April Fool’s once most popular on newsroom calendar
I once worked at a newspaper that deliberately published a story it knew to be untrue. To raise money, the story explained, City Hall would immediately install parking meters in front of every home. When the item appeared, ratepayers let out such a howl the mayor’s office wouldn’t return our calls for a week. It […]
If blogging is the future of the 21st century journalism, it warrants closer investigation, let’s take a look
They consider themselves the bright, new face of journalism. Yet, their work is pointless, and they are called “morons” in the Columbia Journalism Review. They are bloggers. Web logs are an individual speaker’s corner in which anyone with software can harangue on any subject. The format is new and therefore better, say proponents, who claim […]
Have Canadian media fallen into clutches of scheming rightists? Friends of a Lib administration would think so
“Not one! Not one.” Not a single high-profile commentator supported the government’s stand on missile defence, as The Globe and Mail quoted a Liberal aide. Globe columnist Lawrence Martin called it evidence the press is “decidedly conservative” and insisted that right-wing ideologues are in charge at Maclean’s, the Sun chain and CanWest papers from Vancouver […]
On the campaign trail with CBC’s Minority Report
How real is “real”? And how honest should media be in portraying themselves to the public? These intriguing questions focus on media in Ottawa, one of the last cities in Canada where newsrooms still cover news. Elsewhere journalism is comprised of sex surveys, “entertainment reporters” and circulation-boosting stunts–and I’m not talking about tabloids. Even The […]
Any way you slice it, conventional wisdom ain’t news
“Conventional wisdom” is a media treat. It is journalistic “gossip” reported as “fact” attributed to “observers”– namely, other journalists. Whatever its name, it’s not “news.” Conventional wisdom is the spontaneous convergence of the like-minded, a phenomenon even found in nature. When it rains, cattle often crowd into the same spot on the fence line, but […]
Budget lock-ups create shallow budget coverage
On Wednesday, Feb. 23, every reporter on Parliament Hill will be herded into a sealed room with the doors barricaded by government agents. No one has ever tried to make a break for it. It’s called a budget lock-up. Journalists are plied with firm guidance from Department of Finance staff until they surrender to the […]
Gomery testimony reads like a Mickey Spillane novel
Remember the national media’s big search for the Jean Chrétien legacy? Search no more. It’s spilling out all over the floor at the Gomery Inquiry, dramatized in halting testimony and terse scrums. It reads like dialogue from a Mickey Spillane novel. There’s Alfonso Gagliano, the former Liberal boss of Public Works who is suing Liberals, […]
Don’t you just love bankers?
At budget time in Ottawa, you can’t throw a snowball on Parliament Hill without hitting a banker. The sidewalks are thick with them. Bankers make the rounds to ensure MPs don’t do anything rash, like raise bank taxes. “With their domestic monopolies guaranteed by legislation,” observed Peter C. Newman in Maclean’s, “they have done little […]
Ex-newsies who strut, like Klein, Clarkson and Kinsella
Adrienne Clarkson’s been busy. The dilettante with the eight-figure budget increase has, in a short time, done more than any Governor General to turn her office into a target of scorn. “Shame On You,” headlined the Edmonton Sun. Clarkson is an ex-journalist. They’re the worst. Many ex-journalists, like ex-smokers, think highly of themselves and are […]
‘Newcomer to watch’ took a pratfall over garlic bread
Only 13 months in office, Prime Minister Paul Martin’s administration may have found its enduring political symbol: garlic bread. It was pizzeria take-out that prompted Martin’s first Cabinet uproar and inspired Reuters’ delightful headline, “Canada Immigration Minister Quits In Pizza Scandal.” On television, a smirking Global National anchor Kevin Newman captured it neatly when he […]
