Fagstein » April Fool’s Day

Justin Trudeau is a good sport

Fagstein — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 05:45:28 +0000

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.

How to manipulate the media

This is the first time April Fool's Day has come during an election campaign here since (checking Wikipedia...) the 2003 provincial election, long before this blog or Twitter existed.

It wasn't a conscious decision to focus on the election. It just happened to be in the news, and I happened to notice that the Liberal candidates are using these QR codes on their posters so tech-savvy constituents can easily find out more about them.

I chose Trudeau as my victim simply because I live in his riding, and his poster is outside. The fact that it's a young, popular, tech-savvy candidate is kind of icing on the cake.

I didn't spend much time writing it up. You've heard this story countless times before: Someone makes a typo in an address or a phone number, and that address or number leads to something involving pornography or sex. (Typos like this are common, but they're not news unless they involve some funny contrast between what it's supposed to be and what it is.)

I spent some time thinking about what the best typo would be. I finally settled on changing "Liberal.ca" to "Luberal.ca", even though Trudeau's website is "justin.ca". I grumbled when I realized through a tweet later that "lustin.ca" would have been awesome. Though I didn't link to anything, I checked to see what, if any, website was at "luberal.ca" and found it hadn't even been registered. Eventually, as my blog post accumulated traffic, someone registered the domain and pointed it to an interesting - and relevant - place (safe for work, unless the redirect changes).

The story probably wouldn't have resulted in much - maybe a few fooled Fagstein readers and a few chuckles. But two things happened:

1. Justin Trudeau himself was sent a link to the story by someone, and for a moment thought it might be real (he later said he called his office in a panic, only to learn the mass sign repair I wrote about wasn't happening).

2. After learning he had been fooled, Trudeau decided to play along, tweeting the story to his 60,000 followers with a note saying "we're working on it". That was retweeted by 87 people, including me.

That little tweet caused the story to take on a life of its own. About 2,000 clicks in the hour after the tweet, now about 4,500, not including these 777 or others who didn't use bit.ly shortened links. Dozens of tweets with comments (some questioning early on if it was an April Fool's joke). Many fell for it right away, laughing at the incompetence of Liberal campaign staffers.

At the end of the day, the page got about 12,000 visits, which totally obliterates any previous record for a single blog post on this site. (I only wish such a record is surpassed by, you know, some actual journalism I may someday choose to do.)

Looking at referring pages, the biggest by far (not including Facebook, Twitter and Google) was this post on SmallDeadAnimals.com (about 2,000 clicks), with the CBC a distant second at about 300.

Le awmerde-isation des médias

Deleted story from Le Devoir's election blog about Justin Trudeau hoax

Among those to be fooled was Le Devoir, where the story was posted as fact on its election blog (without, I might add, citing me as its source - a lesson to always cite sources to cover your ass). The blog post was subsequently deleted rather than corrected (another journalistic error on Le Devoir's part, I think), though you can find evidence of it here and an apologetic tweet from the reporter here.

I might have sympathy for Le Devoir, except that in addition to not citing its source, the paper was well aware that it was April Fool's Day. It published an "exclusive" about how the Quebec government was planning to bury its wind turbines to cut down on visual pollution. Editor-in-chief Josée Boileau tweeted a link to Le Devoir's Trudeau blog piece, saying "et c'est pas un poisson d'avril!" ... only to find out minutes later that, actually, it was a poisson d'avril. And apparently a really funny one at that.

Trudeau himself let everyone in on the gag on Twitter, explaining that he had at first been fooled and called his office in a panic.

It was perhaps the revelation about this phone call that caused the story to jump from April Fool's gag to election story.

During elections, everything is news

Look ma, I was on Page 8 of the Journal de Montréal!

One thing I hadn't considered in writing this blog post is how desperate the news media are for election-related stories. News organizations have reporters on each of the four big campaign buses, plus people writing about the campaign as a whole. There are election websites hungry for news, and lots of blogs where little stories from the campaign trail are posted regularly.

