faulker031

If the WikiLeaks embassy cables saga that kicked off at the end of last year wasn't enough, the first month of 2011 has seen media organizations facing a whole slew of social responsibility issues. The Guardian newspaper has been breaking a major phone hacking scandal at News Corporation ; a sexism case at Sky Sports in the UK has been championed by those bastions of political correctness, the UK tabloids; and the Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera was identified this week by the New York Times as a major force behind the spread of riots in the Arab worl d. Not only this, but earlier in the month, Al Jazeera was involved in publishing the leaked  'Palestine papers' about the Middle East peace process, which immediately inflamed tensions in the region and, according to the Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair had destabilised the peace process. Meanwhile, back at WikiLeaks, Rudolf Elmer was convicted of breaching Swiss banking secrecy laws when he handed ov...

The new year has got off to a bang in Canada with the new Environment Minister Peter Kent coming out of his corner fighting. According to Kent, the Albertan oil sands are not the environmental catastrophe we all thought they were. In fact, as he says, the oil sands are "an ethical source of energy" . Yes, that's right. Alberta is the new home of ethical oil.  Oh boy, that's going to need some explaining. Now, before you slam your head into the computer screen in disbelief, let's take a closer look at this claim and put it in a little bit of context. Kent's basic point is that because the oil sands are in Canada, they are properly and democratically regulated, they do not fall foul of corruption and abuses common in oil rich countries - and the proceeds don't go into funding terrorism. Compare that to the other states in the top 10 countries by proven oil reserves and you can see that he might have a point. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Venezuela, UAE,...

Since we've now moved into our 4th year of writing this blog, we thought it was time for a little freshen up. So along with a new year, we've got a new design. We hope you like the new-look Crane and Matten blog, but please send us any comments you have about it, especially if you have trouble reading the text, accessing the links, seeing the pictures, or any other troubles. In the meantime, we'll still be doing a few more nips and tucks, and perhaps a little botox here and there, to make sure everything looks good. It ain't easy getting old, you know.