Canadian media have been dominated all weekend by reports on the arrest of 17 Canadians in Toronto on terrorism charges. The New York Times noted that the Toronto Star out-reported its rivals on this story, with details and timing

...Yet the Toronto site of the usually sharp, funky, and with-it "Ist" group (Torontoist -- or in New York City, Gothamist; In Los Angeles, LAist, etc.) was nowhere to be found on this story. Their lead item over the weekend was about a leaked release of a pop music CD, with another prominent item about graffiti art.

OK, they're not pretending to be able to replace the mainstream media, but they lose their credibility when they don't do something extraordinary when there are extraordinary circumstances.

When I ran the Jerusalem Post Web site we once sat out the initial 25 hours of coverage of a terrible Passover terrorist attack. We changed our practices after that, and again after the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster. We realized we needed 24/7 coverage. Further, the trained journalists on our staff knew when something big was happening, and wanted to be in on it. People poured into the office in the hours after that event to cover the story.

Say what you want about MSM, but they (mostly) operate 24/7 and know what to do when news happens. If Torontoist were only a print publication their slow response would be understandable (but even so, the Houston Chronicle rushed out an extra edition when the Enron verdict broke). But a Web site is a 24/7 medium, especially one that purports to be "about Toronto and everything that happens in it." So, where were they?.

A brief e-mail exchange with one of the site's editors indicated to me that running the site is not a full-time occupation, and they would get on the story when they got into work on Monday morning.

They need to learn a lot about journalism.

(Editor's note: As of June 5, Torontoist has posted an item on the coverage of the arrests. See: Wall To Wall Terrorism Coverage)