The Magpie, the quirky east-side magazine store that became a sort-of Vancouver institution, is closing. A couple of excerpts from a piece in the Vancouver Sun that captures some of the Magpie’s flavour: “There aren’t many bookstores that can claim, in their day, to have founded a republic and established themselves as the de facto…
An influential civil liberties group has slammed CanWest Global, the giant media company fond of using the law to squelch criticism of itself, for an attempt to “to silence satirical criticism and constrain fair comment,” “corporate bullying” and a lack of “good humour and sober second thought.” CanWest is suing The Tyee, an independent online…
“Canadian media give inordinate coverage to health care issues and largely ignore the ‘non-medical’ determinants of health … This coverage is at odds with our research which shows that Canadians see homelessness as an urgent social and health issue,” writes Dr. Jim Frankish in the online journal The Tyee. (Frankish is an academic at the…
As details emerge in the story of Allan Schoenborn, a suspect in the slaying of his three children in Merritt, B.C., the initial coverage of the case looks more and more bizarre. Reporters from throughout Canada and internationally have converged on the small town — as is usual with an emotional and hot story. But…
A feast for the eyes … Oh, OK, just because words help (sometimes) to explain: The winners of the National Pictures Of The Year Awards were announced April 20 by the News Photographers Association of Canada, a volunteer-run, non-profit association of professional and student photojournalists. The association says it’s dedicated to “quality and ethical photography…
What does the latest kerfuffle involving the Audit Bureau of Circulations mean? The Financial Post reports that three of Canada’s large newspaper publishers — Torstar Sun Media and Transcontinental — are pulling out of the American-based co-operative. The bureau was set up 94 years ago to measure newspaper circulation, to help advertisers decide where to…
Torstar Corp., owner of the Toronto Star, Canada’s biggest-circulation daily, said in a press release that it will cut 160 jobs in its newspaper division. A report by Reuters said the job cuts come as “the book and newspaper publisher copes with a declining newspaper market.” The news starkly contrasts with a release the previous week…
The New York Times’ public editor Clark Hoyt takes aim at the blurring of lines between opinion, analysis and reporting — an issue that I think is critical for the credibility of professional journalism. Excerpts: “The Times, like most newspapers, long ago ventured far from the safe shores of keeping opinions only on the opinion…
A Canadian columnist and former political worker, Bill Tieleman, received a death threat from a kook in Mainland China after a column in a free Vancouver commuter paper, in which he advocated boycotting China — and not just the summer Olympics. An excerpt of a story on Vancouver radio station CKNW: “Tieleman received a flurry…
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has formally complained to China’s ambassador to Canada about the blocking of the public broadcaster’s websites in China. In a letter sent April 4 to Chinese Ambassador Lu Shumin, CBC president Hubert T. Lacroix wrote, “I am writing to request that you make formal and immediate enquiries as to why the…