A Disneyland without kids
Surfing through Canadian headlines this morning on Google News the first article that stood out at me was this article from the Globe and Mail:
“MONTREAL — Two bodies found in a quarry north of Montreal yesterday have been identified as those of two American male strippers who went missing while on a night out in Montreal 11 days ago.”
The article seems fine on its own, but if you read the story in the National Post you would notice a <sarcasm> slight </sarcasm> difference…:
“LAVAL, Que. — Quebec police said Thursday they’ve found two bodies near an after-hours club where two missing U.S. male models were headed, but haven’t yet confirmed their identities.”
Interesting… is the National Post attempting to cater to the oil-fat cowboys in Alberta? Perhaps they think that if they leave out the part about the two men being strippers, conservative Canadians will actually enjoy the story more and take pity on those poor young American models. Doubtful. The part about being strippers does (sort of) show up later in the article:
“They had been working in Toronto as models and dancers in the adult entertainment business for the summer and were spending a weekend in Montreal when they vanished.”
<sarcasm> How lovely… they weren’t raunchy horrible strippers… they were nice sweet model American boys who liked do dance in Canada for the summer! What is the adult entertainment business, anyways? Is it like a Disneyland without kids? That’s swell… I’m going to go back to knitting now. </sarcasm>
So why the big schism in news reporting? While the Globe and Mail is known to be quite leftist and the National Post is known to be quite right of center, this could have explained the difference in terminologies were it not for an article in the Montreal Gazette (another left newspaper) also reporting the story in a conservative fashion by calling the men American models. In fact, the Montreal Gazette doesn’t even mention the fact that these ‘models’ were working in Toronto as strippers at all!
Perhaps the Globe and Mail is just trying to lure their audience with spectacular images, but why then would the other news agencies choose not to highlight the same exciting employment? What is a stripper anyways… isn’t it a person who strips in a strip club? If so, why have more news agencies, conservative or not, not chosen to describe the models as such. Is the world becoming more conservative? Is Canadian liberal media being influenced by American conservative values?
October 14th, 2005 at 3:47 pm
[…] I blogged back in early September about two male American models who were found dead at the bottom of a quarry in Montreal. The problem that I was originally addressing was the fact that the media was being unclear over the fact that these men were working as strippers in Toronto. […]
April 7th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
Great article. I am just sad I dont know how to reply properly, though, since I want to show my appreciation like many other.
May 17th, 2007 at 9:41 am
I’m one of the boys (strippers) grandfather. The whole think is still a mystery. Word on the street now , unconfirmed , is that the missing cab driver comitted suicide and left a note with details about his involvement in what happened. I’m trying to track down the source of this rumor now.