PJ Media

Heather.
I’m glad to see your acknowledgment of the fact that your story was intended to be inflammatory and get attention, rather than to be some form of unbiased, accurate reporting or journalism, because that would be a misrepresentation.
What I find offensive is the fact that your article, and several others like it, tend to rant about isolated issues in a manner that suggests that the exception is actually the norm. They also tend to present certain facts in a way that intentionally leads the reader to unfounded and inaccurate conclusions. Furthermore, this particular topic is one that makes your job of raising the rhetorical ire of readers so easy its almost sad. I mean, who doesn’t want to complain about the big bad officer who took away their booze, or made them pay some taxes, or “tore their car apart”? Never mind what the complainer did to find themselves in that situation. Oh believe me Heather, I’ve heard pretty much all of the complaints and most of them – like 95% – are severely lacking credibility.
Where we agree though Heather, is that there are bad apples throughout our society and sometimes they make it into places like customs and police departments and even into journalism I’ll bet. No – we shouldn’t sweep the actions of those bad apples under the rug. We need to weed them out and journalists have a role to play there. I just wish they would be generally more responsible and not portray the actions a a few as if they were typical of the many.
You’re right that a headline reading “today everybody did their job” doesn’t get much attention. But I wonder how hard it would be to write an article that correctly points out that those bad or controversial incidents are rare, while still addressing the topic? I wonder why a writer such as yourself, finds it so difficult to say “despite the good work being done at our borders, there are a few who’s bad decisions make the rest look bad”?
No – again, that just isn’t sensational enough I guess. So then I wonder – why would our young people want to do a job like that? I mean most people will not care about any good they might do, but almost everyone will want to have their say if you slip up. In the end I guess it takes a desire to serve your country and your fellow Canadians and that is what makes it honorable.
Heather, I’m not criticizing what you’ve reported. I’m criticizing the manner in which you’ve chosen to report it. So thanks for letting me have my say, and maybe deep down this will give you pause the next time you sit at the keyboard, since there’s nothing wrong with tempering criticism with praise.