News about news
- The CBC and Toronto Star have joined the Trust Project, a global initiative to develop a standard for quality journalism. The Globe and Mail is also a member. This is not to be confused with the Toronto Star’s own Trust Project, which is an internal initiative to increase transparency to readers. Or Reporters Without Borders’ Journalism Trust Initiative. Or the various other similarly-named projects. Star Public Editor Kathy English writes about the announcement in a rather uncritical way.
- La Presse has created a charitable foundation to support its journalism efforts. The foundation is headed by Annie Talbot, formerly of the Fondation du Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.
- Stephen Harper still doesn’t like journalists, even when he has a book to promote, so the Canadian Club had to disinvite journalists to an event.
- A freedom-of-information lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security led to a judge ruling that such requests can’t be taken literally to the point of absurdity. DHS argued a request for records related to ideological tests and searches of cellphones by border security returned no records after using those exact search terms and only those terms on its records. The court found that was insufficient, and included the decision includes this great line: “FOIA requests are not a game of Battleship. The requester should not have to score a direct hit on the records sought based on the precise phrasing of his request.” What’s even more insane is that this decision references previous cases where the same issue came up.
- A Mafioso has been charged with uttering death threats against TVA journalist Félix Séguin.
- Brooke Binkowski, one of the founders of Snopes, has started a new news fact-checking website called What’s True, months after she was fired from her job as managing editor of Snopes.
- Louis Baudoin-Laarman, the Agence France-Presse fact-checker for Canada, working to debunk Facebook posts, did some media interviews with the Journal de Montréal, CBC, BT, TVA and the Gazette.
- Mathieu Roy-Comeau of l’Acadie Nouvelle writes about the position francophone journalists in New Brunswick are put in, covering the People’s Alliance Party as a legitimate political formation now that it has seats (and the balance of power) in the province’s legislature while being openly hostile to the interests of the francophone community.
At the CRTC
CBC has proposed a new Radio One FM transmitter in Digby, N.S., (420W, 107.1 MHz), retransmitting CBHA-FM Halifax. #CRTC pic.twitter.com/Q6pGUGHdhp
— Steve Faguy (@fagstein) October 11, 2018
- The commission has approved the installation of a new over-the-air digital TV transmitter in Îles-de-la-Madeleine, the first ever digital transmitter on the island and the first TV transmitter of any type since the CBC shut down its transmitters there. The new transmitter will be a retransmitter of CHAU TV in Carleton, a private station affiliated with TVA. The owner promises to begin reporting news stories from the island. There was some protest from the local community radio station about potential for lost advertising, but the CRTC dismissed that concern.
- ZoomerMedia has proposed moving its transmitter for CHNU-DT (Joytv Fraser Valley) from a soon-to-be decommissioned tower in Abbotsford to Bell’s Mount Seymour site in North Vancouver, 60km northwest. The company emphasizes several times in its CRTC application that it’s not trying to expand into new markets and is already carried on cable in Vancouver. Under the new setup, the only community that drops out of the station’s coverage area is the town of Hope, and Zoomer says it’s not aware of anyone there who receives the station over the air. The new signal is much stronger toward Vancouver and the east coast of Vancouver Island.
- The CRTC has approved a new 50-watt transmitter in Nipigon, Ont., for Christian radio station CJOA-FM Thunder Bay.
Ethical reviews
- The Quebec press council’s appeals committee has maintained a decision against La Presse for putting the ethnicity of a suspect in stories about attacks on the Plateau. The council felt pointing out the person’s race was not necessary, while La Presse argued it was.
- More complaints about coverage of the Middle East: A CBC ombudsman report found no fault, but would have liked more detail, while Radio-Canada’s ombudsman did find fault in a radio discussion that led to factual inaccuracies being broadcast.
TV
De l’importance, en télé, de rester devant la caméra. pic.twitter.com/CIrBt1Fnon
— INFOMAN (@infomantv) October 11, 2018
- Rogers has announced two new one-hour drama series in production for broadcast on Citytv, each eight episodes long: The Murders, a crime drama starring Jessica Lucas and shooting in Vancouver, and Rex (working title), a police drama starring John Reardon and shooting in St. John’s.
- Sportsnet did its first Ice Surfing Twitter broadcast of the season, and it’s archived online if you missed it. It reached 500,000 or 650,000 people, depending on how you count. But that’s total audience. Twitter’s live count was in the 2-3,000 range, suggesting people didn’t tune in long. The broadcast is much better than what we saw last season, in that there’s a lot more live hockey action and a lot less chat.
- RDS, meanwhile had its first episode of Avec pas d’match, a simultaneous companion stream for Canadiens games in which comedians comment on the game and do random other stuff and interact with fans. I wasn’t terribly impressed. It’s like the worst parts of watching a hockey game with other people in the room — random distracting chatter, people not being sure what just happened in the game, and a lot of uninteresting shots (Someone’s back! Dude goes to get a drink!) And when RDS goes to a commercial, so does this show, eliminating a potential use for this show as commercial-break entertainment.
