“It was enough to melt the heart of a cynical scribe: a standing ovation for two Conservative cabinet ministers – from the parliamentary press gallery,” leads John Ward of the Canadian Press, in a report about the parliamentary press gallery dinner in Ottawa. The journalists saluted Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon and Jean-Pierre Blackburn just for…
Unionized Quebec journalists will host a conference next February, headed by Joan Fraser, on whether media is still serving the public interest. Fraser knows about this issue first hand. She was a long time journalist, including as as editor-in-chief of the Montreal Gazette. More recently as a senator, she was a major force behind the…
In 1990, four years before the first web browser was released, the executive editor of the San Jose Mercury News wrote a remarkably prescient memo to his bosses at the newspaper chain Knight Ridder, reports a Nov. 5 Business Week story about the state of newspapers, A Cautionary Tale for Old Media. “Typing at night…
Alternet has an interview with Princeton economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. The leader says it’s about how Krugman thinks “the right-wing media machine is destroying social progress.” Here’s Alternet interviewer Rory O’Connor’s introduction to his piece: “It’s more than a bit surprising when the guy from the New York Times sounds more…
A New Brunswick judge extended an injunction against a man trying to start up a community newspaper in New Brunswick, who is accused of stealing corporate secrets from the Irvings, reported Chris Morris of the Canadian Press on Oct. 26. An excerpt:Justice Peter Glennie of the New Brunswick Court of Queen’s Bench extended a sweeping…
Al-Jazeera’s journalists have suffered bombings, expulsions, censorship, threats, beatings, routine jailings and controversial incarceration by U.S. forces. Now, says an Associated Press report, “Al-Qaida sympathizers have unleashed a torrent of anger against Al-Jazeera television. They accuse the pan-Arab TV network of misrepresenting Osama bin Laden’s latest audiotape in the excerpts it aired.” It’s often said…
Finally: WASHINGTON – A federal communications regulator on Thursday said News Corp.’s proposed $5 billion acquisition of The Wall Street Journal’s parent company raises competitive issues nationally and in New York.Michael Copps, one of five commissioners with the Federal Communications Commission, is asking Chairman Kevin Martin to open a proceeding to study whether the deal…
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms should be enough to protect journalists from being forced to give up their sources, lawyers for Montreal’s La Presse argued in Federal Court. The newspaper is trying to prevent a Federal Court judge from ordering two of its journalists to disclose the source of a document containing allegations…
The Association of Electronic Journalists announced a new award for Best Television News Information Program, named after Trina McQueen. McQueen has been a reporter for Toronto’s CFTO; co-host of W5; a reporter and later executive producer for CBC’s The National; vice president of English Television News and Current Affairs at CBC and CBC Newsworld; President…
Six Iraqi women who work in the McClatchy Newspapers bureau in Baghdad were honoured in New York with a “courage in journalism award.” Kudos to the New York Times for running the acceptance speech by Baghdad journalist Sahar Issa, speaking for the six, as an editorial. Excerpts: “To be a journalist in violence-ridden Iraq today,…