Maybe Amanda Lindhout really is not a journalist, as some critics have recently charged. Her first statement since being freed from her Somali kidnappers and arriving back home in Canada reveals that she is not nearly cynical, jaded or miserable …
Cliff Lonsdale hitchhiked at 16 into an African war zone to kick-start his journalistic career. Here he reviews the Amanda Lindhout debate and explains what he tells young journalists these days.
Most journalists strive never to become part of the story — except in life-or-death cases when our humanity demands action. The Toronto Star has decided that climate change is such a case — it joined 55 other newspapers around the world to demand action, not in an editorial, but in a front-page story. Excerpt: “Today…
Compared to the limp competition in Canada, Germany’s media wars are … interesting. “Giant Penis Sparks Bizarre Media War,” headlines DER SPIEGEL.
The obsession with Tiger Woods proves it: we’ve lost our marbles. Australia is drying up. Dubai is in the toilet. The Large Hadron Collider is smashing atoms. Our world is full of economic turmoil, prisoner torture, tax tantrums, pit bulls posing as statesmen … also genuine art, beauty, acts of compassion, marvels of all kinds.…
Move over, This Is Spinal Tap and The Rocky Horror Picture Show –a blast from the past (sorry) has become a cult journalism classic on the Internet with a reported 350-million hits. Forty years ago Oregon journalist Paul Linnman was assigned by an ABC affiliate to report on a scheme to get rid of a…
Oh, for those good old days — just last year wasn’t it? — when analysts trumpeted the economic value of the “creative class … “
Should the media automatically observe news blackouts in all kidnapping cases? That was the question at the heart of a panel discussion organized by the Canadian Journalism Foundation at the University of Toronto’s Innis College on November 17. WATCH a video of the panel discussion. Arguing in favour was former hostage Robert Fowler, who said…
“Get over it” — best take this week on journalism angst …
“… the PMO could not be reached for comment.”’nuff said.