Journalists sub-par on sub debate

When New York Times writer Paul Krugman observed, "The people who talk the most understand the least," he could easily have been thinking about some Canadian television reporters and commentators as they breathlessly told of the damage to the submarine HMCS Corner Brook.

The boat struck bottom in 45 metres of water near Nootka Sound on western Vancouver Island, June 4 of last year, cutting a four-by-five-metre hole in the boat’s front. CBC TV News showed "exclusive" photographs and alluded to efforts by the Royal Canadian Navy to covertly raise the vessel out of the water "under cover of darkness."

Last week, CBC Newsworld’s Power Panel, comprising CBC’s national affairs journalist and representatives of several communications and government relations agencies, spoke about Canada’s four submarines that "basically don’t work," "that have always been broken," and that "haven’t been able to deploy or deploy properly."

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