It’s not the first time they’ve abandoned journalistic ethics either….see their “coverage” (more like political posturing) of the fee-for-carriage/Save Local TV campaign.

disagree. there’s a cadre of participants claiming this does not raise a question of journalistic ethics. this forum gives the rest of us a place to see if there’s some merit to that position. Brunt’s argument that since no one is telling him what to write there is no conflict of interest is a bad argument. one can be influenced without being told what to say, obviously.

the torch run is a privilege for amateur athletes and community people, and a perk for corporate folks who have paid for the games. why would a journalist covering the games think it was appropriate to take a spot?

I suspect the companies involved namely CTV, Globe and Mail and heaven forbid the other Toronto based company Fan 590 will be expensed by their employees involved.

The biggest concern I have besides insinuating directly or indirectly that there is favouritism, boosterism, and commercial nefariousness, is the so called “price ” these journalists have evidently been curried favour for their attention. If I was one of theses journalists I would be as insulted to think that my “ethical bar” was so low that an event like the Olympic torchbearing as described, would influence my journalistic standards of reporting or analyzing in my respective medium.

Enough said here Mr. Houston. Newspapers especially have enough to worry about in the next 5 years and I wonder if we will even be seeing the G&M and other A list newspapers even publishing by the 2018 Olympics.

Perhaps we can move on to topics like projected Whistler revenues this season being off by up to 30%(based on Turin and Salt Lake City experiences)as a result of Olympic hosting. Or the fact that the medal presentations at certain venues(Whistler included) will be closed to the general public despite public funding being used to construct the medal presentation areas on or near public access areas.

[...] Houston in the Truth & Rumours blog says tomorrow, the first Canadian journalist will take part in the Olympic torch relay to Vancouver as conflict of interest criticisms continue to [...]

Then there’s Scott Russell saying, “It’s time for the dissent to stop,” because it’s giving him crow’s-feet or something. He never really did give a valid reason.