Why Jason Kenney's cabinet shuffle is a late-day news dump

Journalists, that skeptical lot, like to refer to government announcements sent out past 4 p.m. as “taking out the trash.”

That late-afternoon, almost-evening period is when a government or other institution likes to haul out the news releases or announcements that don’t produce the rosiest headlines — the stuff officials aren’t proud of, and which they’d prefer to not get the same scrutiny, consideration and reaction that announcements put out earlier in the day will get. Most journalists don’t punch out at 5 p.m., but they have families and/or microwave dinners to get home to like everybody else.

Typical garbage-time releases include