As it turns out, a story about a big-name candidate falling victim to an April Fool's joke is one of these little stories. Combined with a relatively slow-news Friday and the fact that April Fool's Day itself was in the news, and suddenly it's getting a lot more attention than it's worth:

24 Heures wrote a story online about the post and reaction, which got picked up by Agence QMI and posted to other Quebecor news websites. The story originally said I was a "Gazette blogger", which isn't true because this blog has nothing to do with The Gazette. I pointed that out on Twitter and the story was later corrected, though copies of it on other websites like TVAnouvelles.com kept the earlier version. The version on the Journal de Montréal website is also slightly different, adding the name of my blog. (None of the stories think to actually link to the post they're referencing.) The print Journal put the story on Page 8 on Saturday.
The Toronto Star had it lead an election briefs package after its reporter had a brief email exchange with me. Bonus: They copied the photo from my blog and marked it as "supplied photo", which I guess is Torontostarese for "we copied this from a website somewhere and hope they don't sue." The story appeared on Page A6 of Saturday's Star.
La Presse's Anabelle Nicoud used the story (and my photo) to lead its April Fool's Day roundup, also mentioning Le Devoir getting the story wrong, Le Devoir's own April Fool's prank, and, in passing, my other story about Gesca buying Rue Frontenac. It ran on Page A13 of Saturday's paper. Online, it includes a video from Tristan Péloquin that also leads with the Trudeau story and has lots of pretty pictures of my blog and my Twitter account.
CTV Montreal's Debra Arbec mentioned this story at the end of her election notebook on Friday (which led to a voicemail message from my mother saying she saw my blog's name mentioned on TV)
Rue Frontenac's Jean-François Codère led his April Fool's Day roundup with me (and Le Devoir's error), and they even went to the trouble of having a photographer take a photo of a Justin Trudeau campaign poster
David Patry-Cloutier went all meta in a blog post for MSN in which he talked of how Rue Frontenac actually sent someone out to test the QR code after the Le Devoir story raised doubts that it was a gag.
Radio-Canada's Sur le Web blog led its April Fool's Day roundup with the story
Sympatico News/Branchez-Vous included it as part of a list of technology-related April Fool's Day gags
MarketingQC mentioned it in its list of April Fool's gags
CBC's website led its campaign trail April Fool's tweet list with Trudeau's.
Yahoo! News used CBC's list as a source, and called my story "risqué"
Canadian Press had it as the last item in its Tales from the Campaign Trail. CP being what it is, the story got copy-pasted on lots of news sites.

and Trudeau posted the blog post on his Facebook page, prompting a flurry of comments and likes.

I also got a couple of interview requests from local radio stations. I went into studio to talk to Homerun's Sue Smith, and recorded an interview with CJAD's Dan Delmar that aired while I was working. Both shows also talked to Trudeau, though I didn't get a chance on either to talk directly with him.

So what did I get out of this?

I didn't profit financially from this craziness, and any fame was fleeting at best. In the end, I got to have a lot of fun watching the story get propagated (both before and after everyone realized it was false), and I hope I've convinced at least a couple of journalists that it's better to check your facts before you republish stuff you found on the Internet.

Homerun Houseguest mug given to me after my interview

Oh, and Homerun gave me a mug after I appeared on their show. (There are advantages to making the trek to the studio, besides clearer audio and stumbling on the sight of Paul Larocque and Anne-Marie Dussault discussing their moderation of the upcoming leaders' debate.)

I couldn't help noticing the marking on the bottom of this mug from Canada's national broadcaster:

CBC outsources to China! This would make a great story for Sun News!

But I digress...

So yeah, it was fun.

Ironically, despite all the brouhaha, I've yet to either meet or speak with Justin Trudeau himself for the first time, even though I've listened to him having a conversation about something I've done and approved a comment he left on my blog.

When I meet Trudeau for the first time, I'll have an interesting way of introducing myself.

CTV mascot Jellybean enters rehab

Fagstein — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:00:35 +0000

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.

Fagstein, Quebecor enter partnership

Fagstein — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:30:46 +0000

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!

City admits pothole brigade doesn’t exist

Fagstein — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:00:50 +0000

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.

CKAC to stop airing Habs games

Fagstein — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:00:42 +0000

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.

Liberal candidate’s QR code leads to porn site

Fagstein — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 12:00:26 +0000

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.

Gesca to buy Rue Frontenac

Fagstein — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 11:00:58 +0000

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.

Le Devoir to charge for tweets

Fagstein — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 10:00:18 +0000

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?

April Fool’s gags: the best and the worst

Fagstein — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 20:34:13 +0000

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.

Man arrested for eating foreign cheese on reserved train

Fagstein — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:00:36 +0000

"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.

