Hot but bothered
Canadians are as kinky as anybody. So why is sex coverage here so damned boring?
By Kate Hefford “This is a good brand,” says sex blogger Erika Szabo, motioning toward a pair of $50 underwear. They’re silky smooth, dusty blue boxer briefs with an exaggerated bulge. We glance over electrosex gear, sex toys that apply electric stimulation to the genitals. We’re in Priape, a sex shop and gay haven in Toronto’s […]
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 […]
When readers attack
Why are online comments so extremely loud and incredibly verbose, and what can be done about it?
By Davida Ander “What’s your problem?” “Isn’t it obvious? He’s an unemployed welfare bum.” “Grow up.” “Once you are done you may fornicate yourself.” “You just antagonize people to get people to react, dude. It’s what you do! You have serious issues!” “I win every time due to your lack of brains, slightly amusing on […]
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 […]
Patti Tasko unveils 2010 CP Style Guide
Alec Bain speaks to Canadian Press editor Patti Tasko about the 16th edition of the Canadian Press Stylebook and how the new guide tackles the internet and new media
Alec Bain speaks to Canadian Press editor Patti Tasko about the 16th edition of the Canadian Press Stylebook and how the new gCP Style Guide is redefining journalism while remaining loyal to traditional journalistic policy.uide tackles the internet and new media. Every two years the Canadian Press comes out with a national guide for Canadian journalists on […]
Rider on the Storm
In the mind of Doug Kelly, the Post of the future will further divide readers and critics. But can a niche audience support a national newspaper?
Betty’s, a downtown Toronto bar, is all warm wood tones and squeaky floors, its seafoam walls barely visible through a collection of framed sports memorabilia. Last October, it was the site of a celebration commemorating the National Post’s 11th anniversary. Once the spoiled child of media baron Conrad Black, the paper had more extravagant parties […]
On the Eve of Destruction
In the mind of John Stackhouse, the Globe of the future could involve tearing down much of what readers value most. Will it mean brighter days or trigger an unmitigated disaster?
Visitors to The Globe and Mail’s Toronto headquarters often comment on how sedate the place is—nothing like the frenzied, shouty bullpen newsrooms of pop culture. It’s more akin to a mid-sized corporate office; a grey and workmanlike place where serious people are engaged in serious work, putting together a very serious newspaper. So by Globe […]
I’m dyin’ up here!
Why Canadian magazines have come to bury humour, not praise it
The Set-up Definition: the premise of a pre-arranged outcome A writer and an editor are lost in the desert. They’ve been without food or water for days, and it’s beginning to look like this is the end. Then, they see a shimmer on the horizon. They run toward it. It’s an oasis! An editorial team […]
Anatomy of a Tragedy
After an incident involving a former Ontario politician and a bike courier, newsrooms leapt into action. A blow-by-blow account of what journalists got right and wrong—and a PR firm’s mysterious role in revealing the real story
Only three people know what happened on that Toronto street on the night of August 31, 2009. One is dead, and the other two aren’t talking publicly until the trial is over, if they ever will. The best version of events the rest of us can put together is this: At about 9:45 p.m., the […]
The Tug of War
In the aftermath of Michelle Lang’s death, a reflection on the journalistic impulse to go into battle
Outside, a C-130 Hercules whines on the runway—probably American, thinks Matthew Fisher, a Canwest correspondent. He’s inside the Canadian media tent at the Kandahar Airfield in mid-January, telling me about the old days of war reporting. His tone is matter-of-fact, the result of working in over 14 war zones in 25 years. Back in the […]
