Toronto Star publishes false story, but are we even surprised anymore?

Today, the Toronto Star (aka - The Red Star) got caught red handed publishing a completely false story about adding strippers and escort jobs on Canada's Job Bank listings.

I'm not normally one for posting the "Talking Points", but I got a copy of these forwarded to me, and figured I'd post them as is for your consumption:

Toronto Star story completely false

A story in today's Toronto Star, under the byline ‘Richard J. Brennan’ states our government is changing the policy on what careers will be posted on the federal government’s Job Bank website. The story makes the completely false claim that “the Conservative government wants to help unemployed Canadians find careers as strippers and for-hire escorts.”

This story is completely and utterly false. In fact, the “draft note” cited by the reporter has not been seen by Minister Finley’s office, nor would it ever have been a policy under consideration by our government.

Even more shocking, despite citing several reactions from opposition and stakeholders in the erroneous story, the reporter did not even call Minister Finley’s office for a response.

If he had, he would have learned that there is absolutely no basis in fact to claim this is government policy.

It is the height of irresponsible journalism to accuse the government of changing a policy without contacting the government itself for confirmation or comment.

It is sad that Canadians are subjected to such a lack of journalistic integrity, and that a major Canadian newspaper would give a story such prominence without first verifying the facts.

Because of this blatant lack of journalistic standards, Minister Finley’s office will be registering a formal complaint with the Ontario Press Council, the Parliamentary Press Gallery and the Public Editor of the Toronto Star.