Category / Commentary

Canadian Press reports that a former energy-industry lobbyist and Reform party activist is expected to become Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s new communications director. An excerpt of the CP story: “Highly placed sources…

A release from the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada said online ad revenues in Canada rose some 38 per cent, to more than $1.2 billion, between 2006 and 2007. A hopeful sign?…

I feel a little bit mean posting this, but it’s such a perfect example of why journalists have lost respect with the public (in this case anyone with basic science knowledge) that…

Thought for the week: “Perhaps a nation can function without newspapers. But it would be a confederacy of dunces.”

Reporters were interrupted in their sipping of wine and eating of canapés at Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s s annual summer garden party June 26, by an email from Harper’s director of communications,…

Apropos of nothing — or just because it’s Monday: Journalist suspected of murdering women in Macedonia Story of a journalist Stripping His Way to a Ph.D. Reporter breaks back after riding inside…

“Journalism is broken,” said a speaker at a lecture series put on by the U.K. Guardian. The series, which is partly available online, asked, “Is it?”

The explosion of news about deceased U.S. broadcaster Tim Russert (at one point in the week a Google news search returned some 10,000 hits) reminds me of how O.J. Simpson burst into…

“Why,” asks the Globe and Mail, “are newshounds around the world so enraptured by a grim West Coast story about human flotsam?” OK, it’s a rhetorical question — every reporter and reader…

The American National Council on Public Polls has a piece on its website that looks like a worthwhile read: 20 Questions A Journalist Should Ask About Poll Results. Hat tip to the…