Wafergate – Telegraph-Journal Publisher and Editor Lose Their Jobs
According to CBC News, the Telegraph-Journal has made some major changes in wake of “Wafergate”.
You may recall the front page headline in the Telegraph-Journal on July 8th, 2009 – ‘It’s a scandal’ – Catholics demand explanation for PM pocketing communion wafer at LeBlanc funeral.
The article included a ridiculous story about the Prime Minister and whether he took communion at the state funeral of former governor general Roméo LeBlanc. The article seemed to imply that he took the wafer and kept it. Either way, it was not news, and there was no actual proof that anything actually happened. This is supposed to be why there are editors.
Today, the fallout could be seen on the front page of the newspaper – Telegraph-Journal apologizes to Prime Minister:
On Wednesday, July 8, 2009, the Telegraph-Journal published a story about the funeral mass celebrating the life of former Governor-General Romeo LeBlanc that was inaccurate and should not have been published. We pride ourselves in maintaining high standards of journalism and ethical reporting, and regret this was not followed in this case.
The story stated that a senior Roman Catholic priest in New Brunswick had demanded that the Prime Minister’s Office explain what happened to the communion wafer which was handed to Prime Minister Harper during the celebration of communion at the funeral mass. The story also said that during the communion celebration, the Prime Minister “slipped the thin wafer that Catholics call ‘the host’ into his jacket pocket”.
There was no credible support for these statements of fact at the time this article was published, nor is the Telegraph-Journal aware of any credible support for these statements now. Our reporters Rob Linke and Adam Huras, who wrote the story reporting on the funeral, did not include these statements in the version of the story that they wrote. In the editing process, these statements were added without the knowledge of the reporters and without any credible support for them.
The Telegraph-Journal sincerely apologizes to the Prime Minister for the harm that this inaccurate story has caused. We also apologize to reporters Rob Linke and Adam Huras and to our readers for our failure to meet our own standards of responsible journalism and accuracy in reporting.
Now tonight, as confirmed by CBC News, we find out that Jamie Irving is no longer the publisher and Shawna Richer is no longer the editor of the Telegraph-Journal.
Finally, some news worth reporting!
Pathetic.
This is NOT responsible journalism,and is an obvious cheap and disgraceful Partisan attack,when the focus should have been on the funeral and honouring of Romeo Leblanc.
Until we know the premeditated reasons for this smear,and the people behind them,will we never really learn any truth.
The Irvings have long established ties with the Liberal Party,and so,there is a natural suspicion that the Libs have involvement.
But most of the media,have ties with the Libs,so have briefly reported,then hidden this story,after a week of falsely
discrediting the P.M,on the International stage at the G8 summit.
Politics can be a tough game,no doubt.
But this coverage is so dishonest and unfair bias,that it leads one to wonder,just how much spin and lies is being fed to the populace.