By Frank Moher The recent Supreme Court of Canada decision in favour of Vancouver broadcaster Rafe Mair was a big step forward for Canadian journalists and their readers. Mair had been sued by a “Christian-values advocate” who thought he’d defamed her, but the Court ruled 9-0 that “an overly solicitous regard for personal reputation” should […]
new media
Don’t let the music play
By Frank Moher Until I attended the recent CRTC hearing in Vancouver, I had no idea how much time is spent deciding which sort of music serves the greater public good: Triple A, smooth jazz, adult urban, or alternative rock. Or world beat, or indie, or oldies, or R&B;, or active AC, or traditional AC, […]
None for you, Mr. Canadian
By Frank Moher I have lately begun to feel that I am ten again, and living in Edmonton in 1965. In those days, we had two TV stations, CFRN and the local CBC outlet. It was also in that year that I first travelled to California with my family to visit our American cousins. Besides […]
TelevisionWithoutAnOffButton
By Frank Moher The news that Disney had snapped up the Kelowna-based website Club Penguin in a deal worth $700 million US (which, if I’m not mistaken, would be enough to buy the city of Kelowna itself) diverted attention from another Canadian internet-success buy-out story this year: the sale of televisionwithoutpity.com to the US Cable […]
Patriot games
By Frank Moher It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the on-air contingent of the so-called alternative media (and no, we’re not talking Air America). It began when the website of the Republic Broadcasting Network, a freedom-fightin’ radio and webcasting outfit from Austin, Texas, suddenly disappeared and was replaced with an announcement from the […]
How the new media elected the Democrats
By Frank Moher The real winners of the American election are the new electronic media who, through relentless pounding of a sort only they can do, impressed upon voters just what a mess their country had become. I’m talking about online magazines like Salon, which, unlike many a journalistic johnny-come-lately, knew that the Iraq war […]
