Here’s what you missed over the holidays.
News about news
? to all those journos around the country out there doing the “it’s cold” story today
Those assignments are great motivation to always come to work with your own story idea to pitch so you can do it instead & force your assignment editor to send someone else out there to freeze
— Douglas Gelevan (@DGelevan) December 27, 2017
- TVA has, as promised, conducted an investigation into how it got the mosque story so wrong. The resulting report shows that a verbal request from the electrical services commission to the contractor to respect the mosque (by limiting work on the mosque’s property during Friday prayers) was misinterpreted by the parties on site, and led the head of the signage company to post on Facebook about an unreasonable accommodation. But the investigation doesn’t look into TVA’s reporting, why the story was broadcast before seeking comment from the mosque, and why the journalist asserted the existence of a written demand “black on white” that she never saw herself. Canadaland summarizes the story if you haven’t been following.
- La Presse (which is now just La Presse+) put out a special edition on Jan. 1 with some behind-the-scenes stories from its journalists. More than two dozen of them. Among the highlights:
- How the Éric Salvail story came together
- Reorganizing an edition on deadline the night of the Quebec City mosque shooting
- On the importance of a good fixer, especially in a place like Syria
- Finding rubber boots to cover a flood
- Scoring a helicopter ride to Irma-stricken Barbuda
- Questions from readers about how journalists do their jobs (How do you develop sources? How do you verify information?)
- The Washington Examiner compiled a long list of mainstream media errors about the Trump administration in 2017 that are worth reading for anyone who has shared stories about crazy things they have done. So many of those I-can’t-believe-Trump-did-that stories are actually wrong, based on a quote taken out of context or a deliberate exaggeration of the facts. There were plenty in there that I remember being reported but didn’t remember being debunked.
- The Toronto Star’s public editor has her annual You Be The Editor survey and a column about some of the paper’s more embarrassing corrections of 2017.
- CBC’s ombudsman has suggested, in response to a complaint, that when incorrect facts appear in a video posted to Facebook, that said video should be deleted rather than a corrective note being appended below it, because the way Facebook works that note will not be seen by many people if that video is shared.
- 65 journalists were killed worldwide in 2017, according to the Reporters Without Borders annual report. Of them, 50 were professional journalists, the lowest number since 2003.
At the CRTC
- The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed a request by Bell Media to reverse the CRTC decision blocking simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl. The court found that the commission was within its rights to balance the policy objectives it’s given. This means the simsub decision will almost certainly stand for 2018, but Bell will probably keep fighting.
- The commission has given a short-term licence renewal to Evanov Radio’s CIDC-FM (Z103.5) in Orangeville, Ontario. There were issues with audio recordings and the airing of music montages, but there’s also the fact that Z103 markets itself as a Toronto station even though it’s technically supposed to serve one of its suburbs. The commission has added conditions of licence requiring the station to identify itself as serving Orangeville in its station IDs and providing local news and information specifically for Orangeville. Evanov has walked the line so much with this station that the CRTC licensed another station to serve that community, arguing Z103 was too Toronto, but the commission won’t let Z103 just convert into a Toronto station and boost its power. So instead, Evanov has proposed to redirect Z103’s signal away from Toronto and boost power on its low-power CIRR-FM (Proud FM 103.9) instead. That joint application is pending.
At the CBC
- New board members for the CBC have been announced. But Hubert Lacroix will stay in his job as they continue the search for a new CEO. New board members are:
- Harley Finkelstein (Chief Operating Officer for Shopify
- René Légère (Executive Director of the Aberdeen Cultural Centre in Moncton)
- Jennifer Moore Rattray (as of Feb. 5/Manitoba Assistant Deputy Minister, Community Programs and Corporate Services, Department of Families)
- François R. Roy (as of Feb. 5/corporate director, former CFO of Quebecor, Telemedia and McGill University)
- Marie Wilson (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada)
TV
- Via Kelly Greig, a compilation of creative standups in news reports from Joe Little of 10News in San Diego.
- The Rogers/CBC agreement for Hockey Night in Canada and the NHL playoffs seems to have worked well enough for both sides to renew it. After quietly extending the deal for a fifth season, they’ve now pushed it for the entire length of the Rogers NHL deal, until 2026. Under the deal, Rogers produces the broadcasts that air on CBC, pays for them and reaps all the ad revenue. In turn, CBC provides studio space and gets to market its programming during those games.
