• J-Source

    MacIntyre wins the Giller

    Congratulations to Linden MacIntyre, winner of the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize for his novel The Bishop’s Man (Random House Canada). As an investigative journalist MacIntyre co-hosts of The Fifth Estate on CBC; he has won nine Gemini Awards for broadcast journalism. His most recent non-fiction book was a boyhood memoir called Causeway: A Passage from…

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    Memories of the Berlin Wall

    Journalists recall covering Germany’s “9/11” — 20 years ago — when the Cold War that had seized the world for some two generations symbolically began to melt….

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    Information gatherers vs. holders

    A Globe and Mail political blog reports on the newspaper’s spat with Auditor-General Sheila Fraser, over whether the Globe’s excerpting of a chapter ….

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    Petition aimed at freeing Lindhout and Brennan

    Nearly three weeks after a petition was begun to urge action in the kidnappings of Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan, there are only 523 signatures. What gives? The online petition asks Ottawa “to do everything in its power to bring home Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and her Australian colleague Nigel Brennan. The two journalists were…

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    When the killers come

    The next time I have a lousy work day, or despair about the state of journalism in Canada, I’m going to re-read this piece about José Rubén Zamora, editor of El Periódico: “When the Killers Come Calling: A Guatemalan journalist and his family are terrorized by a gang of thugs.” I especially like this line:…

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    Wanna buy a typewriter?

    A longtime journalist recently sent an email to a bunch of colleagues with notice of a typewriter for sale. The journalist sent along assurance that  the machine works perfectly and is in excellent condition. His colleagues responded with some detailed queries about this “device.” Any questions of your own for the seller?

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    News anchor 0–Seagull 1

    “In a scene reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film The Birds, a giant seagull stole the show on the Channel Nine News in Melbourne,” reported Australian online news.com.au. “The massively magnified bird walked across a real-time projection of the Melbourne cityscape behind newsreader Peter Hitchener’s head while he was reading a story about a 27-year-old…

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    “I don’t like to watch” — Harper

    The Toronto Star spun Stephen Harper’s alleged admission — “I don’t like to watch Canadian news” — into an entire column including reaction and confirmation about whether the prime minister takes in Canadian media. The quote: “I watched the last several elections in the United States very closely. I tend to watch mainly American news…

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    Should journalists also boycott America’s Fox?

    The U.S. White House and Fox News are in a de facto war. Now journalists are talking about whether to deal with the Fox News team as colleagues, or with the whole organization as a political player bent on attacking real fair and balanced journalism …

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    Top court weighs Canada’s press freedoms: Leblanc case

    A case now being heard in the Supreme Court of Canada will determine the fate of whistleblowers — and will have a major impact on press freedoms in Canada. Lawyers for media outlets and press organizations are in court arguing against an attempt by a Montreal ad firm to force Daniel Leblanc, a reporter with…