Tag Archives: April Fool’s Day

Justin Trudeau is a good sport

April 3, 2011 – 1:45 am| Posted in Media, Navel-gazing

The tweet that started it all

Well, another 15 minutes in the bank.

As long-time readers know, April Fool's Day is a holiday for me. Like Christmas, it's anticipated gleefully. I spend weeks looking forward to it and months weeks days hours preparing a series of fake blog posts that go up throughout the morning of April 1.

I never know as I'm writing them which one will take off. It's not strictly a question of which one I spend the most effort on, or which one seems the most plausible, or which one is the most outrageous. It's all just a question of luck.

That clever story about Le Devoir charging for tweets? Not a peep. Bupkis. Gesca buying Rue Frontenac? Not nearly as much reaction to that as to last year's Rue Frontenac scoop. A late-morning story about CTV's mascot entering rehab (complete with a digitally edited photo of bags of jellybeans on an evidence table) apparently caused a few chuckles within the station but didn't get traction elsewhere. CKAC's decision to stop airing Habs games to add more Habs analysis didn't fool many but did get a few laughs from Sportnographe and others who think the station talks a bit too much about Canadiens line combinations.

All these were nothing compared to a little story I made up about QR codes on Justin Trudeau's campaign posters bringing people to porn sites.

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CTV mascot Jellybean enters rehab

April 1, 2011 – 11:00 am| Posted in TV

CTV's Jellybean, confronted by a close friend, finally admits in front of the cameras that he has a problem

Jellybean, the lovable mascot of CTV Montreal (named after Johnny Jellybean, a former star of CFCF-12), came out publicly on Thursday and admitted his long-standing substance-abuse problem, agreeing to enter a rehabilitation facility to help him wean himself off of his dangerous addiction.

It started about three years ago, Jellybean confesses in a special report that will be aired next week during the CTV local news. After a breakup with a long-term partner, and as other aspects of his life began to unravel, he tumbled into depression. "It was a dark period of my life," Jellybean said. "I was looking for anything to help me escape it."

At first, Jellybean used it occasionally, as a pick-me-up after a really bad day. "But occasionally became once a day, then a couple of times a day. I even started doing it at work," he said.

As a mascot, Jellybean is in high demand at public events. Those ramped up with CTV's Save Local TV campaign and the station's 50th anniversary. Unfortunately, so did Jellybean's substance abuse.

He thought he could hide it, but "it was obvious to everyone but him," said news director Jed Kahane. "I pretended not to notice at first, since it wasn't affecting his job. But I was naive, I think, to assume that it wouldn't eventually."

Before long, the station had to start covering for him. Events were rescheduled at the last minute for mysterious reasons. "We made up all kinds of excuses," said anchor Todd van der Heyden. "Deaths in the family, illnesses, breaking news, you name it."

At one point, the station even had a fake Jellybean hired, just a guy in an oversized Jellybean suit, to attend events.

Though they admitted they were tired of compensating for Jellybean's problems, staff at the station say their primary motivation in staging an intervention was to get Jellybean some help.

"I was really worried that if he continued down this path he would be dead in six months," said reporter/anchor Paul Karwatsky.

The turning point came a week ago, when police raided Jellybean's dealer.

Police display cash and drugs seized as part of a raid last week

"They came this close to arresting him," said sports anchor and long-time friend Randy Tieman. "I think it finally woke him up that this had to stop."

A flurry of meetings later, police agreed not to press charges if Jellybean entered a substance abuse program. But at first he refused, saying he didn't have a problem.

"I was just in complete denial," Jellybean said. "I don't know ..."

Tieman, Kahane and others staged an intervention, confronting Jellybean about his problem and begging him to take the offer from police. With cameras rolling, he finally broke down.

It may have seemed cruel to capture this moment on tape, but even Jellybean admitted it had to be done this way. "It wouldn't have been real without the cameras," he said. "It wouldn't have worked without them."

With the blessing of Jellybean and his family, the story is being chronicled for a special report that will air next week. "I want to tell my story," Jellybean said. "If I can help someone else with this problem, I'll feel better about myself."

Jellybean has been at an undisclosed rehab facility for three days, and says it's working. "But they told me this would take a long time. I won't be done in a weekend."

CTV's special report and interview with Jellybean will air next Thursday at noon and 6 p.m.

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Fagstein, Quebecor enter partnership

April 1, 2011 – 10:30 am| Posted in Media

You may have noticed this new bar on top of the blog. It's only the most visible sign of an important new step in the evolution of this blog.