- Bell Media is bringing programming from Vice onto MTV Canada and Crave TV, as well as its Snackable TV mobile platform, starting next week. The lineup includes some former Viceland programming.
- Radio-Canada has pulled the plug on summer TV talk shows Les Échangistes and Le Beau dimanche, and will create a new daily talk show with Beau dimanche host Jean-Philippe Wauthier. Pénélope McQuade, the host of Les Échangistes, will work on another project with the public broadcaster, it says.
- RDS is changing the format of its documentary series 25 ans d’émotions, and will now broadcast it in short segments during intermission of Canadiens games.
- Videotron has moved CTV Ottawa (CJOH) to Channel 406 for people who have CTV Montreal as their local CTV channel. They are also taking it out of the basic package, but making it a free add-on (similar to CTV2). Its former home of Channel 10 contains a note asking people to call customer service if they want to keep receiving the channel. (I did so and had a confusing conversation with someone who seemed to think I’d already added it. Two days later I get an automated email saying it’s being removed.)
Radio
- First Peoples’ Radio, a group affiliated with APTN, has announced a launch date for its urban Indigenous radio stations in Ottawa and Toronto. They will go live on Oct. 24, branded as ELMNT FM. Their staff includes former CBC Montreal journalist Shaun Malley doing news in Ottawa.
- Edmonton francophone community station CFED-FM (Radio Cité 97,9) officially launched on Oct. 6. The 113-watt station doesn’t have much power, but got $400,000 from Western Economic Diversification Canada and almost $296,000 from Canadian Heritage, plus $46,545 from the Community Radio Fund of Canada. You can see a Facebook video of its launch here.
- Radio-Canada has a new daily podcast, called Ça s’explique. Each episode deals with one question about the news, and runs 10-15 minutes.
- If you couldn’t make it to the roast of TSN 690’s Tony Marinaro, Mitch Melnick has pictures and some of the speeches posted on his website.
- An unbelievable obituary notice in the Delaware Online went crazy viral with its fantastic tales of the life of one Rick Stein. The deceased’s daughter tells the Delaware News Journal that it was a tribute to his sense of humour.
Telecom
- Freedom Mobile is building out its 700 MHz wireless spectrum, which it acquired from Quebecor, in Calgary.
- The Financial Post tags along as an undersea cable is laid on the bottom of Lake Ontario, connecting Toronto and New York State.
News about people
Le Devoir names @fdaudens as news director. pic.twitter.com/FNkDH7hNgO
— Steve Faguy (@fagstein) October 13, 2018
- HuffPost Québec has eliminated the job of editor-in-chief, leaving Pat White, who’s been there since Day 1, out of a job.
- Steve Ladurantaye, formerly of CBC News (and Twitter and the Globe before that) has been named head of news for Scottish broadcaster STV.
- Murray Whyte, formerly of the Toronto Star, is the Boston Globe’s new art critic.
- Rachel Giese is the new director of editorial at Xtra.
- Sean Gordon, the former Montreal-based Globe and Mail sports writer who everyone assumed was headed to The Athletic when he suddenly quit the paper, is in fact headed to The Athletic. His first story is a sit-down with Canadiens owner Geoff Molson.
- H.G. Watson, who created roundups like this for J-Source, is leaving to join TV Ontario.
- The Washington Post’s Emily Rauhala has returned from China and will be covering Canada mainly from Washington.
- Ashley Stanhope has been hired as the new assignment editor for Global Toronto and Global Durham. She was previously at CP24.
- Chris Dunseith has been hired by Global in Toronto as Senior Digital Technician.
- La Presse’s Jean-Thomas Léveillé has gone from the international news beat to the environment beat.
- A bit of a shuffle at Global BC, with Neetu Garcha joining the morning show from her previous role at BC1, and Jordan Armstrong moving to the weekend anchor desk.
- Gazette columnist Josh Freed has a new documentary coming about memory, so Bill Brownstein wrote a column about it.
- Gazette columnist Pat Hickey has a new book out about the Canadiens, so Stu Cowan wrote a column about it. Hickey also stopped by Breakfast Television.
News about companies
- CBC has released its annual report.
- Cineflix, the company behind TV series like Property Brothers and Mayday, is being sued in a proposed class action for improper wages.
Obituaries
Jobs
- News anchor/reporter, AM 1150 in Kelowna (deadline: Oct. 19)
- Producer, weekend assignment, CBC Edmonton (deadline: Oct. 25)
- Summer interns, Globe and Mail (deadline: Oct. 26)
- Summer interns, Montreal Gazette (deadline: Nov. 2)
- Online reporter/editor, CBC Winnipeg (deadline: Nov. 9)
- Assistant Professor in Solutions Journalism for Health Improvement at Concordia University in Montreal (deadline: Nov. 15)
- Video journalist, CityNews Montreal
- Sports writer, McGill University Athletics
- News director, 660 News in Calgary
I was told that CTV Ottawa is being deleted from Videotron for Montreal customers as of November 15.
