Dude, Where’s My Journalism?
Dose covers what you care about, if you don't care about much
On the October 14, 2005 cover, a fried chicken leg sits on a pea-green plate. The cover line reads: “You can’t get it from fried chicken – and other truths about bird flu.” Kitschy covers beckon passersby from inside newspaper boxes with come-hither cover lines such as, “Clicking to Climax,” or “Is There a Place […]
Bright Side of the Dark Side
Though scorned by traditionalists, political life may well be salvation for many restless journalists. Former anchor Ben Chin and others make the case
Ben Chin hasn’t been near a television studio in months, but the former news anchor still dresses for the lights and cameras. His tailored suit, cuffed shirt and blue-and-yellow striped tie come straight from a men’s fashion magazine. His new office is another story. Papers and files lie in heaps on top of the wooden […]
Narcissus in Chief
Why are the heads of so many publications so self-absorbed?
At a time when every newspaper editor in the country is “revisioning” his or her paper (i.e. making it palatable to a coming generation of Xbox-ed Netheads), you’d think that the redpen set wouldn’t have the time to pontificate the way they used to from the safety of their editorial board cubicles. And yet, the […]
Ethical Dilemma
"We felt this enormous weight of undeserved power"
In 1995, I went to Kikwit in the Democratic Republic of Congo, then Zaire, to produce a documentary on the Ebola outbreak. When I arrived, news teams from all over the world were clamouring to get inside the ward. But local and international medical staff refused to let any journalists in. Victims were dying a […]
In Your Face
Journalists are notoriously thin-skinned, but Toronto Star media critic Antonia Zerbisias has never been afraid to stick it to them
Hip hop blares in the mostly empty gym on this November Friday night. Located at Carlaw Avenue and Lake Shore Boulevard in Toronto, The Training Room is a ten-minute drive from the Riverdale home of The Toronto Star‘s Antonia Zerbisias. Dressed in a black tank top and yoga pants, she arranges and adjusts three machines […]
Off Target
To expand readership, The Gazette has made some impressive editorial improvements. Sadly, they may not be enough to attract the one audience it needs for long-term survival
Inside The Gazette newsroom in the heart of downtown Montreal sits a three-drawer file cabinet filled with colour: folders in bright shades of red, yellow and blue, each one filled with stories, contacts and studies on Montreal’s cultural communities. The cabinet’s owner, Jeff Heinrich, covers Montreal’s minority communities for the Gazette, although the words “diversities […]
Paper Thin
The law offers little protection for journalists who want to keep sources confidential. But there are some things you can do—and should know
On April 5, 2001, a brown paper envelope arrived anonymously at the Ottawa offices of the National Post. It was addressed to Andrew McIntosh, an investigative reporter who had been looking into then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien’s business dealings in his Quebec riding, which was known at the time as Saint-Maurice. McIntosh was particularly interested in […]
A Change in the Weather
Not long ago, viewers tuned in to see if they needed an umbrella. Today, they expect an updated forecast every ten minutes. Can broadcasters deliver?
An empty studio desk at the Weather Network headquarters in Oakville, Ontario never stays empty for long. Within seconds, it becomes scattered with lipstick-stained coffee cups, maps of Canada and piles of meteorological data printouts. Suzanne Leonard Feliz, the afternoon program host, leans forward, pen poised over her maps, listening as the studio meteorologist on […]
Whyte Noise
With his new sexed-up, hyped-up, juiced-up, jazzed-up Maclean's, Ken Whyte is out to raise a ruckus. But if his cerebral-meets-trashy approach doesn't bring the weekly out of its financial death spiral then the next sound you'll hear is Rogers Media giving him the boot
Inside the main theatre of the Toronto Centre for the Arts, past and present Maclean’s staffers are about to gorge themselves on dinner, celebrating both the one hundredth anniversary of their magazine and its radical new design. They’ll dine under a row of chandeliers, joined by a mishmash of Canadian celebrities – Kim Cattrall, Gordon […]
Riding with the Right
Can a magazine that serves up so much controversy and attitude really do serious political journalism? The rowdy boys at the Western Standard say yes. Critics aren't so sure
The poster is everywhere in the offices of the Western Standard-in the foyer, in the coffee room, beside individual cubicles and on the walls by the office of Ezra Levant, the magazine’s publisher and co-founder. Professionally done and beautifully rendered, it could be mistaken for actual advertising for The Sopranossecond season DVD box set. Up […]
