Anatomy of a G20 mishmash
By Frank Moher
The massive article, “Anatomy of the G20,” published by the Toronto Star last Friday, is a curious document indeed, especially coming from a newspaper that has taken a hard editorial line against the police’s actions that weekend. It feels like one of those articles that has gone all wonky as higher-ups got their [...]
Sorry, Rupert, I already have Twitter
By Frank Moher
The Times shut down its old website on Tuesday and started directing all traffic to two new ones: thetimes.co.uk and thesundaytimes.co.uk. These are the ones that they propose, at sometime in the indeterminate future, to start charging for.
I was interested to see how Rupert Murdoch, wily media titan that he is, intended to [...]
Media mercenaries
By Alison@Creekside
In a 2007 article entitled “The Conference of Defence Associations gets $100,000 a year from the Department of Defence,” CDA executive director Alain Pellerin told Maclean’s John Geddes: “We also have to write a number of op-eds to the press.” Asked if there is any aspect of Tory defence policy the CDA opposes, he [...]
9/11 honour and dishonour
By Frank Moher
As it becomes increasingly clear that the official explanation of 9/11 is insupportable and won’t stand the test of time, I thought it might be apropos to establish a media “Honour” and “Dishonour” roll, recording those news organizations who have or haven’t done their job in reporting the story. The idea here is [...]
WikiLeaks’ truth, Reuters’ “truth”
By Frank Moher
We now know, thanks to WikiLeaks, that the US military lied about the killing of 11 Iraqi civlians, including two Reuters reporters, in 2007. “There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against a hostile force,” said its spokesman at the time. But the classified video released yesterday [...]
CanWest Idol
By Frank Moher
Let’s play CanWest Idol! — in which we decide who should get to buy the bankrupt media company’s assets.
The finalists for the TV operation appear to be just two: Shaw Communications and Catalyst Capital. The former is the Alberta-based cable company; the latter is the front-organization for Leonard Asper and New York investment [...]
On being disappeared by The National Post
By Frank Moher
I knew when I submitted my last book review to The National Post that it might not be published. What I didn’t expect was that the Post would publish it, and then unpublish it.
The review was of a book of essays, What the Furies Bring, by Canadian poet Kenneth Sherman. Doesn’t sound like [...]
Hollinger’s lump of coal
By Brian Brennan
Why is the mainstream media not covering this story? Why have The Globe and Mail, CBC, The National Post, Maclean’s et al. seemingly missed out on the fact that Hollinger Publishing — Conrad Black’s former newspaper holdings company — has been forced into bankruptcy protection? Why have these national news organizations not reported [...]
Remembering Yazamy — badly
By Frank Moher
When it comes to Canadian deaths in Afghanistan, our media’s sentimentality knows no bounds. Each time a soldier dies, we are assured that the young person — for they are almost always young persons — loved animals, or to make people laugh, or, in the case of 22-year old Marc Diab, killed by [...]