Media (all media) understand that trust is important, so much so that they keep trying to find a way to capitalize it. They should instead be trying to capitalize on it, and expand from it. With everyone pushing trust and Trust (not to mention Canada Trust) it’s almost impossible to know who to trust. Trust me, it’s not easy.
As for Stephen Harper (the worst prime minister ever?), there is a simple solution, If he doesn’t want the media to cover events, then don’t cover him at all. He’s only relevant because media (the folks we trust or Trust or whatever) make him so. Otherwise, he’s a washed up, retired politician who still has his head up his patoot.
Thanks once again for your excellent weekly round up.
A few points I would like to make though.
1 – Concerning the Reference about “Mathieu Roy-Comeau of l’Acadie Nouvelle”, you indicate the People’s Party. I think you mean the People’s Alliance Party that recently won a few seats in the New Brunswick provincial election. Not the same part as People’s Party of Canada.
The latter is related to Marc Berniers new Federal Party that he created after he walked out on the Conservative Party.
Here is are the links for each one if anybody cares to take a look at them
People’s Alliance Party
https://www.peoplesalliance.ca
People’s Party of Canada
https://www.peoplespartyofcanada.ca
I’m not trying to give either one publicity. My point is more to make sure that people should use the proper name of political parties they are referring to. Even to this day, some journalist, and news outlets refer to the Conservative Party as the Tories. Back in the day, they used the same term for the Progressive Conservative Party. Even though they are not the same party. Even worse, the latter party still exists in some provinces. Some one even told me that the Whigs party was also referred to as the Tories as well way back before my time. This inter use of terms to associate different parties maybe clear to those in the industry. But not to the average person.
2 – CJOH-DT 13.1 Ottawa. Back in the old analog broadcast days, CJOH had a retransmitter in Cornwall on Channel 8. This signal reached into most parts of south western Quebec. West Island etc. So, it made sense for the Montreal cable companies to include it on their basic analog package. Also, back in the analog days before CTV bought out all if not most of the CTV affiliates, CJOH, and CFCF offered different programs. Now, all these stations are basically clones of the main CTV station in Toronto. Only the local news is different. So, it kinda makes sense for it to be dropped by Videotron. Unless you want to see local Ottawa news.
3 – The Gazettes TV listings. Steve since you work at the Gazette, maybe you can let them know that the CJOH channel 8 re-transmiier in Cornwall has been shut down since the summer of 2017. And that they can stop listing it in their TV listings. Maybe you can suggest they add WNNE 31.1, this is the CW affiliate for this area, and easy to pick up over the air instead.
1. I was indeed referring to the People’s Alliance. I’ve added the missing word.
2. Indeed, this is why CJOH is carried on Videotron’s system but not other Ottawa stations. The decision to drop it is not Videotron’s alone, though. The CRTC’s rules about the basic cable package limit the number of local out-of-market stations it can include, so Videotron has pulled it out of the basic package and made it a free add-on, like CTV2. But for people in the Ottawa-Gatineau area, which Videotron also serves, these stations are part of the basic package.
3. I brought this up with the powers that be a while ago. There are plenty of other channels that would probably get a higher priority than a CW affiliate that isn’t available on cable, though.
The Global subchannel has never carried different programming from the main channel, they seemed to drop the subchannel some months back, I finally took it off the list. So that would free up space in the listings.
But, 33.2 is still missing from the Gazette listings. Originally it was a lower definition version of 33.1, I never figured out why, so no need for a listing. But that changed some years back, first it was used to add extra programming to the main channel, then when 33.4 became kid’s programming, 33.2 became a mix of PBS World and locally chosen programming.
Even fixing the online grid would help. I know I almost missed something on 33.2 because it’s not on the online grid, so who knows what else I’ve missed?
It’s easier to check in one place than having to visit all the local channel’s websites to see what’s on.
Michael
The Gazette really needs to fix their TV Listing grid. Very biased against people who use OTA as their main TV viewing. Hell, they still list Global Montreal as channel 46. It hasn’t been that since 2011. I would have figured somebody over at Global would have complained by now. And of all the US channels WCFE 57 is the easiest one to pick up over the air. And it has three streams. 57.1 – PBS, 57.2 – Mhz Worldview, 57.3 – PBS Kids
Somebody needs to walk up over at the Gazette. OTA viewership has increased. Nobody wants to pay for over priced cable TV if they don’t have to.
Michael you can try using TV Guide. com, just enter a Plattsburgh, NY zip code. it should give you both Montreal, and Burlington-Platssburgh listings for OTA.
Great round-up as usual, thanks Steve.