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Unsubstantiated Lede Alert:  CBC news ran a story today titled ‘Serving soldiers say arrival of bodies should be private‘. Interesting, except for the fact that the story itself has quotes from only two soldiers, one of whom thinks the arrival ceremony should be private, and another of whom has mixed feelings about the issue.

From the CBC’s ‘Journalistic Standards and Practices’:

2.3.1 STATEMENTS OF OPINION

Special care must be exercised in the presentation, whether live or pre-recorded, of statements gathered through interviews with randomly selected persons… Comments gathered this way must be presented for the sole purpose of illustrating the range and texture of popular opinion. Care must be taken not to suggest that such presentations reflect the distribution or weight of opinion in the community on one or another side of a question. 

Maybe it’s just us, but this headline seems to suggest a uniformity of opinion or consensus that just isn’t supported in the body of the article.

Ask two CF personnel how they feel, then print up a nice punchy headline about what “soldiers” feel.  That’s some top-notch journalism right thurrr.   Bravo.

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