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 […]
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 […]
The issue with “At Issue”
By Frank Moher Calgary Herald columnist Don Martin offered an unfortunate comment during last night’s broadcast of “At Issue,” The National‘s equally unfortunate political affairs panel. Discussing the Conservatives’ plunging poll numbers, Martin derided the “line of pale male faces, with one exception” on their parliamentary front bench. He was sharing the screen at the […]
Yesterday’s news
By guest blogger Brian Brennan They’re all doing it now but still I have to wonder: Why are Canada’s daily newspapers encouraging their opinion columnists to simultaneously blog on the papers’ websites? I used to think — like media observers elsewhere — that newspaper blogs were meant to be dumping grounds for material the papers […]
Retiring his portmanteau
By guest blogger Brian BrennanIn the midst of the hoopla surrounding the Toronto International Film Festival, a private retirement party for veteran CanWest entertainment writer Jamie Portman rates a 300-word mention in the National Post. “Portman scribe of the stars for a half-century,” says the headline. Is this how Portman wants to be remembered? One […]
Conrad Black good for newspapers? Tell me another one.
By guest blogger Brian Brennan Now that the merry pranksters at Frank magazine have been outed as the satirists behind the http://www.supportlordblack.com hoax, it behooves us to ask who does support Conrad Black, and why? The March 12th issue of Maclean’s magazine offers an answer: Mark Steyn, a right-wing columnist described by Peter Preston of […]
Dumb and dumber
By guest blogger Brian Brennan Update to story below: CBC Radio announced on January 18 that it is cancelling the pop-culture show “Freestyle” effective mid-March and replacing it with an as yet unnamed daily arts magazine program hosted by Jian Ghomeshi. A CBC executive told the Globe and Mail “this does not mean an increased […]
