Ohhhh Paleeease....Just one Ghost or Lil Devil!!


“Trick or Treat…. smell my feet!” echoed from the door this morning, when my Sweet Pea Valerie wandered in from a night-time of Devil's night gallivanting with her cronies. That will most likely be the nearest Chez Valyon on the Lake gets to a Halloween haunting from tricksters or treaters on this day of hallowed haunting. We have not gotten any ghosts or goblins since our migration to the rural countryside. I may have blogged that factual tidbit last year, n'est pas? (interactive image-print cut out stencil and trace on pumpkin for carving)

Nonetheless, Kevin and I stocked the cupboards with some goodies just in the event there is a surprise-haunting visitor. It would be unconscionable to be empty handed if some Lil ghosts happened by our cottage.

I was watching a revered talk show the other day on PBS hosted by Charlie Rose. Since retiring I have been a pig for news and the media spins concerning the labour and business world…albeit a labour editor is as rare in the media community as a costumed goblin at my house, but I digress.

My attention was piqued when the guest journalist challenged the PBS audience to QUIT BEING MEDIA NAIVE and muster up the resolve to browse and wander the journalist society (thank God for the Internet, eh?). Mr. Tom Brokaw heralded that the public has a responsibility to balance the media airwaves with news sources that will give an, if not honest, accurate balance to news reports and not just swallow whatever one-news source reports (I paraphrase). Mr. Brokaw's announcement rang true when I recalled a breaking news report on a Sunday morning news show a few weeks ago that would have called for a “special edition hot off the press” as they said in the old newspaper days. The event was an endorsement by a political heavyweight to publicly ditch the political ideology that enjoyed his guidance through the previous term. http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/10/colin_powell_endorses_barack_o_1.html

The neo-conservative news agencies were glaringly slanted in terms of the breaking news. In fact, a news service from China had a more comprehensive report than our own CNN. Now perhaps I am expecting too much whenever timing is a factor.......but China? Really.
Anyway....its only one example, and if you want a startling comparative, just bookmark CBC http://www.cbc.ca/ and BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/?ok and ABC http://abcnews.go.com/ for a daily monitor on the economic bailots to watch the spin doctors in action. I am going to take Mr. Brokaw's advice and practice a little resourcefulness when fielding media spins.

Notwithsatnding, I book marked several news services and compare the reports before I swallow any brown sugar with my morning coffee. Happy Halloween…..and may you get lots of scary tricksters tonight.

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