The Calgary Herald told its striking workers they were about to “jump off a cliff.” By the end, the Herald had gone over the edge, too ~~ Excerpted from Leaving Dublin: Writing My Way From Dublin to Canada, by kind permission of Rocky Mountain Books By Brian Brennan I never envisaged it would end the […]
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On Blatchford, Hitchens, and why babies suck
By Frank Moher One is impressed by just how credulous the reading public can be. That would be you. You see what I just did there? I just insulted you. And while conventional wisdom would suggest that insulting one’s readers is not the best way to start an article, conventional wisdom is pretty stupid, too. […]
The Star and The Mark: open for shilling
By Shannon Rupp The Toronto Star just announced that you can’t trust a thing you read on their website — although that’s not quite the way they phrased it. Canada’s largest daily has joined forces with TheMarkNews.com, one of those free blogger sites, to acquire a small army of unpaid “community correspondents” to cover Ontario’s […]
No Murdoch-style scandal in Canada, you say?
By Alison@Creekside We’ve been getting a lot of stories from our media lately (here, here, and here), assuring us that an equivalent to the Rupert Murdoch scandal couldn’t possibly happen in Canada. Really? No cozy incestuous relationships? No dirty tricks? On March 30, 2009, Stephen Harper, PMO staffer Kory Teneycke, Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox […]
Who needs attack ads when you have the Globe and Post?
By Montreal Simon Well I must admit it’s looking bleak out there. It’s been raining for days. The traffic cones are sagging like most of the population. And the Dark Lord of Canada is working feverishly in his castle preparing to unveil his zombie cabinet under a cone of silence. From The Globe: The pieces […]
Stelmach resignation leaves old-school media in the dust
By Brian Brennan Can the mainstream print media successfully reinvent itself to become as relevant to news consumers in the digital age as it used to be back in the days when readers looked to their morning newspapers for authoritative coverage of the previous day’s events? The question arises in the wake of Tuesday’s surprise […]
Mike Farnworth: gay matters
By Dave Brindle Is BC ready for a story asking if it’s ready for a gay leader? It’s the story that Mike Farnworth, a leading contender to replace the deposed Carole James as leader of BC’s NDP, knew would be told before he announced his candidacy. A story that I, along with NDP MLA Spencer […]
The Harper marriage and the Globe
By Frank Moher While you were enjoying the festive season, The Globe and Mail found itself disagreeing with one of its columnists about an item on its website. The Globe settled the matter with a keystroke. Both parties have since been studiously decorous about the matter, but it deserves a second look before disappearing down the memory hole. On […]
Russell Williams: reality is reality
By Frank Moher The Canadian news media have been engaged in a lot of hand-wringing and debate over the Russell Williams trial and their coverage of it. Should they have published photos of him dressed in his victims’ lingerie? Should newspapers have kept the photos off the front page? Should the details of his crimes […]
Postmedia: Layoffs? What layoffs?
By Brian Brennan Television reporter Tom Clark parts company with CTV News, and the network issues a public statement to that effect. Kevin Newman steps down as Global anchor, and his network does the same. But what happens when dozens, perhaps hundreds of print reporters in this country leave their jobs, either voluntarily or otherwise? […]
