The writer, activist and podcaster Nora Loreto discusses her new book Spin Doctors: How Media and Politicians Misdiagnosed the COVID-19 Pandemic (Fernwood Publishing, 2021), with Joseph Planta.

Spin Doctors: How Media and Politicians Misdiagnosed the COVID-19 Pandemic by Nora Loreto (Fernwood Publishing, 2021). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Spin Doctors

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Nora Loreto joins me now. She has just published a new book Spin Doctors: How Media and Politicians Misdiagnosed the COVID-19 Pandemic. It’s a look at what she sees are the big missteps in the first eighteen months of Canada’s COVID response. She looks critically at why long term care deaths skyrocketed, as well as in work places like food processing plants that affected the most vulnerable workers in the country. Nora also looks at how anti-Asian racism was stoked. Another aspect of the book that is particularly interesting is when she looks at the media’s work. The media in this country had been contracting even before the pandemic, and there were cuts even during the pandemic; media outlets working with far fewer resources. As a result, there’s little necessary scrutiny as to the information and data on the virus, infections, deaths, not to mention the money being spent on various schemes to help people and businesses. There’s a call for accountability and responsibility, so that we might be better equipped to get through this pandemic, not to mention future ones. Nora Loreto is a writer and activist from Quebec City, where she joined me from last week. She is the author of last year’s Take Back the Fight: Organizing Feminism in the Digital Age, and 2013’s From Demonized to Organized: Building the New Union Movement. She is the editor of the Canadian Association of Labour Media, and an opinion columnist who appears in many publications. She is also the co-host of the popular podcast, Sandy and Nora Talk Politics, with Sandy Hudson. @NoLore is the Twitter handle and the website for more is at www.noraloreto.ca. This new book is from Fernwood Publishing. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Nora Loreto; Ms. Loreto, good morning.

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