Journalism

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  Editorial Crackerjacks

  Peter Stockland

  November 26, 2013

  Now, there is a combination of declarative sentence and rhetorical question sufficient to break an old editorial writer's heart. It also goes to the heart of a) what a newspaper is supposed to be and b) whether whatever that is has even a remote chance of surviving.

  When I recently mentioned to someone my shock at learning a major Canadian newspaper now runs editorials only three days a week, he looked at me as if I had just recited the Psalm 23 backwards in Elizabethan. "I don't think I've ever read a newspaper editor...

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  Ford Shutdown

  Peter Stockland

  November 19, 2013

  Is this even remotely likely to happen? Not on a bet. Why? Because it would require a major act in the public interest from the very self-interested media outlets that contribute so substantially to Toronto's urban neuroticism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

  Whether or not Toronto mayor Rob Ford is clinically crazy, he is certainly crazy like a Fox News instant celebrity. For all the crack and vodka he has confessed to consuming, after all, Ford obviously mainlines that most addictive and destructive drug of al...

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  Caricatures and Blame Games

  Ray Pennings

  November 15, 2013

  It's easy to say that community groups are more effective than government in delivering services to help our poor neighbours. But this can't mean that politicians can ignore the plight of the poor. And, indeed, I've just returned from a discussion in Washington where examples were plentiful of local initiatives making real differences.

  We need to find different ways to talk about poverty.

  It's easy to say that community groups are more effective than government in delivering services to help our poor neighbours. But this can't mean that politicians can ignore the plight of the poor...

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  Mixing Journalism and Politics

  Ray Pennings

  September 18, 2013

  It's not that it can't be done successfully. Some have—René Lévesque was a prominent journalist before making his mark as Quebec Premier. So was Ralph Klein in Alberta. Disagree with their politics if you will, but you can't dismiss their political achievements. Some have failed: Garth Turner, Michael Ignatieff, and Mike Duffy are ready examples that political success is hardly automatic.

  The nomination of two profile journalists as candidates in the Toronto Centre by-election has revived the debate about whether journalists should enter politics.

  It's not that it can't be done successfully. Some have—René Lévesque was a ...

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  An Assault on Cynicism

  Peter Stockland

  August 20, 2013

  Almost bereft, but not entirely. We have the good fortune, after all, to live at a time when Joseph Epstein is writing essays that are superabundant with bon mots, rich with wisenheimerisms and, above all, serving up series of sentences confined to a single topic that are masterpieces of the writer's craft. For those not familiar with Epstein, his Essays in Biography is a wonderful place to start. Suffice it to say that the workmanship is of such superior quality that it passed muster even with that intellectual and literary arc welder Rex Murphy, who recommends it be read cover to cover.

  Paragraphs achieve greatness when they reach beyond their immediate subject to touch the wider world. It may explain why we live in an age awash with throwaway one-liners but almost bereft of enduring thought.

  Almost bereft, but not entirely. We have...

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  Families, Flourishing, and Upward Mobility

  James K.A. Smith

  August 7, 2013

  It is certainly true that this dream easily slides towards idolatry. It can become a nightmare of crass materialism and selfish ambition. But we shouldn't confuse idolatrous perversions with more humble aspirations of families to simply enjoy a mode of economic security that is conducive with flourishing.

  If the "American dream" is anything it is a dream of upward mobility: the dream of getting ahead, climbing the ladder, leapfrogging from one class to another in a "land of opportunity"—all if you're willing to work for it. Too often, fantastic "rags to rich...

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  Not Entirely Convinced

  Peter Stockland

  August 6, 2013

  The source of Steven Chua's article was an event in a downtown Vancouver pub. Another patron sitting near Mr. Chua glowered at him, as did the waitress. Mr. Chua inferred the hostility came from him being with a Caucasian companion. "That's the thing with racial tension in places like Vancouver, it's so subtle," Mr. Chua writes. "No one goes out in the open denying service or slinging disparaging remarks at anyone."

  Last Friday, a young British Columbian published a short essay in the Globe and Mail's Facts and Arguments sec...

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  The Extraordinary Ordinariness

  Peter Stockland

  July 3, 2013

  In a lovely, reflective article by Charles McGrath, who identifies himself as Munro's first editor at the New Yorker Magazine in the 1970s, Munro confirms that a lifetime of short story writing has come to an end. It is astonishing, of course, to think of Alice Munro turning 82. Writing that endures seems to confer on the writer not just extended literary mortality but also an exemption from normal human passage.

  One of the small, quiet, but deeply meaningful stories on Canada Day was the news in the New York Times that Alice Munro will write no m...

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  Where is the Video?

  Peter Stockland

  June 5, 2013

  It is this: where is the video? In either its short or long form, the only answer to date—i.e. we don't have a clue—is unacceptable.