Gazette to retire “Red Fisher” column-creation software

Fagstein — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:00:07 +0000

Mac-based program to auto-generate Red Fisher columns

A dark secret about how The Gazette operates will soon become known to the masses. In a piece to be published this Saturday, sports editor Stu Cowan will finally reveal publicly that columns signed by veteran hockey writer Red Fisher have been generated automatically by a sophisticated computer algorithm ever since the columnist died of natural causes six years ago.

The software, used after the odd Habs home game, generates a Red Fisher-style column using statistical data from the boxscore, as well as some human-entered information to spice it up. It has a database of hundreds of old Red Fisher columns and has learned his way of writing quite well. It uses expressions like:

"Raise your hand if..."
"There was a lot to like about..."
"Know something?"
"We're talking about a team who went into the game..."
"What else can you say about a team that..."
"Particularly on a night when..."
"The rest you know."

Actually, that last one was cut from the database after a few weeks when it appeared at the end of virtually every column.

The program is fast, though not perfect. The text needs a lot of editing once it's created, and even now it needs the approval of a senior editor before it gets published.

A similar program puts together the weekly Red Line notebook, taking NHL briefs and "Fisherizing" them.

Fisher's other function, writing obits for expiring Canadiens greats, is handled mostly by taking elements from old columns and tacking on a paragraph or two about how and when the person died.

Even though it has been wildly successful, upper management at Canwest ordered an immediate halt to the program once they learned about it two days ago. The Gazette decided the best way to deal with the sudden disappearance of a star columnist is to just come clean about what was going on.

I won't get too much into the ethics of the program. A separate investigation is under way on how this could have gone on for so long, and more details about that will be revealed on Saturday, and no doubt huge amounts of ink will be spilled about this afterward. But on a sheer technical basis, you have to admit it's pretty impressive.

They're talking about replacing journalists with robots. This is an example of the first wave of that battle.

Radio-Canada ends secret deal with Gesca, to start own newspaper

Fagstein — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:00:28 +0000

Radio-Canada, which has for years had a secret agreement with Gesca (owner of La Presse, Le Soleil and Cyberpresse) as part of a complex, federalist conspiracy against Quebecor, has decided to terminate that agreement after negotiations on a renewal went sour, and is launching its own, competing daily newspaper.

An ad seeking experienced journalists to staff this newspaper appeared in La Presse recently (sources within La Presse say if they knew it was for the Radio-Canada newspaper, the ad would never have run), leading to a lot of speculation about who is behind it from people unfamiliar with the status of negotiations.

Some have even theorized that it's the work of Quebecor, which already owns two of Montreal's six daily newspapers.

Once the newspaper gets up and running, my sources within Radio-Canada say, columnists from that newspaper - and not La Presse - will be invited to be analysts on Radio-Canada TV and radio newscasts, and Radio-Canada will shift its huge advertising budget from La Presse to the new newspaper.

Needless to say, La Presse is pissed about this, though they can't say anything publicly because of the nature of the secret agreement. Radio-Canada's advertising money was a huge part of their budget, and the exposure their columnists get on Radio-Canada programs are the only reason anyone knows who they are. Mostly, they say, this split hurts the ultimate goal of both organizations: to crush Quebecor once and for all and end the Quebec sovereignist movement.

The secret agreement dates back to a not-so-secret agreement back in 2001, that reassured people the two newsrooms would remain separate. Radio-Canada said the agreement was terminated in 2003. But years later, after integration had made itself obvious, the work of brave journalists eventually uncovered the conspiracy through anonymous testimony, statistical analysis and by numbering paragraphs. Quebec's press council has rejected such complaints (it too is controlled by the Gesca-Radio-Canada cabal), but the evidence has kept mounting to the point where most Quebecers just accept it as fact.

It's unclear how La Presse will respond to this move. Some speculate that it may move to another broadcaster. Discussions are apparently already underway with V to have either a spot on Mario Dumont's news show or to produce a new TV series focused on current affairs, something the network badly needs. For radio, it appears the target will be 98.5, the Corus-owned station which airs Paul Arcand's morning show. Corus also needs an infusion of news, having just cut regional programming to replace it with Arcand's show. Bringing Gesca and its regional papers in the loop might mean bringing back some of that regional programming.

The Gesca-Radio-Canada entente is apparently to end June 30. The new newspaper (which so far doesn't have a name) is slated to begin production the next day.