Fagstein has existed since February of 2007 and in those four years has been entirely independent, both editorially and financially, from the rest of the media scene (including from my current employer).

That's been great for the whole freedom of speech thing, but it also means this blog has brought in zero revenue for all the work I put into it.

This is where my new friends at Quebecor come in. They have a partnership program with influential bloggers (like Dominic Arpin, for example) in which they sell ads and the two parties split the revenues.

When Quebecor first approached me with this idea, I have to admit I was a bit skeptical. But considering my current financial situation, I wasn't in a position to turn down such a generous offer.

So as of today, the first day of Quebecor's 2011-2012 fiscal year, Fagstein is officially part of the Quebecor Canoo.ca network.

This means, unfortunately, that the blog will start seeing advertising in the coming weeks. That's how it's going to make its money. It'll start off mostly with ads for Quebecor products, including the fantastic new wireless phone service from Videotron. Some new editorial joint ventures with advertisers will also be coming our way, and I look forward to the various partnerships with Quebecor's business friends and how they can help me bring a better quality blog for you all to enjoy.

There's also talk about me maybe getting a column in the Journal de Montréal. Fingers crossed!

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City admits pothole brigade doesn’t exist

April 1, 2011 – 10:00 am| Posted in Montreal

Montreal city officials admitted at a council committee meeting Thursday night that the famed "pothole brigade", which the city has convinced the media is going around the city filling potholes, does not in fact exist, and the city is doing absolutely nothing about the pothole problem.

What's worse, they admitted, this is being done on purpose as part of a convoluted conspiracy.

It happens every spring, people complain to the city and to the media that there are potholes everywhere. They say their cars are getting damaged, that it's dangerous, and that everywhere else you can drive safely on the street, comforted in the knowledge that a giant hole won't suddenly manifest itself in front of you.

In recent years, the city has responded by staging photo ops of work crews pouring asphalt into potholes. That seemed to be enough to placate the lamestream media.

Turns out, however, this is not the proper method of fixing potholes. The asphalt pops out of the hole within days and disintegrates, bringing the problem back.

The city knows this, of course. As it turns out, they have a financial incentive to cause damage to cars. It's not reported a lot these days, but the city has a monopoly on car wheel repair shops, and imposes heavy taxes on all new wheels, rims and suspensions.

Encouraging pothole-related damage is also in line with Mayor Gérald Tremblay's relentless assault on cars. Not only has he diverted millions of dollars from road repair into extravagant cocktail parties for cyclists, but he's actively encouraging the destruction of private vehicles. Eventually he'd like all cars taken off the road and everyone to get around by Bixi.

But, of course, he's not ready to admit that publicly yet, which is why we have this charade for the benefit of rich car drivers who pay almost all of the city's tax revenue.

Every other city in the world has solved their pothole problem to the point where they don't exist anywhere but Montreal. Young people in Toronto don't even know what the word "pothole" means anymore. But in Montreal, they'll continue to be a daily annoyance for drivers for years to come.

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CKAC to stop airing Habs games

April 1, 2011 – 9:00 am| Posted in Radio

CKAC Radio announced Friday morning on air that it would no longer be airing live Canadiens games as of the end of the season so that it will have more room in the schedule for Habs analysis shows.

"It was just so frustrating having to cut short our discussions so they could do the play-by-play," said Michel Villeneuve, one of the station's personalities. "We have so many people here with so many interesting expert opinions, we needed more time to express them."

CKAC has been trying all sorts of measures to cram more Canadiens-related opinions into its schedule.  It has virtually eliminated all non-hockey programming except during the summer, it has expanded to add live programming in the overnight hours, it has pushed some overflow onto sister station 98.5FM, and it's even experimented with technology to get analysts to talk faster so they take less time.

But, management says, the biggest obstacle was staring them in the face: That three-hour block three times a week of boring game coverage.

"Our ratings clearly indicated that people would tune out when the game was on," said a person familiar with the matter who didn't want to be identified. "It may seem crazy, but in reality it's a no-brainer."

Those who long for actual game coverage over the radio need not fear: Habs games will still be on 98.5FM, though the format will change next season. Instead of saying who has the puck and what he's doing with it, announcers will spend the game analyzing their actions and complaining about stupid moves or overpriced contracts as necessary.

Cogeco Diffusion, which owns both stations, feels this new format will attract more listeners and reinvigorate the business model for airing live sports programming on radio.

