With the Sun News Network lately embarked on a jihad against government funding of the arts, it might be worth remarking: at least when artists are given money, they do what they’re supposed to do with it. On the other hand, we have the example of SNN costume rack Ezra Levant, who, when he shut […]
Standard procedure
By Frank Moher I felt some sympathy for Ezra Levant around the shuttering of his Western Standard magazine, until I received this item of boilerplate e-mail: Dear Western Standard reader, I’m sorry to report that we’ve had to shut down the print edition of the Western Standard. Despite nearly four valiant years of trying, we […]
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 […]
He’s too sexy for his shirt
By Frank Moher I was as excited as I know you must have been to receive a note from Ezra Levant, publisher of The Western Standard, announcing that the new Mark Steyn T-shirts are in — and just in time for Christmas. “Do you love our columnist Mark Steyn as much as I do?” Mr. […]
The Streyn is showing
By Frank Moher Here at backofthebook.ca we’ve done a rigorous scientific study and determined that Mark Steyn has used the personal pronoun “I” precisely 1,546,784 times since beginning his “Books” column for Maclean’s. We’d provide documentation of our rigorous scientific study, but this is the internet, so we don’t have to. But if, say, our […]
We are not The Walrus. (Or Maclean’s. Or, god-save-us, the Western Standard.)
By Frank Moher Does a magazine’s title determine its chances of success? It doesn’t seem to. The Walrus, having weathered that not-paying-freelancers-on-time thing, seems to be doing all right, despite being named . . . The Walrus. And despite being . . . dull. (The Walrus reminds me of nothing so much as The New […]