- Rogers Media has renewed its deal with the Grammys for three more years, through 2021. The Grammys are the only major awards show that air on City in Canada.
- Overnight ratings from Numeris show Radio-Canada’s Bye-Bye 2017 had an 87% market share in franco Quebec and averaged more than 3 million viewers. That doesn’t include the Jan. 1 rebroadcast or those who watched later on PVRs or online. All of Radio-Canada’s New Year’s Eve specials did better than last year, though the Bye-Bye’s numbers were slightly less than two years ago. We’ll get a better idea of total audience in a couple of weeks after PVRs are counted.
- Bell Media announced a new deal with Vice to produce documentaries about the opioid crisis for W5. Combined with Vice News Tonight on HBO and Much, this can be seen either as Vice moving more toward Bell and away from Rogers (with whom it has a full-time specialty channel in Viceland) or Vice getting so big that it needs to deal with both.
- CTV and CTV Two have announced winter programming, which includes the next season of Cardinal. Also included is a plan to hold off on the first month of CBS’s The Amazing Race so it can run the entire season during the two weeks of the Olympics (which will be on CBC). I’m not sure The Amazing Race is good Olympics counter-programming, but it might make good complimentary programming, especially considering the time difference with PyeongChang.
- Global also has its winter programming announcement, which includes Mary Kills People.
- Global also announced its Go app is available on Apple TV.
- Among the TV revivals being considered because they’ve really run out of ideas: The Office, Prison Break, and Mad About You. Meanwhile, the new Roseanne debuts March 27, Twilight Zone is coming back and Will and Grace seems to be doing well.
- Bell has followed Videotron in adding Canal+ International to its TV lineup. A free preview continues until Jan. 22.
- We’ve known for a while that RT (formerly RussiaToday) doesn’t seek distribution fees from TV providers, which is why it’s widely distributed in Canada, but the Globe and Mail reports that RT is actually paying some providers to distribute it, a negative fee similar to that used by the Rogers-owned TSC shopping channel. The Globe story curiously gives no clue as to how they know this to be true, nor does it give any details, such as which providers, how much is paid, or how many subscribers get the channel this way.
Radio
https://www.facebook.com/groups/iloveamradio/permalink/10155821466340993/
- Pittsburgh’s KQV 1410 AM, one of the oldest radio stations in the United States (and one of only three east of the Mississippi whose callsign began with a K) went dark on New Year’s Eve, after the last owner willing to bankroll its losses died. With no one willing to buy it, the plug was pulled at midnight.
- K103 in Kahnawake has appointed five people to its board of directors, but not without some controversy. Three of them had been appointed in May as temporary replacements after a mass resignation, under the apparent agreement that they would not run again for the board during the next election. They ran again anyway so that the positions would be filled, and were all acclaimed.
- Syndicated overnight show Coast to Coast with George Noory has three new affiliates in Canada. CFRB (NewsTalk 1010) in Toronto replaces CFMJ (Global News Radio 640); CIRH-FM 98.3 (Roundhouse Radio) Vancouver replaces CFAX 1070, and CFKR 1150 Kelowna gets added to the list, which also includes Montreal’s CJAD.
- A report from a pro-life website that Corus radio host Andrew Lawton was barred from speaking to a pro-life rally prompted a response from Global News Radio boss Troy Reeb that their hosts are expected to not participate in political rallies.
La dernière une papier pic.twitter.com/RZjI8UjcMs
— Alexandre Pratt (@alexandrepratt) December 30, 2017
- La Presse is now officially no longer a newspaper. Its last print edition was published Dec. 30. With the closure, La Presse no longer needs a print layout team, subscriptions, printing or distribution, and Transcontinental will close the Métropolitain printing plant where La Presse was printed.
- Le Devoir has restructured itself, raising $2.2 million in new capital and is now governed by a board of directors composed half of investors (including a seat for the paper’s union). The company retains 51% control of Le Devoir. The move, which also includes a half-million-dollar interest-free loan from the Quebec government, will support its digital evolution. By 2020 it expects almost all its income to come from subscriptions.
- La Presse has a story about how young people are reimagining print media.
