As part of a big announcement this week that Google would be offering to digitize newspapers’ archives (with their permission) and put them online for free, the Quebec Chonicle-Telegraph, North America’s oldest newspaper and the only anglo paper in Quebec City, has jumped on board and some of its archives are already available on Google’s site, mainly from the 50s and 60s. (The QCT even got some link love on the Google Blog.)
(via Le Devoir)
This isn't what it looks like
Hey Izzy,
congrats on that whole ADISQ thing. Listen, do you have … umm, a date to that thing? Because I’m totally available.
Just throwing that out there.
Your friend,
Steve
P.S. I’m actually free for a date with you any time. So, you know, just let me know.
So apparently the biggest political news of the day had to do with a bird pooping on someone’s shoulder on a website. Canadian soldiers are dying in Afghanistan, our climate is becoming unstable, and our housing market is in trouble, but all of that is unimportant compared to analysis of whether a bird should be pooping on someone online.
Stephen Harper, whose Conservative Party website showed the pooping puffin, apologized for it after his handlers calculated that the bad joke went too far and was too personal (actually, it wasn’t personal at all, it was just pointlessly insulting). Stéphane Dion, the poopee, countered that this showed more about the Conservatives than about him, again following the politically appropriate route as instructed by his handlers and political strategists.
And the media, desperate for a scandal/process/horse-race story because they’re too lazy to research platform points and analyze actual policy issues, sucks it all up.
The excuses that the Conservatives give for this gaffe are the usual barely-believable stuff (a cursor was hiding it when it was approved? Give me a break). But there’s a reason why this was done, a reason why the person who came up with the idea crossed the line, and it’s a problem at the very heart of partisan politics.
Remember all those bad jokes during the Democratic and Republican conventions? Remember how the delegates found them much funnier than we did? In the partisan bubble that these politicians and their staff inhabit, the opposition is dehumanized. Instead of respected colleagues who challenge us to develop our positions on important issues, they’re seen as evil enemies bent on world destruction who must be mercilessly defeated.
That mindset leads to cruel, immature jokes and inevitable comparisons to Hitler. Nobody is there to stop them, because everyone in the bubble is part of the same partisan clique. But once those jokes leave the bubble and reach the reasonable, non-partisan outside world, it finally dawns on them that they were inappropriate.
I watched MSNBC during prime-time tonight, mainly because there was nothing better on TV. (It was mostly in the background as I caught up on some online reading.) The lineup consisted of liberal hero Keith Olbermann, followed by Air America talk show host Rachel Maddow, followed by a repeat of the Keith Olbermann show at 10pm. Listening to the two hosts, they sound identical (though one is much prettier than the other). They both use the same sarcastic points to bring down their enemies (in this case, John McCain, George W. Bush and the Republicans).
Even though I agree with them on their positions, I can’t help but cringe sometimes when I watch these shows. There’s that same immaturity, the same mean jokes, the same anoying smiles when they point out some flaw in the other side. And in Olbermann’s case, an ego the size of Alaska as he goes on with his boring feuds with the Fox News Channel and its pundits.
Olbermann and Maddow are, sadly, part of the problem. They have like-minded staff who won’t tell them that they’re becoming too biased toward the left. Those who do criticize are seen as the enemy or ignored.
The worst part is, some of these activists may be fully aware that they’re crossing over the line, but they accept their actions because they believe the ends justify the means.
Partisan hacks and political pundits need to learn what the politicians are already keenly aware of: cruel insults and immature jokes may get a good response from hard-core supporters who are drinking your Kool-Aid, but they turn off the rest of us, making us ashamed of both you and the political process.
Considering how much ink has been spilled over this issue over the past decades (remember when the PCs made fun of Jean Chrétien’s face?), it’s astonishing there are people who still haven’t learned to attack the issues and not the person.
St. Jacques Street, looking east from Madison
The NDG borough, which has proposed a by-law to change the face of St. Jacques Street between Cavendish and Decarie, has reached the you-can-vote-on-this-if-you-want-to stage (pdf).
People in the affected areas who want the matter put to a referendum can submit applications with a sufficient number of signatures to the borough office by Sept. 18.
I was going to do a post about this campaign sign from Bloc candidate Vivian Barbot being up a day before the federal election was called, but Kate beat me to it (with the same candidate), and had a follow-up pointing out that there’s nothing illegal about this.
So instead I’ll contribute this, taken a day later:
Dear Bloc Québécois,
Press conferences, scrums and MPs spouting talking points isn’t nearly as interesting as you think it is.
(And yet, a pretty decent campaign song)
We’ve now gotten to the point where people are questioning the journalistic integrity of Us Weekly.
Politics does strange things to people.
New Monday Gazette front (Sept. 8, 2008)
The four of you who still read paper newspapers will notice a dramatic shift in Monday’s Gazette. It’s gotten smaller.