"People who want to listen to boring play-by-play can always tune into Pierre Houde on RDS," Villeneuve said.

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Liberal candidate’s QR code leads to porn site

April 1, 2011 – 8:00 am| Posted in Montreal

A poster for Justin Trudeau with erroneous QR code

The campaign organizers of Liberal Party candidate Justin Trudeau are scrambling to cover up parts of posters of him that have been put up all over his riding of Papineau, in the Villeray area.

The signs - like others in the party - have what's called a QR code, a two-dimensional barcode that's readable by devices like smartphones. Point the device's camera at the code, run the program, and it spits out a website address or other information.

Unfortunately for Trudeau, whoever generated the QR code for his campaign poster made a typo. Instead of typing in "liberal.ca" - the website for the Liberal Party of Canada - he or she typed in "luberal.ca", the site of an organization devoted to "encouraging the liberal use of lube" in sexual encounters.

Staffers, who were made aware of the problem on Thursday after someone complained, have been dispatched across the riding (fortunately for them, it is the smallest geographically in Canada) with stickers of the correct code on them.

In the meantime, the party acted quickly in getting the "luberal.ca" website offline and removing almost all traces of it from the Internet. According to the website's owner, who said she "never asked for any of this attention" and didn't want to be named, they're in discussions about having the Liberal Party buy the domain name.

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Gesca to buy Rue Frontenac

April 1, 2011 – 7:00 am| Posted in Media

Rue Frontenac's journalists would be pulled out of their spartan newsroom and given proper offices in the deal

It makes perfect sense, and yet it makes none.

According to senior officials, Rue Frontenac (the website and weekly newspaper run by locked-out employees of the Journal de Montréal that was set to split off into an independent company after a new labour contract was approved) is being purchased by Gesca, publisher of La Presse.

The deal, which would need to be ratified at a meeting likely to take place over the next couple of weeks, will see the website and newspaper purchased for a nominal fee (probably $1) and its remaining employees (those who haven't returned to the Journal or taken retirement) offered employment within Gesca. Though the details have yet to be finalized, the most likely scenario would see Rue Frontenac published as a weekly insert to Gesca's seven daily newspapers (six in Quebec, plus Ottawa's Le Droit) that focuses on investigative reporting. A source within La Presse said that, for now, there are no plans to make major changes to the content of the newspaper, though in time Rue Frontenac's journalists and other workers would be expected to integrate into newsrooms of La Presse and other papers. This also means that the paper's current offices on Iberville St. would be vacated, either turned back to the Journal's union or simply abandoned altogether.

The reaction of those employees who have heard about the deal is mixed. Most are a bit troubled that this essentially amounts to a takeover by a big media enterprise, and would have preferred that Rue Frontenac remain independent. But even the most hardcore of RF faithful know that the offer of employment to those who would otherwise be struggling to pay the bills is an offer too good to pass up.

"Our goal was to make sure everyone here could go back to work, and this offer gives them exactly that," said one member of Rue Frontenac's managerial committee who asked not to be named. "The downside is minimal comparatively."

After the plan is approved, it would still take weeks, maybe months for the integration to be complete. Until then, the plan is to keep everything status quo. Rue Frontenac will still appear on Thursdays on newsstands, with breaking news at ruefrontenac.com.

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Le Devoir to charge for tweets

April 1, 2011 – 6:00 am| Posted in Media

Though it remains the only major newspaper in Quebec to charge readers for complete access to its website, Le Devoir apparently wants to increase the scope of its paywall, and is starting a pilot project that could see users paying for Twitter updates.

Le Devoir's journalists have been quietly setting up Twitter accounts (you can see media reporter Stéphane Baillargeon's here) in preparation for this plan.

How it would work isn't too complicated: It takes advantage of a Twitter feature that allows people to protect their accounts and only allow those who are authorized to receive their tweets. The trick is coordinating the paper's subscriber database (those who subscribe to Le Devoir would get the tweets for free) with some way of automatically authorizing (and de-authorizing, as the case may be) access to the Twitter accounts.

Le Devoir's Web technology team says it's just about ready to begin wide testing of this new system, for a full public launch sometime in the summer. It'll be up to the marketing and editorial sides to find a way to make readers want to pay to read updates from the paper's columnists and reporters.

Whether anyone will pay for bits of information 140 characters at a time is the big question. But Le Devoir's paywall exists, so why not extend it to Twitter?

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April Fool’s gags: the best and the worst

April 2, 2010 – 4:34 pm| Posted in Media

So in case you couldn't figure out on your own, those posts from yesterday were April Fool's jokes. I mean, really, come on.

