News about news

BREAKING: President Trump, CNN Correspondent Jim Acosta and @NBCNews Correspondent @PeterAlexander engage in tense exchanges in post-election news conference. pic.twitter.com/WUlXemGn7y

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 7, 2018

• There was a whole thing about CNN’s Jim Acosta and Donald Trump getting into a thing at a press conference that led to Acosta’s White House credentials being pulled and arguments online about whether a video of the incident was manipulated to make a “karate chop” appear where it didn’t exist. CNN is suing Trump over the de-credentialling.
• Meanwhile in Canada, the Ottawa Citizen/Sun found a video taken and published by an Uber driver in Arizona showing Ottawa Senators players complaining about their coaches, and the (re)publication of that video led to a legal threat from the team to take it down, followed by the team throwing Citizen/Sun reporter Ken Warren off the team’s charter flights (the Senators are the only NHL team that allows journalists to travel with the team in this way).
• La Presse is cutting 37 jobs, including 19 in its newsroom, representing a bit under 10% of its total workforce. It hopes to do so by voluntary departures. The publication is also looking at new ways of generating revenue, including some value-added in-app purchases from readers.
• A Canadaland investigation into the WE charity prompted a threat of a libel suit by WE with various claims about how Canadaland maliciously lied about WE. What’s really unusual about this is that WE hired a “completely independent” retired judge to pre-judge the case in WE’s favour (based apparently only on communications with WE and consulting published works by Canadaland). Canadaland’s lawyer has responded to the WE notice and, besides two clarifications about statements made in the podcast, it’s sticking by its story.
• The Houston Chronicle has completed its investigation into former journalist Mike Ward (no, not that one), and found that it could not track down more than 100 sources. It’s a good bet they don’t exist.

At the CRTC

• In light of the new USMCA making overturning it a specific point, Bell tried to ask the CRTC to suspend its Super Bowl ad substitution policy for the next Super Bowl. The CRTC said the USMCA has not been ratified and the policy is already subject of a court appeal, so it “would be inappropriate and would be disrespectful” of the process to act before the court has a chance to weigh in. So we still get U.S. Super Bowl ads next February, unless the government or the court forces the CRTC to reverse its decision before then.
• The commission is looking at establishing a consumer rights code for internet services, similar codes that already exist for wireless and TV service contracts. They’re accepting comments until Dec. 19.
• The CRTC has approved a new Native Type B radio station for Kipawa, in Quebec’s Abitibi region. The station, at 104.1 MHz and with 6,000 watts of power, would be operated by a non-profit set up by the Kebaowek First Nation. It plans to broadcast 35% Algonquin-language music, though that is not a condition of licence.
• A group in Vernon, B.C., has applied to the CRTC for a licence for a community radio station. The application hasn’t been published by the commission yet, much less approved.
• Former CRTC commissioner Raj Shoan is suing the federal government over the various events that led to him being removed from his post following what amounts to an interpersonal conflict with former chair Jean-Pierre Blais.
• The commission has renewed the licence for City Saskatchewan, the cable channel that provides educational programming during the day and Citytv network programming in the evening. Most of its conditions of licence, including an exception to the requirement to produce local programming, have been maintained.

Ethical reviews

• CBC ombudsman:
  • A story about a Hamilton city council race that identified a candidate in relation to her husband was justified in doing so because her opponent was a former employee of that husband (a provincial legislator), and the story was about that relationship.
  • The Current was not too biased against Russia in a segment about that country’s alleged poisoning of critics.

TV

• Global TV has commissioned a new six-part conspiracy drama miniseries produced by Shaftesbury and Greenpoint Productions, starring Archie Panjabi and Christopher Plummer. The series, called Departure, is about a plane that mysteriously disappears. It’s shooting in Toronto and will air some time in 2019.
• La Presse’s Hugo Dumas explains how Numeris’s TV ratings system works.
• An auction by the group behind CTV Montreal’s Gripes of the Round Table has raised $12,000 for the LaSalle legion.
• DHX Media has sold its Halifax animation studio to IoM Media Ventures.

Print

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A post shared by Maclean’s Magazine (@macleansmag)

• Maclean’s had one of its viral covers, featuring five conservative leaders fighting the federal carbon tax plan. As the magazine notes in an Instagram post, these were five separate photos edited together into a photo illustration.
• The Globe and Mail’s unionized employees could be on strike as early as tomorrow. If they do go out, they’ll publish a strike publication at globenation.ca (not active yet).
• A rumoured sale of Rogers magazines (including Maclean’s) to Graeme Roustan, who also owns The Hockey News, has fallen through.
• Postmedia is cutting publishing schedules for 11 newspapers in southern Ontario, including the Kingston Whig-Standard, Belleville Intelligencer, Cornwall Standard Freeholder and Sarnia Observer. They will all publish one fewer day a week, cutting either Monday or (if they don’t have a Monday edition) Wednesday.
• Postmedia has a new business partnership for its Cannabis-related activities: PRØHBTD.
• Fortune magazine has been sold to Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon for $150 million.

News about people

• Changes at Radio-Canada:
  • Dominique Poirier is back at Radio-Canada, as head of journalistic deployment.
  • Sébastien Perron is the new head of radio and podcasting.
  • Crystelle Crépeau now runs digital news.
  • Sylvain Schreiber heads public affairs.
  • Paule Genest in charge of RDI.
• Salimah Shivji, formerly of CBC Montreal, is joining CBC’s Parliamentary bureau.
• Adrian Lee is joining the Globe and Mail’s opinion section from Maclean’s.
• Maxime Bergeron of La Presse has returned from Ottawa to a news manager job in Montreal.
• Paul Ouellette and Glory Przekop are leaving their show on Grande Prairie’s Q99.
• The Gazette’s Stu Cowan talks to Alyson Lozoff, the former Sportsnet Central Montreal host who now covers the Vegas Golden Knights for AT&T Sportsnet.

Obituaries

• Leslie Sole and Terri Michael, broadcasters (Gazette, CityNews)
• François Macerola, former manager and board member of groups like Telefilm Canada, the National Film Board, Place des Arts and Cirque du Soleil
• Douglas Rain, co-founder of Stratford festival and voice of HAL 9000

Jobs

• Assistant Professor in Solutions Journalism for Health Improvement at Concordia University in Montreal (deadline: Nov. 15)
• Associate producer, Postmedia Content Works in Montreal (deadline: Nov. 16)
• Reporter, Ottawa Citizen (deadline: Nov. 16)
• Associate producer, CBC News investigative unit in Toronto (deadline: Nov. 21)
• Summer interns, National Post (deadline: Nov. 23)