News about news

• The state of New Jersey is using $5 million to directly fund community journalism.
• A lawsuit by the family of deceased Democratic National Committee member Seth Rich against Fox News has been dismissed. The lawsuit is over a since-retracted story that fed into the conspiracy theory that Rich was murdered by evil Democrats.
• Washington’s Newseum has pulled Make America Great Again caps and “fake news” t-shirts from its store after getting complaints.
• The Globe and Mail’s Robyn Doolittle looks back at statistics on the number of sexual assault cases classified as “unfounded“, and finds a dramatic drop since her investigation last year. Much of that is due to how police codify cases, but there are significant operational changes as well.

At the CRTC

• The commission has published the applications for the acquisition of Évasion and Zeste by Quebecor and Newcap by Stingray. The deadline for comments is Sept. 4.
• Looks like no public comments were filed with the CRTC about the proposed licence renewal of CFNV 940.
• The proposed acquisition of RNC Media radio stations by Cogeco prompted only two comments, one by ADISQ questioning Cogeco’s plans for expanding the Rythme FM network and suggesting closer monitoring of licence compliance, and one by District Média seeking assurances that Cogeco won’t abandon its affiliation agreement for Rythme FM in Saguenay now that it will own stations in that market.
• The commission has denied an application by Bell Media to boost the power of CKKW-FM (KFUN 99.5) in Kitchener. Bell argued that thermal ducting was causing interference to the signal and that people in Kitchener were getting the HD Radio signal of WDCX-FM Buffalo. The CRTC said CKKW adding HD Radio to its own signal would probably solve the HD Radio interference, and analog interference problems it reported were not from people in its primary service area.

Ethical reviews

• Quebec’s press council has reversed a decision that blamed a La Presse journalist for exposing the private life of Karla Homolka and her family.
• A tweet sent out by CBC reporter Natasha Fatah that described the driver in the Toronto van attack as “Middle Eastern”, based on a witness report, violated CBC policy. She had already deleted the tweet and apologized for it.

TV

Profit margin and francophone ratings share of TVA Sports, 2012-2017 pic.twitter.com/JnUV9gsfQE

— Steve Faguy (@fagstein) August 3, 2018

• Blue Jays: Pinoy Edition, a broadcast of Toronto Blue Jays games in Tagalog, begins Sunday, and runs every Sunday through the end of September on OMNI. On-air team is Mara Aquino, Mike Cruz and Charles de Torres.
• Comcast is adding Amazon Prime Video to its Xfinity system. This has implications in Canada, as Shaw, Rogers and Videotron are employing the same system for their cable set-top boxes.
• TVA Sports has announced its Rogers Cup broadcast schedule. It includes women’s semifinal coverage simulcast on the TVA main network, which is a rare move for this company.
• It’s been more than three years since the Sun News Network went off the air, but Quebecor is still paying for it. In the latest Groupe TVA quarterly earnings report, it discloses that TVA used $98,000 to pay down the debt the all-news channel accumulated. Another $102,000 was paid by TVA’s parent Quebecor. TVA has another $100,000 to pay off, which means Quebecor has about $104,000.
• CBS All Access is working on a new Star Trek series that brings back Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard.

Radio

• Corus has rebranded Edmonton music station Fresh Radio (CKNG-FM) as 92.5 The ‘Chuck and going back to an adult hits format with music from the 1980s to today.
• Stingray, which owns pay audio channels in Canada that are carried by TV providers, has made an unsolicited $120-million offer for its U.S. counterpart, Music Choice.

Print

• The Calgary Herald has stopped publication of its arts magazine Swerve.

Online

• Quebec has a right-wing Facebook group Québec Fier, modelled after Ontario Proud, that’s trying to influence the fall election.
• Remember Upworthy? Yeah, that’s kind of the problem. The clickbait masters laid off a bunch of staff.

News about people

This account will have details first, including tickets. ?@TonyMarinaro? ?@ClubSodaMTL? pic.twitter.com/L0DRJ4FvGy

— Billy Bob Prod MTL (@prodbillybob) August 5, 2018

• Daren Millard, who has been with Sportsnet since Day 1, has announced he’s leaving it. He will “pursue a challenge beyond Sportsnet” that hasn’t been specified.
• Celine Cooper has ended her column in the Montreal Gazette. She’s teaching at Concordia starting this fall.
• Global has named Bindu Suri as the new anchor of Global Calgary News at Noon. She replaces the retiring Tony Tighe.
• Jayme Poisson, who recently left the Toronto Star, has announced she’s joining CBC where she will host a daily news podcast.
• John Laberge, an editor at CTV Montreal, is retiring on Oct. 5, saying “the media business was fun but not any more.”
• Former CTV Ottawa anchor Carol Anne Meehan is running for Ottawa city council.
• Chris Rock is joining the cast of Fargo for its next season.
• The New York Times has a long feature about Dick Cavett, the former talk show host. It comes with a shorter list of quotes on various subjects.

Good reads

• The Walrus shows some appreciation for the historic feats of the Toronto Star’s switchboard operators. Unfortunately human switchboards are a luxury newspapers can no longer afford.
• The New York Times explains what “off the record” and related terms mean. (And notes that phrases like “deep background” don’t have a universal definition.)

Jobs

• National online journalist, politics, Global News in Ottawa (deadline: Aug. 7)
• Managing editor, digital, eTalk (deadline: Aug. 15)
• Newsroom director for newsletters at the Toronto Star (deadline: Aug. 23)
• News announcer, CHED 630/Global News 880 Edmonton