be focused on by newspaper reporters? If so, how?
Students: Shakespeare said, “And the children shall lead.” Forget the grownups, forget the establishment and the industry leaders… You can’t depend on them, not now. It’s like 1917, and the respected, wise old generals who firmly believe in trench assaults are wrong. If someone is to “meet the moment,” it will have to be you.
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Sean Crawford
Calgary
October
2025
Vocabulary: A “controlled flood the zone…” … (such as not blabbing, about scores of stopped research, all on one day) by definition, is like how a clock controls how fast the energy source is expended (such as a water tank, coil spring, or weights on a cuckoo clock)
Flooding the zone seems to be the newsmaking version of the Gish gallop. An opposing flood would probably sound like noise to too many people. But if journalists were more responsible in the reporting, there’d be far less need for an opposing flood.
One example: last night, NBC News reported that the current occupant publicly called for Pam Bondi to prosecute Letitia James. Not really. He addressed Bondi in a private message that he mistakenly posted on his social-media platform (there are sources that confirm that). And there was no mention of the impropriety of a president calling upon the Department of Justice to prosecute anyone. And it wasn’t the verdict in the fraud case James brought that was overturned; it was the amount of damages to be paid. I could go on 🙂
Hi Michael, I like your comment.
Until I got a plumber, I tuned out my drip, so I guess a daily drip about the research studies being stopped would, as you say, be background noise. But still.
Ya, for journalists, words should be their bread and butter, to treasure and be very clear about.
They should all honour their dictionary like a US Marine honours his rifle.
I’m still chuckling at the Korean War Marine fighter pilot, answering a reporter: “I’m a marine rifleman, currently flying a sabre jet.” He must have had the answer rehearsed.