Fork in the road
Is it time for Pitchfork to choose considered opinion over snark in its music criticism?
On June 15, 2004, the online music magazine Pitchfork published a review of the Beastie Boys’s 2004 release, To the Five Boroughs. It was written by Brent DiCrescenzo, one of the site’s regular contributors. More than 2,000 words in length, the actual CD review was buried under a disjointed and confusing chronology that moved between Milan and Manhattan […]
Rabble, Straight Goods, Indymedia
How grassroots news site rate
While working at the Edmonton Journal in 2002, Lisa Gregoire’s editors told her to “cover the riots” at the G8 Summit in Kananaskis. But there were no riots. Instead, there were peaceful rallies and playful campaigns like, “I’d rather go naked than wear Gap.” Gregoire produced articles about these non-violent demonstrations and about the effects of globalization, all […]
Elephant in the Room
Metroland rolls over Toronto with bland community newspapers, but the independents fight on
A little newspaper turned up on my Toronto doorstep at Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue in September 2004. It was only 16 pages long, scarcely bulky enough to contain the colour flyers tucked inside. Big corporate flyers, too, like Canadian Tire, No Frills, and Pharma Plus. The flyers outweighed the newspaper four to one. […]
Shout It All Out
Speakers Corner is a soapbox for the modern everyman
The first snowstorm of 2005 can’t stop Alex from speaking his mind. He enters the Speakers Corner booth on Queen Street West in downtown Toronto for the 10th time since Boxing Day. Alex puts a dollar in nickels and dimes into the slot and talks for the full two minutes allotted, responding to the reenactment of a Toronto break in […]
Redrawing the line
Despite vigilance, advertorial content gains credibility in Canadian publishing
“Family Fashions for Spring!” reads a bold headline in the April 2005 issue of Homemakers. The page’s layout is similar to countless others in consumer magazines: visuals with captions, columns, and service-oriented blurbs about the latest in fashion trends. But there’s a crucial difference – the story wasn’t put together by Homemakers, but Levi Strauss and Wal-Mart. […]
This hour has George Stroumboulopoulos
CBC gambles that a MuchMusic VJ can deliver a younger audience to its current affairs programming
“Do you hear that?” asks George Stroumboulopoulos, catching everyone’s attention on set. “The groove here is ridiculous.” It’s only minutes to airtime for CBC Newsworld’s new current affairs program, The Hour, and the 32-year-old host is grooving to The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s 37-year-old “Voodoo Child.” He taps his feet, snaps his fingers, and even breaks out […]
Crime Takes a Bullet
Long-running Quebec tabloid Allô Police bids adieu
On January 23, 1975, Quebec police finally cornered the elusive local gangster Richard Blass. The handsome fugitive was laying low at a cottage in the Laurentians after setting fire to a Montreal nightclub, killing 13 people. Police surrounded the house and demanded that Blass give himself up. He refused. At 4:30 a.m., two officers broke down […]
Trans Fat: Exposed
Siphoning fact from fiction on the latest food scare
Trans fat is tasty, common, and, according to some experts, poison. Found in cookies, French fries, and even some baby formulas, it is suspected of causing everything from clogged arteries to Alzheimer’s. But if you’ve been watching television stations like CTV or reading newspapers like The Globe and Mail in the past year, you already knew that. You probably […]
