By Sylvia Stead for the Globe and Mail Globe readers had reason to be confused this week. A few were puzzled by two instances of columnists who were writing either opinion, analysis or politics. So now you are probably confused too. A little background: Campbell Clark is The Globe and Mail’s chief political writer. He…
By Kathy English for the Toronto Star Dear readers: What do you want to know about the Toronto Star’s journalism in this digital age? How can we help you better understand the culture of journalism — why and how journalists do what they do, what the Star chooses to cover, who makes those decisions? Can…
By George Abraham I recently spoke to a great class of graduate students at Carleton on the topic of diversity in journalism. I anticipated the students would be bored out of their wits – seeing my “lecture” as an imposition by a professor, rather than required material for a career in Canadian journalism. What I…
By Sylvia Stead for the Globe and Mail Today and yesterday, the website and the front page of the newspaper have been and are dominated by extensive coverage of the attack on the Quebec City mosque. Much more coverage is and will be done in the coming hours and days and readers still have many…
By Esther Enkin, CBC Ombudsman The Alberta Teachers’ Association released a toolkit for creating curriculum dealing with “sexual and minority genders.” The complainant, Greg Murphy, questioned the balance and fairness of an article about the handbook framed by the objections raised by a critic. He thought it misrepresented the document and distorted its meaning. There…
By Kathy English for the Toronto Star What happens if and when there are no news media? That is the critical question at the heart of an essential public conversation that began in earnest this week with the release of an exhaustive report by Canada’s Public Policy Forum entitled The Shattered Mirror: News, Democracy and…
By Marlene Murphy “What kinds of journalism do we think are worth protecting, and what are we willing to do to protect them?” Christine Crowther said that was the starting point for a new book, Journalism in Crisis. Crowther, a former CBC journalist who now teaches part-time at Carleton University, is one of the six…
By Kathy English for the Toronto Star There is nothing new about critical readers expressing their concerns about what they read in the Star in strong words. My in-box, and those of most other journalists here, is evidence of that. What is new in recent weeks however is the fact some of those critics are…
By Esther Enkin, CBC Ombudsman The complainant, Paula Vallee, had a relative die in a car crash. While she herself was not contacted, she alleged the reporter was insensitive and insistent with other family members. She also said some reports had errors and her messages were ignored. CBC News staff in Edmonton acted appropriately in…
By Sydney Jones for The Signal On the morning of Halloween, 2014, adults disguised as ghouls and witches carried briefcases and purses as they walked to work, crunching across the leaves in front of Stephanie Domet’s house. Normally by this hour on a Friday the CBC Radio Mainstreet host would be getting ready for work,…