I took great offence to Graham Long's article "Everyone's a Critic" (Eye on Alberta, October 2007), particularly when Mr. Long writes: "just because someone owns... a Celine Dion album, that doesn't necessarily make them a bad person... not a bad person by Jack the Ripper standards anyway." To make light of such serious crimes is in terrible taste, but there is a deeper issue troubling me in this instance.
If only Mr. Long, a self-proclaimed "music snob", was as much of a "snob" about accurate reporting. It has been established that Jack the Ripper did in fact own not one, but two albums by Celine Dion: The English Unison and the French Deux. A simple fact-checking visit to Wikipedia could have benefited Mr. Long in this instance. Of course, he may be forgiven for not being aware of the more obscure, and controversial, claim by some scholars that Dion herself may have been Jack the Ripper.
Although Mr. Long is correct that no studies have demonstrated a link between owning albums by Celine Dion and embarking on a murderous rampage, he clearly displays his ignorance. Just as there's no excuse for bad taste, there's no excuse for shoddy reportage.
JONATHAN BALL, Calgary
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