  There is a very short question that has deeply serious long-term implications for Canada's democratic life.

  It is this: where is the video?

  The slightly longer version of the question, perhaps necessary for those who have been away building th...

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  When Democracy Loses its Moral Authority

  Ray Pennings

  May 22, 2013

  "Harper government had to know $90,000 payment to senator crossed all sorts of ethical red lines"—May 20, 2013 Andrew Coyne column. "Alleged Rob Ford video raises ethical dilemma"—May 20, 2013 Global News report.

  "Hard to believe Obama's claims of ignorance in IRS Scandal"—May 20, 2013 Fox News headline.

  "Harper government had to know $90,000 payment...

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  The Question Asked Too Late

  Peter Stockland

  May 21, 2013

  It was not exactly breaking news that my old colleague Bob Fife broke the news about how Sen. Mike Duffy managed to repay $90,000 in improperly claimed living expenses so quickly. What made, and makes, Fife one of the three purest news reporters I've ever known, never mind worked with, is actually simple. He simply asks questions, usually starting with a bevy of freshly plucked expletives. Indeed, having known Fife for so long, I am willing to bet some portion of $90,000 that this is exactly the question he asked and began doggedly pursuing the moment he first heard that the senator had repaid in full all misallocated funds owing: "Where in the (ahem) world does (ahem) Mike (ahem) Duffy come up with (ahem) $90,000 just like that?"

  Could the right question, asked earlier, have saved a good man his job?

  It was not exactly breaking news that my old colleague Bob Fife ...

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  Conrad Black and Crossing Toward Truth

  Peter Stockland

  May 14, 2013

  At our Cardus Convivium dinner last week in Calgary, where Black was the marquee attraction, he asserted, responding to a question, his innocence in the criminal case brought against him by the U.S. government. Just as stoutly, he insisted, digressing while answering a different question from Father de Souza, that his ill fortune be placed in proper context. He said:

  Conrad Black refuses to play the victim.

  At our Cardus Convivium dinner last week in Calgary, where Black was the marquee attraction, he asserted, responding to a question, his innocence in the criminal case brought against him by the U.S. gov...

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  The Good of our Opponents

  Ray Pennings

  May 1, 2013

  Conversations prompted by last week's opening of the Bush Presidential Library served as a reminder of the power of headlines and the extent to which they can be misleading. There can be little argument that when President George W. Bush left his presidency in early 2009, two thirds of Americans had a negative opinion of his presidency. His controversial foreign policy decisions prompted a polarizing assessment of his legacy among the general populace, and his speaking style and persona provided plenty of material to reinforce the narrative of a bumbling buffoon. It is not that unusual even five years later, in casual conversation, to hear seemingly informed observers of public life make simplistic, denigrating comments regarding President Bush.

  Our evaluation of public persons is usually shaped by daily headlines. The steady drip of either positive or negative headlines have a way of embedding a narrative in the public mindset within which their behaviours are interpreted. It is also this narrativ...

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  Candid Discussions Worth Having

  Ray Pennings

  March 20, 2013

  "Cardus is hosting an event with Mark Carney?" We look forward to both events advancing Cardus's mission of renewing social architecture.

  "Cardus is hosting an event with Conrad Black?"

  "Cardus is hosting an event with Mark Carney?"

  "Yes," we are delighted to answer our interlocutors. Many Cardus followers last week received invitations to two forthcoming events in the Hill Fami...

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  The Connorian Oeuvre: A Tribute to Stompin' Tom

  Peter Stockland

  March 19, 2013

  In my files I have a letter from Stompin' Tom himself for a piece I wrote in the Calgary Herald arguing strenuously that the "Connorian oeuvre" should be properly recognized as authentic folk poetry, and recognized as far more meaningful to Canadians than any dot or dash Margaret Atwood ever put to paper.

  Long before "The Hockey Song" propelled him to Canadian earworm status, I was an apostle of Stompin' Tom Connors and a fierce advocate of the late, great Prince Edward Islander's elevation to poet laureate.

  In my files I have a letter from Stompin' T...

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  Green Shoots of Humanity

  Brian Dijkema

  March 18, 2013

  But, death is an awful thing, even if the departed is a machismo thug whose policies hollowed out a , dismantled its , and left its poor with little long-term stability or resources. Jesus grieved; in fact, Jesus wept. He wept because he knew that death was not the way it was meant to be. To grieve over the loss of good and life is not only human; it is a reflection of God—even if the rest of your life does not reflect this.

  I have very little love for Hugo Chavez, and even less love for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's embattled president.

  But, death is an awful thing, even if the departed is a machismo thug whose policies hollowed out a

  ...