Jean-Luc Mongrain to have a show on kids channel Yoopa

Fagstein — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:00:50 +0000

Yoopa, Quebecor's specialty channel aimed at young children ages 2-6, officially launched this morning. The channel, which will not carry any "traditional" advertising and has the very pretty Mariloup Wolfe as its spokesperson, will have a lot of educational programming, but one name has come up that might surprise people: News anchor Jean-Luc Mongrain.

"We were just as surprised," said a TVA insider, who asked to remain anonymous because the announcement of Mongrain's show hasn't been authorized yet. Apparently, a higher-up at Quebecor half-jokingly asked Yoopa's programming planners to show a clip of Mongrain to their focus group of young children, and was shocked to learn that they just ate it up.

"Kids loved Mongrain," the insider said. "They love the way his eyes pop out when he talks, the way he says 'DUO-TANG!' They might not entirely understand what he's talking about, but they giggled and cheered whenever he came on the TV."

Quebecor's working plan is to simulcast Mongrain's LCN show on Yoopa. Parents can listen to his commentary on current events, while children can just amuse themselves with his over-the-top visual theatrics.

"It's really a win-win."

Mongrain's show airs starting at 10am on LCN. Quebecor expects to begin simulcasting it on Yoopa next week as a trial run.

Union boss, Quebecor spokeswoman announce engagement

Fagstein — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:00:13 +0000

Raynald Leblanc and Isabelle Dessureault: Opposites in love (photo: Alain Décarie)

They say that opposites attract. Nowhere is this exemplified more than in the case of Journal de Montréal union boss Raynald Leblanc and former Quebecor VP of public affairs Isabelle Dessureault, who shocked friends and colleagues yesterday by announcing they're engaged to be married.

Dessureault tells Fagstein the relationship began a few months ago, in the middle of yet another public relations battle between the STIJM union and Quebecor. "He was my opponent in this battle, so obviously I had to take the opposite opinion of whatever he said publicly, but there was something about him..."

The two met in person during an STIJM protest, as Dessureault was answering media inquiries about what was going on. They happened to strike up a conversation, and "things just kind of took off from there," she said.

Dessureault admits the antagonistic position helped ignite the romance. "I was so angry with him at the beginning, telling all those half-truths," she said. But then the anger turned into ... something else. "Sparks," Leblanc said, laughing.

Because of their jobs, the relationship had to be kept under wraps. "That kept it kind of exciting," Leblanc said, smiling. They would meet under cover of darkness, even using disguises when they had to go out in public.

Eventually, Dessureault decided she had to tell her bosses what was going on. They acted fairly quickly, pulling her from her media relations job. She says she's not sure what she's doing to do now (she's looking at other opportunities inside and outside Quebecor), but between her fiancé and her job, she doesn't regret her decision. "Not for one second," she said.

Dessureault and Leblanc haven't set a date for the wedding, but they're looking for some time this fall or next summer.

Reporter’s cubicle declared biohazard

Fagstein — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:00:35 +0000

Reporter's cubicle is now off-limits to all personnel

Firefighters and other emergency services personnel were called in last night after inspectors declared a reporter's cubicle violated 32 fire safety and other environmental codes and ordered it immediately sealed off.

Shocked that a human could live in such an environment for any length of time, a hazardous materials officer said his team would have to tread carefully into the danger area. There were reports of sounds emanating from the giant piles of papers that may have been from small creatures that have built nests inside.

There are also concerns that the entire area may be structurally unsound.

Police couldn't say how long the cleanup would take, but not to expect anything for at least a few months.

CBC’s new Daybreak hosts: Terry, Ted and Tasso

Fagstein — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 10:00:57 +0000

A (bad) mockup of a promo for the new Daybreak, provided to me by a trusted source

Only a day after the job posting expired for the replacement to CBC Daybreak host Nancy Wood, management unveiled their final decision to staff yesterday: instead of one host, Daybreak will now have three. And they're all familiar to long-time listeners of Montreal radio.

Fagstein has learned that the new hosts are Terry DiMonte, Ted Bird and Paul Zakaib (aka Tasso Patsikakis), all veterans of commercial radio who have found themselves disconnected from their Montreal listeners in the past year.

