It is rare, believe it or not, for news about federal politics to make the front pages of the country’s newspapers. It is also rare for newspaper editors to give prominent front-page play to stories about another city’s mayor. Not today. The Senate Scandals and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford can be found on front pages all across the country — but not necessarily coast-to-coast . Continue reading Front page faceoff: Rob Ford vs The Senate
Category: Journalism
Correcting Tabatha Southey's record on my work
I like Tabatha Southey’s column a lot but today, she makes an error when she writes in her Globe and Mail column:
When it was announced that Osama bin Laden had been shot, Sun News did not break away from its recorded coverage of the royal wedding…
In fact, we did break away. I know because I was the on-air anchor for Sun News Network for our “breaking coverage” of the press conference in which U.S. President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed. That press conference began at about 11:30 pm ET though it originally been announced Continue reading Correcting Tabatha Southey's record on my work
Michael Walzer Retires from Dissent | New Republic
Recalling the NDP debate a week ago Sunday…
Social democracy or democratic socialism “those terms once had different meanings, not anymore,” Walzer said…
Globe and Mail's top politics writer on "grassy-knoll types" in Parliamentary Press Gallery
The Ottawa Citizen‘s Glen McGregor and Postmedia’s Stephen Maher have spent a great deal of time digging away at what in Ottawa is called the “robocall” story, a story that reports on incidents of the use of automated telephone calls during the 2011 election. McGregor and Maher’s reporting has won them acclaim from their peers in the form of many awards mostly (I believe anyway) for the creativity and doggedness in which they’ve tried to sort out what is a complicated story about what will turn out to be either a marginal event in the 2011 election or an epic event in the 2011 election.
Elections Canada is investigating many of the allegations of potential skulduggery that McGregor and Maher report on and, nearly two years after the election, Elections Canada appears set to recommend the laying of some sort of charge. (We know that because McGregor and Maher reported it.)
And, today, partly as a result of their work, Elections Canada is recommending Parliament introduce some new laws that Elections Canada says will help prevent any future problems. The Harper government says it will review the recommendations but might — or might not — have its own ideas about this issue.
Now, I mentioned up top that the Robocall affair will either be marginal or epic — largely depending on what investigators come up with and can prove in court. The Council of Canadians believe this to be epic, arguing in court that there was a massive conspiracy organized by the Conservative Party of Canada to use robocalls to suppress the votes of non-Conservatives and, in doing so, win ridings it otherwise would not.
A new book says McGregor and Maher, iPolitics.ca columnist Michael Harris and others in the Parliamentary Press Gallery are “grassy-knoll types” for buying into this meme, most loudly advanced by the Council of Canadians, that runs though the Robocall reporting that somehow the majority government of Stephen Harper and the Conservatives is illegitimate. Continue reading Globe and Mail's top politics writer on "grassy-knoll types" in Parliamentary Press Gallery
Suffering the slings of Suzuki
“Last week, I discovered that the nature of things can be extremely unpleasant when you challenge the wisdom of the arrogant.I was attending a reception when suddenly the host of CBC TVs The Nature Of Things was in my face.”I want to talk to you!” a red-faced and agitated David Suzuki said, finger pointing at my chest.”You have no right to demonize me!” he yelled, causing people around us to back away.”
No, that’s not Suzuki yelling at a Sun News Network reporter but hollering instead at the Adrian Dix-supporting, left-leaning columnist for 24 Hours and The Tyee Bill Tieleman. (I quite like Bill’s commentary and reporting, BTW, and he’s generous enough with his time to share some of that with me often on my Sun News Network show Battleground). Some might have received the apparently incorrect impression that the experience of my colleague Jessica Hume from earlier this week was unique to her because she’s a Sun Media reporter and Sun Media employs Ezra Levant and Ezra is, to say the least, no fan of Suzuki.
But no, it’s not just us apparently. Read Bill’s account, from 2009, mind you – “How I Demonized David Suzuki” right down to the end where Suzuki swears at him.
But it’s not just us journalists who sometimes suffer Suzuki’s ire. Sometimes it’s his fans, too. Continue reading Suffering the slings of Suzuki
No freedom of the press in David Suzuki's world
The Green Party issued a media advisory yesterday, inviting reporters to attend a discussion at an Ottawa church organized and hosted by an Ottawa bookstore between environmental activist David Suzuki and former Bay Street economist Jeff Rubin, moderated by Green Party MP Elizabeth May. We took the party up on their invite and dispatched reporter Jessica Hume and cameraman, Andrei Filippov. We wanted to hear — and report on — what both Suzuki and Rubin had to say. (Rubin is the sometimes controversial economist who once said we’re headed for $200-a-barrel oil).
We also wanted to ask Suzuki some questions about his endorsement of Joyce Murray in the federal Liberal leadership race. Continue reading No freedom of the press in David Suzuki's world
Harper "Birthers" and other Laurentian media conspiracies
John Ibbitson, the chief political correspondent for the Toronto Globe and Mail and Darrell Bricker, the CEO of polling firm Ipsos Global Public Affairs, have a book that I think will cause many of John’s Globe readers, at least, as well as many other government, academic and cultural elites in the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal corridor to be cluck, cluck, clucking in disagreement over some uncomfortable ideas — uncomfortable to those elites, in any event — the authors advance. For example: “The Conservative Party will be to the 21st-century what the Liberal Party was to the 20th: the perpetually dominant party, the natural governing party.”
Or: “From the time of Confederation until quite recently, the political, academic, cultural, media, and business elites in the communities along the watershed of the St. Lawrence River ran this country. Continue reading Harper "Birthers" and other Laurentian media conspiracies
I am so stressed!
I am so stressed! … because I’m a newspaper reporter. And, according to job search firm CareerCast.com, I work in the 8th most stressful job occupation there is:
Newspaper reporter: It’s about deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. And an ability to confront public and corporate officials making ten times your salary. Median salary: $36,000. Continue reading I am so stressed!
My first-ever tweet and, 50,000 tweets later, some other meditations on Twitter
Some time on Tuesday, I expect I will send out my 50,000th tweet. Seems like a lot when you look at a big number like that. But then, this is post number 3,743 at this blog and these posts are way longer than 140 characters. So when I think about it, 3,743 blog posts sounds like way more work than 50,000 tweets.
In any event …
Continue reading My first-ever tweet and, 50,000 tweets later, some other meditations on Twitter
McGill University seeks to ban its own student journos from filing ATI requests on it
A disturbing piece in the McGill Daily …
In December, McGill filed a motion with the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec against 14 McGill students, seeking to disregard several Access to Information (ATI) requests.
In the conclusion of the motion, McGill demands the authority to “disregard future requests […] submitted by the respondents or students of McGill or student journalists of The McGill Daily and the Link (Concordia University) or by persons associated to McGilliLeaked or by persons that could reasonably be linked to such requestors,” if those requests meet one of five vague characteristics.
One of those characteristics includes being “overly broad.” Another is if the request “is associated to one or more categories of documents and information published on McGilliLeaked, a website that compiles the results of ATI requests.
Some of the categories on McGilliLeaked include “administrative,” “contracts,” “construction,” “legal,” “expenses,” and years, such as “2010,” and “2011.”
The McGill University media relations office, having seen this article, provided me this morning with the 20-page motion it has filed in support of is request to disregard these and future ATI requests.:
McGill motion to block student journos from making ATI request by David Akin