Hey Jane Taber! Just Who Is This Mr. S. Say Anyway?

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Update: On the reputed visual reach of Mr. S. Say at bottom of post
Double Secret Probation Update: Mr Willcocks weighs in on known knowns in the pro-media biz regarding what is/is not codswallop at the far uber-bottom of the post
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So.

Apparently a certain Mr. "S. Say" does not agree with Kady O'Malley who, after listening to Stephen Harper answer a direct question put to him by David Akin, offered up the opinion that Gary Lunn was demoted to 'Minister In Charge Of Hockey Rinks' because rookie Lisa Raitt, who was given Lunn's old job as the new 'Minister in Charge of Pipelines and Oil Sands', had just beaten Garth Turner and thus had won this month's Conniverous Lottery grand prize.

How do we know this?

That Mr. Say does not agree with Ms. O'Malley, I mean.

Well, apparently he told The Globe and Mail's Gossip Columist-In-Chief, Jane Taber, something quite different*:

"...Mr Lunn was knocked down to junior minister, some say as a result of his handling (mishandling?) of the Chalk River/medical isotopes crisis this year."


Sure thing Ms. Taber.

After all, we all know that Mr. Harper runs a loosey-goosey cabinet in which anything goes, especially decisions that are sure to hit the national media.

Right?

And now that we think of it, just who is this Mr. 'Some Say' anyway?

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If I could just remove my cloak-of-many-snarkness-colours for a moment and digress...... gossip columnist or not, this is nothing but cheap-jack, evils-of- access journalism. If Ms Taber has a source she should name said source. Or, if she doesn't want to/or can't name the source, at the very least Taber should make it clear that such a leading conclusory statement is her own opinion instead of just pawning it off on Mr. Some Say so that she can later deny that it was her idea when she has to go, cap-in-hand, to ask whoever it is who is now the flack-hack in charge of high level press poodle access to the Prime Minister for a fireside chat at, oh say, Christmas time**.

OK?


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*Please note: We do not link to gossip, especially Some Say-sourced gossip.
**Which is, in my opinion, a distinct possibility based on past performance.
Update: Apparently, based on my conversation with Bob in the comment threads, some now say that the infamous Mr. S. Say can see Brussels and/or The Langevin Block from his house (and yes, the source of the linked jpeg is purposeful).

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Uber-bottoms-up Double-Secret Probation Update:

Mr. Willcocks , who knows a thing or seven about the newspaper business, weighs in from the comments (and we thank him for it)......

There is a journalism joke that periodically goes around offering translations of pseudo-attributions...

"Some say" would mean "I think, maybe."

"Observers say" means the reporter at the next desk.

"Those close to the campaign" means the reporter at the next desk and the communications staffer I bumped into in the hall.

And so on...

The other practice that has reached ridiculous levels is crediting everything to political sources who don't want to be named, even when they are uttering banalities. As in a Globe story Saturday on the Harper government's direction. "'We want to protect people for the future. We want to emerge stronger from the crisis … and keep the country's economic fundamentals strong,' a Conservative official said yesterday."

First, it's mush. Second, without knowing which Conservative official, it's mush-lite. And finally, it just makes no sense to play along with this foolishness.

It would be nice if reporters and editors only used unnamed sources when necessary, and provided a basic explanation of why it's necessary.

And it might help if readers griped about the ludicrous extent of the practice.

We will also be sure to take Mr. Willcocks last sentence to heart (which is something our good friend BC Mary does often, to great effect).
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