Terry DiMonte left Montreal in 2007 to accept an offer he couldn't refuse at Q107 in Calgary, and though there was a short-lived show on CFQR done remotely from Calgary, he hasn't been heard on the local airwaves since last summer. DiMonte had nothing but good things to say about his new job and his bosses, but off the record he said the recent departure of co-host and long-time friend "Peppermint" Patti MacNeil caused him to rethink his priorities. It's unclear how he will be getting out of his contract at Q107 (which still has almost three years left on it), but DiMonte said he's had discussions with his bosses and they would work something out.

Ted Bird, as readers of this blog are aware, quit his job at CHOM-FM in January, citing creative differences with management. He has been looking for a job since, even with his weekly sports commentary segment on CFCF. (Bird says he'll try to keep doing that, time permitting.) He hadn't imagined he'd be paired with DiMonte again so soon, but he said when presented with the opportunity, he didn't hesitate.

Paul "Tasso" Zakaib was once one-half of the long-running Aaron and Tasso team on CFQR, and hadn't been heard from much since he was dismissed in August along with Suzanne Desautels. (Coincidentally, Desautels also returned to local radio this week, doing morning weather reports on CJAD.) Zakaib has already indicated he'll bring back the Tasso name and the personality that goes with it in his new job.

While the Daybreak studio is large enough to hold three co-hosts, the format will need to be tweaked a bit. So far the plan is for DiMonte to do interviews, Bird providing sports news (and his famous sports commentary) and Tasso will be doing something they call "Wacky Weather." The biggest change will be adding more time for chit-chat between them, as well as listener contests and other popular, entertaining features designed to put CBC Radio back into the ratings game.

But, local CBC brass have assured staff, their main mission of doing quality journalism hasn't changed. They will still be talking to newsmakers and discussing the issues that affect all Montrealers.

Daybreak's regular columnists, such as Sonali Karnick and Shawn Apel are expected to be reassigned, most likely to the afternoon show.

An official announcement of the change is expected some time next week.

The April fish

Fagstein — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:34:27 +0000

April Fool's Day is truly a holiday for me.

Tuesday night, after getting home from a long day exploring suburbia on an expiring multi-zone transit pass, I hunkered down until 6am writing stories to be published later that morning. The idea was to fool without causing any panic or long-lasting effects.

It seemed to work. I got a few emails, particularly about my secret metro tunnel story, which seemed to be the big hit of the morning. Though I really spent most of my time on "Fagstein ME!" and its associated comment form (thank your lucky stars I confined that design to a separate page and didn't put animated GIFs all over the blog). Interesting tidbit: the posts from that page were all taken from tweets of people who follow me on the Twitter.

The posts served their purposes: they fooled a few gullible people (whose names I will keep to myself for now), and they brought a smile or two to the faces of those who got them. And nobody died or anything.

And, of course, I scored the jackpot of having a Patrick Lagacé post all about me and how awesome I am, as well as some mentions in lesser media.

The first year of this blog, the April 1st post was a very believable one about having gotten arrested during a rather extreme scavenger hunt (so much so that the organizer emailed me to apologize). Last year I sold out by joining PayPerPost and hawking products for pennies.

Now I'm being asked how I'll top this next year.

Good question.

New Fagstein personal blog

Fagstein — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:00:08 +0000

Some people have been telling me I haven't done enough personal blogging here and they don't know anything about me. It's true, I tend to keep personal matters to myself. But that changes today with the launch of my new personal blog: "Fagstein ME!"

You'll find all my personal thoughts and anecdotes there from now on.

UPDATE: I see I was outdone.

Twoted!

Fagstein — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:45:16 +0000

Congratulations to Montreal-based identi.ca which announced this morning it has acquired Twitter!

I just hope that doesn't mean I need to figure out Open ID before I can tweet something.

UPDATE:

Loto-Québec pranks city by printing tonight’s results early

Fagstein — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:30:57 +0000

Loto-Québec, which runs ads in the daily newspapers with the previous night's lotto results, pulled a fast one on everybody by printing tonight's results instead of last night's. In the ads, Loto-Québec announced the change saying it wanted to be more forward-thinking about its announcements and stop reporting "yesterday's news."

The ads ask that readers not look at the results until after the draw this evening.

Fagstein » April Fool’s Day

Justin Trudeau is a good sport

How to manipulate the media

Le awmerde-isation des médias

During elections, everything is news

So what did I get out of this?

But I digress...

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