TORONTO — Increasingly, there are three things I dislike about our modern mainstream news media. First, is the growing penchant to create scandal where none exists. Second, is the ubiquitous assumption that audiences are stupid. Third, is the mounting evidence that maybe we are.
Who needs a real scandal when we can make […]
TORONTO — Canada’s media are all aflutter over whether the country’s Own the Podium campaign was too… unCanadian. Some media pundits have suggested that:
a. the campaign failed because Canada is not going to score more medals than any other nation,
b. the campaign put undue pressure on Canadian athletes to excel, thus compromising […]
TORONTO — Has the sun set on Canada’s Parliament? For years, Canadians have agreed the nation’s Senate was obsolete. Some want it overhauled, others want it abolished outright. That no one could agree on how to fix it has resulted in its languishing, unchanged, for decades. With the recent false furor […]
TORONTO – Common sense is sorely lacking in the media hoopla and political response to the latest failed attempt to bring down a civil airliner. Perhaps it’s time to look dispassionately at the challenge and identify some potential responses that might help.
Christmas Day Recap
For those of you living on Mars: On December […]
TORONTO – The January issue of Golf Digest is on the newstands now and it is a fine illustration of the perils of magazine publishing and its long lead times. The cover story (illustrated above) is 10 tips Obama can take from Tiger. Ahem, as they say in the biz.
“Ahem,” […]
TORONTO — A new Toronto bylaw, passed Friday, could pave the way for a $1,500 per person tax to pay for Transit. Few people even noticed.
A small piece in Saturday’s Globe and Mail newspaper caught my eye. It didn’t make it into the Globe’s online edition, but the National Post covers it […]
TORONTO — Ah, yes. My Monday morning Java, fresh in hand, I sit down to look at the papers and… what? Could it be? Yes. The Toronto Star newspaper wants me to stop buying newspapers.
The entire front page of the Toronto Star today is devoted to a multinational editorial headlined: […]
TORONTO — My apologies to my international readers: this post is entirely Canada-centric. Then again, my American friends may find the current war between Canada’s cable TV providers and its major TV networks strangely amusing, in a “WTF goes on up there?” kind of way.
The background (in case you’re not Canadian, eh?)
Canada’s TV industry is […]
TORONTO — Just a few “quick hits” in the blog today.
Obama to land in Kabul soon?
With U.S. president Barack Obama currently on a tour of Asia after the APEC conference, and the world waiting for him to announce his decision on a way forward in Afghanistan, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him pop up […]
TORONTO — First, let me say that my thoughts and prayers are with the families of those killed and wounded in yesterday’s horrific shooting incident at Fort Hood in the U.S. Second, let me say how disappointing it was watching the “insta-news” media machine grind through the day.
Much of what I’m going to cover in […]