On the edge of ethics
Most journalists agree that native advertising is a moral void. But in order to boost revenue, the Globe tries to strike the right balance with Globe Edge
In the summer of 2014, The Globe and Mail narrowly avoided an editorial staff strike over native advertising—the practice of working with advertisers to create ads that resemble journalism. A leaked memo from Globe management to the paper’s union proposed a system in which editorial staff would write for advertisers, compromising, in the minds of many Globe reporters, […]
Headlines on the suicide bombing in Beirut are dehumanizing
The New York Times has since corrected its headline, but some Canadian publications haven't
At least 43 people were killed by a double suicide bombing in a residential area of Beirut yesterday, an attack for which ISIL has since claimed responsibility. The New York Times initially reported the story with this headline, causing an uproar on Twitter. Reuters also ran with a similar headline. ISIS blows up crowd of […]
A look back at the news coverage of the Ottawa shooting
How live multimedia journalism successfully reported, recorded and retold the events of the day
On October 22, 2014, news of the Ottawa shooting began with a misspelled tweet and a cellphone video by Globe and Mail reporter Josh Wingrove. At the same time, veteran CBC cameraman Jean Brousseau quietly rolled his camera and collected raw footage that would later tell a full insider story while Bruce Arthur, sports columnist for the Toronto […]
Thank you, Andrew Coyne
Coyne is a good example of what privileged journalists should do: use their status to push back against the status quo when necessary
Andrew Coyne resigned as the editor of the Editorials and Comment section of the National Post today, and journalists should be thankful he did. The resignation comes after Postmedia executives prevented Coyne from writing a column dissenting from the National Post’s endorsement of the Conservative Party of Canada because it would “confuse readers and embarrass […]
Much ado about endorsements
RRJ does a round-up of the newspaper endorsements for #elxn42
Election day is finally, finally upon us, but the longest campaign in Canadian history since 1872 didn’t end quietly for the country’s print newspapers. If anything, it ended nonsensically. Questions of who controls newspapers’ editorial voice haunted the final week of #elxn42 as print media outlets published their editorial board’s federal election choices. Some internet […]
Stop talking about the niqab
Amira Elghawaby, from the National Council of Canadian Muslims, calls for Canadian journalists to focus on important matters
Journalists have been enthralled with the niqab debate over the last few weeks. In order to get a better sense of what to make of the niqab coverage, I spoke to the communications director at the National Council of Canadian Muslims, Amira Elghawaby. Elghawaby’s most pressing critique of niqab journalism is simply that there’s too […]
Do editorial endorsements matter?
On October 17, The Globe and Mail published an editorial announcing their endorsement for Toronto’s mayoral race: “John Tory is Toronto’s best bet.” Torontoist wants citizens to vote for Olivia Chow and the Toronto Star will release their endorsement this week. These endorsements may be a big deal for candidates. But beyond politician’s personal promotion, […]
Stories in the ashes: covering disaster in Lac-Mégantic
After a train exploded in a tiny Quebec town, some reporters stuck around and showed us the power of narrative journalism.
By Rebecca Melnyk Inside his west-end Toronto apartment, Justin Giovannetti was cocooned in blankets, sick in bed with a bad cold on his day off. His cellphone rang. Dennis Choquette, his editor at The Globe and Mail, wanted him in the office. Giovannetti rolled off his mattress, slipped into his least flattering clothes and schlepped in […]
Willfully blind
A closer look at the Margaret Wente plagiarism scandal and what it says about The Globe and Mail's institutional arrogance.
By Brittany Devenyi, Gianluca Inglesi, and Rhiannon Russell The morning of Monday, September 17, 2012, reader Carol Wainio sent a 2,135-word email to Globe and Mail editor-in-chief John Stackhouse. It detailed multiple instances in a 2009 column by Margaret Wente, “Enviro-romanticism Is Hurting Africa,” of what Wainio called “very significant overlap” with stories from sources as disparate as Food Chemical News and The […]
Tart and soul
How the left-leaning, scotch-drinking, bullshit-detecting, high-school-dropping, joke-Googling, single-mom-ing, storytelling, serial tweeting, cheese-puff-cooking Tabatha Southey became one of our leading political humourists.
By Loren Hendin Tabatha Southey hadn’t expected to hear anything back. She’d sent three children’s stories to a publisher, but, six months later, nothing. Oh, well, she’d sent them only at the urging of a friend anyway. She had been driving with writer and editor Jane L. Thompson, two toddlers, and a baby buckled up in […]