Online
- The New York Times has published a long-rumoured story about sexual harassment at Vice. The company’s founders are apologetic, but the Times found many instances of the company settling complaints, failing to take them seriously, and in general having a culture that tolerated such behaviour.
- Some online publishers are shocked — shocked — to learn that paying people for traffic to sponsored content could result in some of that traffic being fake.
- The Atlantic is putting a paywall back up on its website.
- Facebook has a new deal with Universal Music that lets its users upload videos with parts of songs from the label’s catalog and keep them up without being taken down for copyright infringement.
- YouTube star Logan Paul apologized after posting a video in which he finds a suicide victim in Japan. The incident has sparked an unending stream of hot takes about YouTube vloggers, the limits of decency and youth in general.
Other
- CBC News has a story about the CBC museum in Toronto being closed, noting that some elements are being moved to Ottawa to potentially be housed in museums there.
- Digital media monitor CEDROM-SNi, which owns the Eureka news database, has been acquired by Cision, which owns the CNW newswire.
- FiveThirtyEight has proposed, and tested, various new tests for whether a movie is representing gender enough, beyond the classic Bechdel test.
News about people
- Terry Mosher, aka Gazette cartoonist Aislin, has entered a period of semi-retirement after a 50-year career. His newspaper cartoon schedule will drop to one a week, and he’s giving up his regular gig on Andrew Carter’s CJAD morning show.
- CTV Montreal has given out a few promotions for the holidays: Derek Conlon becomes supervising assignment editor/reporter, and Kelly Greig and Angela Mackenzie become full-time videojournalists.
- Adam Kovac, a CTV Montreal web journalist, had his first on-camera TV report over the holidays.
- TV journalist François Cormier has left Radio-Canada to rejoin TVA as Quebec National Assembly reporter.
- Possibly related to the above, Pascal Robidas is now a permanent reporter at Radio-Canada.
- Robyn Flynn, of CJAD, TSN 690 and The Athletic, is engaged.
- Georgia Balogiannis has been named Editor-in-Chief of Metroland Media Toronto.
- You may have noticed Chantal Desjardins doing some fill-in work over the holidays, on Breakfast Television Montreal and the morning show on Virgin Radio.
- Among the latest casualties of the Weinstein fallout, BuzzFeed News White House correspondent Adrian Carrasquillo and two executives at Vice Media (a result of this long-rumoured New York Times investigation).
- Hoda Kotb has been named the new official co-host of Today on NBC, replacing Matt Lauer.
Obituaries
- Ralph Noseworthy, former CFCF-12 reporter (also in the Gazette)
- Len Rowcliffe, former CJAD traffic reporter
- Dick Enberg, baseball sportscaster
- Lou Adler, radio news anchor and director at WCBS New York, WOR New York and WCNN Atlanta.
Good reads
My niece told me over the holidays she wanted to be a journalist. Here is her first (master)piece, huge thanks to Officer Manuel Couture of the @SPVM for taking a call from an 8yr-old. pic.twitter.com/3E0bdTCYku
— Daniele Hamamdjian (@DHamamdjian) December 31, 2017
- HuffPost has an in-depth look at all the economic factors that are screwing over millennials, and some ideas on how to fix them.
The Z103 story is quite interesting, for a number of reasons. One of those, of course, is perhaps what such a decision may imply for the Jewel in “Montreal”.
103.5FM is not really a contested frequency in the Toronto area. There is another station in New York State, much further away from Toronto, and another Ontario station in Bancroft, Both of those are much lower power, so there is no real risk of direct interference.
The station is licensed to serve Orangeville, yet their studios are in Toronto (right downtown, in fact). This can be somewhat explained away by Evanov having another station in Toronto, but it’s still pretty shaky.
However, it touches a bigger issue, which is regardless of where the transmitter is, it’s where the audience is. The CRTC is playing King Canute on this one, trying to hold back reality. Forget Toronto “core”, the vast majority of the population in it’s natural listen core are Toronto’s burbs and bedroom communities. These people won’t give a crap about Orangeville local news.
If they wanted an Orangeville local station, they should have licensed it like Bancroft – 250W, cover your local area, and have a nice day – and let the 103.5FM frequency get reused closer to Toronto, maybe in Brampton.