(For those of you curious, the engagement one drew the most traffic, probably because of all the lockoutés who linked to it via Twitter. I giggle when I look at the Photoshopped image now, because they really do look like a cute couple.)

The posts were all written in advance (not as far in advance as I'd planned, mind you) because I was working the morning shift on Thursday morning. That meant the morning reporter and I had to sort through what was actual news and what was fake. Sadly, that turned out to be not nearly as difficult as it should have been, because (a) wire services check these things, (b) the police don't fool around with this kind of stuff, (c) press releases based on gags were clearly marked with "April 1 Alert" so they wouldn't ruffle feathers, and (d) nobody's going to call in with bogus tips at 7am on a workday.

I spent the morning working, with the occasional break checking out what was going on in the world and which brilliant or lame pranks were getting traction. I won't bore you with rating the most popular ones worldwide (there are websites for that), but I will highlight a few of local interest that caught my eye:

Halak signs six-year deal

Sometimes the best pranks are the most obvious and stupid. Allan Walsh, the agent for Canadiens goalie Jaroslav Halak who has gotten in trouble in the past for what he's posted on Twitter, sent this tweet announcing that his goaltender had signed a six-year extension with the Canadiens. Halak was supposed to become a restricted free agent this summer, and it's widely expected that the Canadiens will need to choose between keeping him and holding onto Carey Price for next year.

Walsh followed it up almost immediately with a "Happy April Fool's Day" tweet, but it was enough to cause Habs-obsessed journalists and watchers to have a heart attack. CKAC in particular wasn't amused.

I'm just sad he didn't keep it going a bit longer.

Mauvais Oeil's Cyberpresse parody

When I saw the main story about Jean Charest resigning, I sighed. It could have been more funny.

But then I went back and saw they didn't just copy HTML from the Cyberpresse site, but rewrote the entire thing. None of the links work, but the snippets of text are pretty darn funny.

Of course, Mauvais Oeil does this kind of thing often, and the URL means nobody's likely to actually get fooled by this particular prank (unless you're showing someone your computer screen and hiding the address bar).

La Ronde's stupid monster prank

Corporate gags are usually lame. They're too afraid to prank anyone with something remotely serious, so they keep it to something so benign as to be boring. The fad of "viral videos" has changed that mentality somewhat, and now many companies are convinced by stupid marketers that if they intentionally shoot a crappy video of some special effect then everyone in the world will see it.

La Ronde sent out a press release in the morning saying a monster from the St. Lawrence had attacked two employees, and linking to the above video, an obvious fake "viral video" that's copied off every other fake "viral video" created by people with no originality. They later sent out another press release promising an inquiry.

That sound you hear is nobody paying attention. Let's hope an inquiry is called into how much money was wasted in this stupid marketing dud.

Canada.com's upside down logo

Yeah, that was about the extent of the April Fool's celebration at Canada.com, which is owned by my employer's parent company. Serious news sites (and newspapers) are, unfortunately, far too careful about these things, because every now and then there's actual news that happens on April 1.

Le Devoir's armor cream

While some news outlets stayed away from it, gotta give credit to Le Devoir for having some fun. This piece talks about a cream being designed that, when applied to the skin, prevents it from being cut like some sort of chain mail. It's serious and scientific, and only at the very end do the true suckers get let in on the fact that they've been had.

Compared to my works of art, none of these come close.

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Man arrested for eating foreign cheese on reserved train

April 1, 2010 – 12:00 pm| Posted in Public transit

"Ce train est reservé aux amateurs de fromages d'ici"

He says he didn't see the sign warning him, but police say that's no excuse. Jacob Lafortune was arrested yesterday morning after he was spotted by inspectors eating a non-Quebec cheese on a commuter train that was reserved for fans of local cheeses.

Police say the inspectors approached Lafortune and asked him to hand over his block of imported Swiss cheese or leave the train, but he refused. Police were called and Lafortune was charged with trespassing. He was released on bail with a promise to appear at his next court date, scheduled for August.

This is believed to be the first case of an arrest in this campaign, which has reserved everything from stairwells to metro platforms to be used only by fans of local cheeses.

The crown prosecutor has vowed to pursue this case to the fullest extent of the law, arguing that people cannot just ignore these space reservations in a civil society.

Quebec's consumer rights body says it may intervene in the case, saying the government has no right to demand allegiance to any kind of food in public areas or on publicly-funded transportation vehicles.

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