• J-Source

    Harper government blocks information

    A new report questions whether the notion of transparent government, accountable to and for voters, exists in Canada. Journalists have long found ourselves blocked  by Stephen Harper’s government. Today in a report to Parliament Interim Access to Information Commissionier Suzanne Legault said “growing delays are eroding Canadians’ right to obtain documents from their government.” So…

  • J-Source

    Newspaper integrity: the game (seriously)

    Forget the crossword, Sudoko, Tetris — you can now play the newspaper integrity game, voting (or not) as many times as you wish for the newspaper of your choice. At the time of posting, Canada’s Langley Advance and National Post were among the top-ranked newspapers in the world. Seriously.

  • J-Source

    Dragons, seamonsters and old-school newshounds

    Are old-school newshounds mythical creatures? wonders A.O. Scott in a New York Times review of a series on journalism films at Film Forum in New York. The series, suggests Scott, evokes “the quintessence of print journalism in all its inky, hectic glory.” Real, or not, it’s nostalgia — always a popular draw.

  • J-Source

    WikiLeaks: the new journalism?

    Is WikiLeaks — the self-styled “intelligence agency of the people” that the American Pentagon considers a security threat — a form of investigative journalism?

  • J-Source

    About the CAJ

    The problems of the Canadian Association of Journalists have landed on J-Source. Given my role as editor of the Townhall blog and discussions, a disclosure: I am one of the many who left the CAJ in 2005 following the saga of the organization’s obscene censure of a journalist. Some thoughts about what has ensued …

  • J-Source

    “Dead bastards” — US gunmen kill Reuters workers

    The video released by WikiLeaks of a killing by American gunmen in military helicopters, which included two Reuters employees, is grim watching. The New York Times story is almost as grim reading. Most shocking are the transcripts of the American gunmen discussing the attack. As the Times described it: “They aim and fire at the…

  • J-Source

    Reporters investigate paedophiles, called “stool pigeons”

    “A French documentary sparked a media ethics controversy on Tuesday after journalists handed over the names of 22 suspected paedophiles to police in Canada and France,” reported Agence France-Presse.  “Reporters from the Capa agency used the Internet to get in touch with people in France and Canada who allegedly professed an interest in child pornography…

  • J-Source

    Pullman’s defence of free speech

    Gotta love Philip Pullman: “It was a shocking thing to say and I knew it was a shocking thing to say. But no one has the right to live without being shocked. No one has the right to spend their life without being offended.”

  • J-Source

    Sniffy content?

    You’d be an April fool to turn up your nose at the Vancouver Sun‘s “innovative “four-dimensional” newspaper technology project, the first of its kind in the world.” The paper announced that the project would start July 1, with “a daily list of scratch-and-sniff content in each section of the paper” to rival 3-D movies like…

  • J-Source

    Is the National Post misogynist?

    The National Post has drawn criticism for its portrayal of women, and so-called women’s issues. J-Source isn’t the place to discuss those issues, but journalists might ask why the mainstream newspaper’s owner, now in bankruptcy protection, tolerates an editorial position that alienates 51 per cent of its potential subscribers or advertisers.