Elizabeth Thompson, who left the Gazette with a buyout at New Year's and quickly got a job doing the same beat at Sun Media, has started blogging again for a group blog called "Eye on the Hill" (her old blog was called "On the Hill" so I guess it's not much of a transition there).
Mix Virgin Radio 96 has become the latest radio station (oh wait, there's another one) to pull music by Chris Brown from its playlist, citing his domestic violence arrest.
The decision, which isn't groundbreaking either for radio or for the station, is being decried as "OMG CENSORSHIP" by people on its Facebook group. The station's program director (who for some reason has changed his last name to "Blogg") responds and morning host Lisa Player republishes some comments on her blog.
I'm on the fence about this kind of blanket ban of an artist. On one hand, this tool could be misused. On the other hand, a station should have every right to decide for itself what it should play, and if they want to ban someone they don't like, that's their choice.
I'd be happier if the decisions rested with actual DJs instead of corporate-minded program directors, but DJ freedom went out the door long ago, sadly.
I should also applaud CJFM for standing up to criticism on its Facebook page (and it's gotten quite a lot of it) when other media outlets would just delete those kinds of comments.
Yesterday was February 12, the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the -1th birthday of the 2010 Olympics, and the second birthday of this blog (the day I turned in my soul and embraced arrogance and sarcasm).
Today is February 13, Friday the 13th, 1234567890 Day, and my birthday.
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, the 150th birthday of the state of Oregon, and the 20th anniversary of the Salman Rushdie fatwa.
So much to celebrate. Go ahead, have some cake.
With the recent comment moderation scandal at the CBC (yeah, I'll just go ahead and call it a scandal there), some people have asked whether we're all that interested in hearing uninformed comments from random people attached to news stories.
I've argued before that high-traffic websites (like CBC) should be more stringent with moderation, because nobody is going to read through hundreds of comments for the few that are actually worth reading. At the very least, some sort of comment ranking or "featured comments" system should be put in place to make the quality ones stand out.
I also argue against so-called "reverse publishing", where anonymous or pseudonymous web comments are republished in offline media.
This video, spotted on Nora Young's Spark blog, is a good (and funny) example of the pointlessness of filling the airwaves with comments from random people who don't know what they're talking about. (I could have also posted a video of CNN's Rick Sanchez reading Twitter comments, but that's more sad than funny.)
The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from the union representing (former) employees of TQS in Quebec City. The union had demanded that certain payments to emplpyees (severance pay and pay equity payments) be bumped to the head of the line before other creditors in the network's bankruptcy dealings. A lower court rejected that demand, ruling that these payments should be dealt with on the same level as other creditors.
Other regular payments to employees (salary, vacation and other benefits) still had priority over creditors.
The union says it's not giving up and will pursue other avenues to secure these payments for its members.
Steve Proulx, who like me has been following the Journal de Montréal lockout closely, is being sued by the paper, apparently for a document he posted to his blog (later deleted) from the STIJM union which was critical of Journal management. (UPDATE: A Facebook group has been setup to support Steve)
Hugo Dumas reveals this in a column which also says the union at TVA is complaining that content its journalists provide to the business network Canal Argent is being used in the Journal and they're acting as de facto scabs.
Aboriginal leaders in Manitoba are apparently upset with comment moderation on the CBC's website, which they say let through a bunch of racist comments on stories about native communities.
CBC moderates comments on news stories, but they're fairly liberal about it, leaving in many which come close to the line.
Also of note here is that CBC outsources comment moderation to an outfit called ICUC, which moderates many Canadian media websites. It's unclear if they let the comments through or if it was done by CBC staff, but (The Globe says ICUC does handle moderation services.) This underscores the fact that those moderating comments need to have very good training in laws concerning libel and hate speech.
UPDATE: The Globe and Mail explores the issue, with some examples of offending comments. CBC News also covers it, with quotes from management saying they're taking a look at the issue, and there's a post at Inside the CBC as well.
So much has changed in just a few months, eh? Last fall, you avoided talking to U.S. network news anchors. Now you're sitting down with George Stroumboulopoulos.
(The interview is actually from December, but CBC just uploaded it today to its YouTube channel)
Some people see Twitter as a form of instant messaging. But those people can quickly forget that what you say on Twitter is just as public (if not moreso) than what you post on Facebook.
National Post technology reporter David George-Cosh learned that the hard way today when an expletive-filled argument he had with a source on Twitter was publicized (and republicized and republicized), making him (and the paper) look pretty bad.
The result, mere hours later, was an apology posted to the Post's Editors blog (which doesn't name the reporter it's apologizing for, nor the person it's apologizing to, nor the nature of the conduct, but who needs specifics for these things?). (Via Regret the Error)
Reporters are human, and like everyone else they'll have off days and they'll get into arguments. But when they happen online, those arguments can easily become public, and this is probably not the last time we'll see apologies for personal conduct of people associated with media.
In this case, the reporter's actions were in a professional capacity (which makes it the paper's problem), but I wonder when the time will come where reporters, columnists and other public figures associated with a publication's brand will have clauses in their contracts about what they can post to their Facebook profiles, personal blogs or other public and semi-public forums online.
UPDATE: April Dunford, the victim of the tirade, has similar thoughts on her blog.
UPDATE (Feb. 12): More reaction from Roberto Rocha and a let's-attack-the-victim post from ZDNet's Jennifer Leggio (which gets its basic premise wrong). Additional commentary from Mathew Ingram and the Telegraph's Shane Richmond.
UPDATE (May 25): Three months later, George-Cosh writes about the "incident" on his blog, saying he's learned some hard lessons, though he still makes excuses for his behaviour.
Tout le monde en parle is running out of ideas. This Sunday, they're bringing in Rick Astley.
Also on the block is Larry Smith, the president of the Alouettes and the former publisher of The Gazette.
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