Access to Information is broken in Canada. OK, ok, nothing new about that. But there is a new report, some attempts at explanation, and plenty of blame on the failure by the current government (the Stephen Harper Conservatives campaigned on accountability) to fix the system while at the same time plugging casual information channels.
“Democracy needs dialogue more than it needs bumper stickers,” writes Stephen L. Carter, a novelist and Yale law professor, in a persuasive essay arguing for more context — more thoroughness — in journalism. The piece is American, but applies elsewhere.
[Note: This post has been updated] “The CBC is heading toward a new fiscal year with little clarity about its funding from Ottawa, even as it suffers a projected 2008-2009 shortfall in ad revenue of up to $65-million,” reports the Globe and Mail.
Even those of us who care about news and newspapers can become cynical about the wailing over the demise of print. Fortunate then that Paul Starr has written a passionate and thought-provoking argument in The New Republic for why all of us should care.
Under his own byline, News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch apologized for an editorial cartoon run by The New York Post showing a police officer telling his colleague, who just shot a chimpanzee, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” Wrote Murdoch…
Crawford Killian sums up the demise of media, on The Tyee blog, The Hook.. His warning is spine-chilling…
Unionized staff at the Halifax daily broadsheet Chronicle Herald, are not taking 20 union-only layoffs lying down: they staged an information picket Monday, the deadline to accept or reject a buyout package, reported CBC.
When Chauncey Bailey, the editor of The Oakland Post, in California, was gunned down in broad daylight, reported the New York Times, “the decimation of local media, … precluded large-scale investigative work” into his death and the dirty laundry revealed by the official response. After his death, a group of reporters…
Having trouble keeping track of the “how to save newspapers” business models? Check out Pramit Singh’s list of 14 and vote for your fave–or chime in on why they won’t work!
Media behemoth CanWest is fighting for its survival — and the loss of control by its ruling Asper family. What are the implications for Canadian journalism? What opportunities might lie in crisis for improving Canadian journalism?