The most dramatic change is the consolidation of the news, Your Business and Arts & Life sections into the A section, similar to what happens in the Sunday paper. The Sports section is unchanged (in fact, it’s a larger-than-normal 10 pages this week), as is the ad-generating Driving section. The length of the paper reduces overall by about six pages.
Editor-in-Chief Andrew Phillips is honest in his note to readers today about why this is happening:
The main reason for the change is that the cost of newsprint is rising dramatically. In the past year, it has gone up by about 24 per cent, and it is adding more than $2 million to our annual expenses. Fuel costs, as everyone knows, have also gone up sharply.
The fact is we can’t keep printing the same size newspaper at a time when the competition for advertising revenue (which makes up about three-quarters of our income) is much tougher. The time is long past when newspapers like The Gazette could just absorb extra costs and pass all of them on to advertisers.
Of course, no doubt some readers won’t agree (especially when it’s combined with a slight increase in subscription rates), so Andrew and the rest of the staff are fully ready for an onslaught of complaints. He has a blog post explaining the situation, and readers are encouraged to comment there, or by email to his address or the new monday@thegazette.canwest.com.
As if in answer to management’s prayers to give them some cover fire, the New York Times also announced that it would be consolidating sections to save on newsprint. One of my colleagues got the idea to run a story about that in the Your Business section today, and Andrew points that out to readers.
(UPDATE Sept. 11: Andrew has a summary of the reaction, which is negative, but not as bad as he feared)
The new layout of A1 (as seen above) emphasizes the newspaper’s slew of Monday columnists (because, try as they might, little news happens on Sundays), with quotes along the side from marquee names.
Content-wise, the changes are modest:
On the plus side (and so people can get excited about something), two new features are being introduced on Mondays. A2 features a weekly look-ahead calendar, with information on events to look forward to. There’s also a Monday Closeup, which features an interview with someone who will be relevant to something happening that week. (The first week features an author talking about winning book awards, as the Man Booker shortlist is being announced)
Now here’s where I fit in: I’m the one putting together that look-ahead calendar. So if you know of any interesting newsworthy events coming up, let me know and I’ll see if I can get it in. Take a look at what’s already in the calendar to see what kind of stuff I’m talking about.
Note that the following are not things that will make it into the calendar:
I mean, unless it’s really exceptional. Like you’re pulling a plane or something.
As Terry DiMonte begins his new noon-hour show on Q92 direct from Calgary today, the man he replaced, still-in-Montreal David Tyler, is philosophical on his blog about his departure from the station and what he plans to do next.
Concordia’s student radio station, CJLO, has begun full testing of its transmitter on 1690 kHz, after getting the go-ahead from inspectors following brief initial tests. The station is running a continuous loop as it checks for signal interference and other issues, and should be ready for an official launch “soon.”
Reports are already coming in that the station can be heard across the border in Vermont.
From the Gazette’s new On the Trail election blog: The Bloc Québécois’s campaign bus has English-only signs all over it and stars-and-stripes upholstery, because apparently it was built for a U.S. campaign.
Ouch.
Remember back when I suggested that the new Opus smart-card transit pass was working well (at least relative to the disastrous magnetic card)?
Well, now that the STM is forcing all students to get Opus cards, it seems problems are arising with those as well, as this post suggests. And lineups and delays are leading (indirectly) to kids getting ticketed for not having the passes on them.
To those of you who might think that our local papers are getting too lazy in their reporting, and look to the respected media like the Globe and Mail and New York Times for insightful analysis on important issues, I point you to the following:
The Globe and Mail has an article about how big Vanna White’s head is. Literally. Who knows how much CBC paid the Globe to write an article about Wheel of Fortune just before it starts airing on the network, but this is certainly an interesting angle to take on it. Will the next piece be an in-depth look at Alex Trebek’s moustache?
Meanwhile, the New York Times summarizes last night’s Colbert Report, regurgitating the jokes made by New York governor David Paterson, who was the headline guest.
Dear Sarah Palin,
Look, I know speechwriting is hard. Gathering those dozens of advisers and having witty sayings filtered through focus groups can take time. And you really did put a huge amount of effort into that acceptance speech the other day.
But 37 million people watched that speech. One would assume that includes the few hundred hard-core supporters you’re speaking in front of today, as well as the thousands of loser couch potatoes like myself who have nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon than watch CNN.
So why are you repeating your speech verbatim? Why are you using the exact same lines that have been replayed over the news networks since? And why, oh why, are you repeating the same jokes you gave then, as if your crowd hadn’t heard them before? You know, the joke about your kids missing the chef you fired? Or the one about selling the governor’s private jet on eBay (even though you didn’t)?
People aren’t laughing at your jokes, because they’ve all heard them before. They’re applauding, because they liked it the first time and are so awed by your presence that they don’t mind not seeing anything new.
TV viewers are a bit more discriminating.
