”Just the Facts, Ma’am”
The manila envelope on Prue Hemelrijk’s desk contains a manuscript, a landscape of computer ink on a cloudy white background When she’s finished it will be transformed into a colorful tableau, highlighted by fluorescent markers, jagged underlining, tick marks and a collage of neatly handwritten names and numbers, all contained in the one-and-a-half- inch border […]
Welcome to Tomorrow’s News
Magazines that, headlines by laser and 100 anchors in 3D
Good morning, it’s 7 a.m. and you’re tuned to CNLD-FM. This is your morning man Peter Dixon with today’s forecast for Toronto and surrounding areas.” Opening one eye slightly, Mary groaned as she caught a glimpse of the smiling D.J. on the small holographic screen of her clock radio. Reaching out from the temperature controlled […]
Black and White and Green All Over
The media goes green- but is there quality in the quantity?
The day The Financial Post’s June 1989 issue of Moneywise hit the newsstands, the magazine’s editor, Catherine Collins, went out for her daily run. Setting out from Toronto’s downtown YMCA, Collins jogged past the news boxes strung out along her route. Anxiously, she glanced in to see how the magazine was selling. But what she […]
As the Newsworld Turns
Newsworld’s was the most publicized and anticipated Canadian TV launch in memory-an encouraging start for a network that promised all news to all people. But so far CBC’s 24-hour news and information channel with its “uniquely Canadian perspective” has not been a threat to either conventional news programs or the pay-TV channel, Cable News Network, […]
The Next Fix
It was a whale of a story. Trapped beneath the Arctic ice were three California grey whales. They were stranded by an early freeze that October 1988 and were breathing through a shrinking hole in the ice. They would surely die. However, an Inuit hunter soon spotted them and informed biologists back in the village. […]
Lost Horizon
Once upon a time, Frank Stronach had a vision. He called it Vista. Was it a mirage?
The first anniversary issue of Vista had just hit the newsstand when its publisher, John Dunlop, quit. Dunlop, who launched “Canada’s Alternative Business Magazine” in November 1988, ha~ objected to recent cutbacks proposed by a planning committee. Three Magna executives, who had no publishing experience, arrived to look into the operation. They suggested fewer issues, […]
What’s up Doc?
Canadian filmmaker Paul Cowan personifies the financial struggle of Canada’s independent documentary community. When Cowan failed to find $400,000 to make a documentary about Donald Miarshall Jr., but secured $2 million to produce the idea as a movie, he lent credence to what Canadian documentary maker Magnus Isacsson called a “crisis in documentary.” This crisis […]
Libel Law: The Chilling Effect
The journalist’s badge. That’s how Ron Adams, host of CBC Radio’s Media File, referred to getting sued. He was questioning Jock Ferguson of The Globe and Mail about libel chill. Lawsuit phobia, if you prefer-the notion that the threat of fighting legal actions, with their high costs in time and money, often inhibits aggressive reporting. […]
Point of View
Peter Raymont makes documentaries that call for change - but the CBC thinks he protests too much
Director Peter Raymont’s most recent documentary The World is Watching is much like Raymont himself: earnest and passionate, it argues that the American news media slant their coverage in response to political pressure and advertising revenues. At the heart of the film is a scene at a Nicaraguan farming cooperative devastated by Contra rebels in […]
Sins of Omission
In the protective coverage of its own lockout, CFTO crossed the line of credibility
World Beat News, Tuesday, June 14, 1988: At the anchor desk, Gail Smith is reading a copy story. It’s about eight people, seven of whom, until a week ago, worked with Smith in the CFTO newsroom. “Metro Police today issued arrest warrants for eight people wanted for unlawful acts arising out of the labor dispute […]