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  This is Ultra-Tolerance

  Peter Stockland

  February 5, 2013

  Puff-chested pontificators could empty their bloated egos into front-page stories about what a deputy minister said to a sub-committee. But the real temper of the times was in the two paragraphs of advice Ann and Abby gave their millions of readers. Newspapers are a shredded simulacrum of what they once were, of course, yet their readers still—you may insert the word 'inexplicably' here if you wish—look to them for advice on matters great and small.

  In the gilded age of newspapers, the best understanding of the politics of the day came from reading Ann Landers or Dear Abby.

  Puff-chested pontificators could empty their bloated egos into front-page stories about what a deputy minister said to a su...

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  What Parliament Thinks but Cannot Say

  Peter Stockland

  January 8, 2013

  As it happens, I have never thanked God for Jeffrey Simpson, unless Heaven groups the venerable Globe and Mail columnist in the same category as dry toast for breakfast or warm milk for insomnia. In our current issue of Convivium magazine, my colleague Father Raymond de Souza playfully chides Simpson for a very silly late 2012 column on politics and religion, but does grant that the Globe's long-time Ottawa writer is both respected by, and important to, the capital's ruling elite.

  As a new year's commitment, I have obliged myself to thank God for a minimum one new thing that happens each week.

  As it happens, I have never thanked God for Jeffrey Simpson, unless Heaven groups the venerable Globe and Mail columnist in the ...

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  Talking Points

  Peter Menzies

  December 10, 2012

  Back in the day, the ideal for most of us in the newspaper business was that we should provide a platform with a diversity of views that fairly represented opinion within our communities. At the highest moral end, this meant service to the people of one's community who could see themselves and their views (within reason) reflected in the newspaper as if it were a mirror.

  Over the past few years there has been an interesting and, particularly for old-schoolers, troubling trend in journalism commentary.

  Back in the day, the ideal for most of us in the newspaper business was that we should provide a platform with a dive...

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  Twitter's Blissful Chaos

  Peter Menzies

  December 3, 2012

  This is an update. Newspapers are essentially dead. Some are managing the transition to becoming online media platforms with, if not great success, at least the hope that the strength of their brand will get them through. Others lack the intellectual adaptation capacities to survive and the difference is primarily due to ownership structures, some being more inclined to short-termism and the maximization of profit from the declining but still significant revenue generated in legacy print titles.

  A couple of years ago, my Senior Fellows paper focused on trends in media and the declining role of mainstream media as "gatekeepers" who got to decide what is and is not news. The broad point was th...

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  What People Forget About Freedoms

  Peter Menzies

  October 1, 2012

  All journalists, he said, had an obligation to stand up for freedom of the press and expression: the decision to not publish them diminished those freedoms, imperiled as they were. This is what I thought and still think about that.

  Given recent events, a friend inquired last week whether when I was at the helm of the Calgary Herald we published the Danish cartoons which so inflamed parts of the Islamic world in 2005 and 2006. When I explained that we did not, he challenged that...

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  Naughty News Makers

  Robert Joustra

  September 28, 2012

  Why grey? Plagiarism, the academics wax, is an extremely clear offense. But in the world of ideas, though accusations of plagiarism may not be misplaced, the cause and effect of written and spoken work can be tricky to assign. Most of us learn by metaphor, reproducing things we already know, with small, incremental innovations.

  A few journalists have been caught doing the naughty recently, and not the usual sort. First, internationally best-selling author Fareed Zakaria was suspended in August for having lifted a paragraph from a New Yorker article for a column in TIM...

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  America Is Not The Greatest

  John Seel

  July 19, 2012

  Aaron Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award-winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Charlie Wilson's War, The Social Network, and Moneyball. He has presided over some of the greatest moments in TV and he did it again recently in the opening episode of The Newsroom.

  "Why is America the greatest country in the world?" a coed asks the assembled media pundits on season opener of HBO's The Newsroom.

  Aaron Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award-winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works ...

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  Death and Getting Better

  Peter Menzies

  June 4, 2012

  The Globe and Mail announced earlier this spring after consultations with union representatives that some of its employees were going to be given the opportunity/asked to take unpaid furloughs for the summer to help the company manage costs and avoid permanent staff reductions. Given that the size of a newspaper is generally dictated by the volume of advertising purchased for it and that summer months constitute weak advertising and readership volumes, this appears to be a sensible solution. Unless of course you are a 35-year-old newsroom employee with a family to support who has been asked to take two months of unpaid leave. In that case, you may wish to spend those two months retraining or otherwise preparing yourself for the post-print journalism era.

  Recent events continue to confirm that media in Canada is undergoing a fundamental transformation away from dominant legacy platforms into an era of diversity and competition that should and could enrich the culture.

  The Globe and Mail announc...

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