The Jewel is trying to do the same thing, in reality. By relocating their studios to the extreme east of their broadcast pattern, they are certainly implying they are much more of a “west island montreal” station that a Hudson St Lazare station. Seeing this the same owners as Z103, it appears to be a technique they are using to try to edge into markets they are otherwise shut out of on the FM dial.
I would not be surprised to see the CRTC bring to bear regulations about the location of studios for stations. The Jewel’s studios are located on the fringe of it’s secondary contour, similar to that of Z103. The clear intention seems to be to not be part of the community they are licensed to serve.
Of course, the CRTC would just wise up and realize that it’s where the listeners are that defines the station, and not some ghost target market.
Using such a definition would mean denying any request for a technical change, since people who can’t hear the station are by definition not listeners.
CIDC-FM was specifically licensed to serve Orangeville, and the CRTC is holding its owners to that. It has also stepped in for other stations in suburban markets, such as CHXX-FM Donnacona, to ensure they serve the community they’re licensed for.
“Using such a definition would mean denying any request for a technical change, since people who can’t hear the station are by definition not listeners.”
Not the point. The point is once the transmitter is in and approved, the market for that station is defined by who listens to it. The CRTC and Industry Canada actually moved the station which should have been in Guelph to Orangeville area for various reasons. They granted it 50,000 watts, and the transmitter is about 70kms from downtown Toronto core. Then a few years later, they let them move to about 50kms from Toronto with about 31,000 watts – more than enough to get the signal into town, and just as importantly to serve all the bedroom communities and commuters in the Toronto market. The CRTC even playfully wagged their finger at then and made them pinky promise they wouldn’t neglect their “licensed” market of Orangeville.
Truth is, the CRTC likely should have made the station much more directional, and made it impossible for the signal to properly serve the Toronto market. Instead, they sort of shrugged and let the station move it’s transmitter. That was 14 years ago. The station has had a few renewals over the years without significant issues about their Toronto ordered nature being raised.
It isn’t until recently when they tried to get a power increase (to a maximum ERP of 100,000 watts!) to better serve their listeners. Suddenly someone woke up.
The CRTC created the problem, tolerated and let it fester for well over a decade, and finally decide to do something about it now?
It’s sort of late to be doing it. The station serves it’s listeners, and there happens to be more of them nearer the Toronto core. Is it right for the CRTC to deny those listeners the station they enjoy, to meet a regulatory standard that the CRTC themselves has ignore for so long?
Doesn’t seem right.
Chantal is a breath of fresh air on Breakfast Television & Virgin. I would love to see & hear more of her on both or even full time one on or the other. She’s genuine , upbeat and likeable.
Chantal for the win. The most underused and under appreciated Anglo talent in Montreal. Montreal morning show executives would be foolish to not get here in there.
What’s going to happen when Spike morphs into Paramount Television on Jan. 18th, especially for Videotron subscribers, and will turn into a premium service as a result?
Exactly that. The CRTC has already approved the name change on the list of channels approved for distribution in Canada. If television providers still have valid deals to distribute it, they can still do so.
That was a career-ending move by the “journalist” who reported this story. I’ve no idea why she’s still employed. I guess that says more about TVA than anything else.
<blockquote?So many of those I-can’t-believe-Trump-did-that stories are actually wrong, based on a quote taken out of context or a deliberate exaggeration of the facts.
That nicely sums up the modus operandi of the left/MSM. They have no valid points to put forth (and they know it) so they just make it all up. Conrad Black very eloquently pointed that out in a couple pieces he penned this past fall in which he likens the MSM/left as the parliamentary equivalent of the official opposition.
It would be ridiculous to suggest that the Trump administration is without fault. There are plenty of real scandals, but because just about anything can happen, people are willing to believe just about anything.
Re: Washington Examiner. No s***. The media’s behaviour is unprofessional, unethical, shrill and often without fact issuing retractions after investigative journalists like Glenn Greenwald call them out.
The media isn’t a monolith. It encompasses everything from Fox News Channel to Ellen to 12-year-olds on YouTube. Don’t think in those terms, and be more specific in your criticisms.
Oh I’m aware of that. As a short-wave listener and Sirius subscriber and part of political discussion groups in the USA, It’s mightily diverse and deep.