News about news

• The MRC de Témiscamingue has become the latest local government to outlaw recording of its council meetings by journalists, and to be criticized for it by the  Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec. The MRC will record the meetings itself (audio only) and provide copies to journalists, but the FPJQ says that’s not good enough.

At the CRTC

• The commission’s hearing into telecom sales practices began on Monday (you can listen to an audio stream here or CPAC’s video coverage here). The five-day hearing notably includes the entire commission, not just three or five commissioners. The CRTC must give the government a report by Feb. 28. The chair’s opening remarks are posted here.

Ethical reviews

• Toronto Star Public Editor Kathy English brings up an interesting question: With marijuana use legalized, what should the Star do with old stories about people charged with or convicted of marijuana possession? The result of an internal review is that the Star should not be unpublishing reports, that despite subsequent changes in legislation, the official record should stand.
• A Canadian Broadcast Standards Council review of a CP24 broadcast on April 20 (4/20) noted the foul language that was inadvertently broadcast in two instances — one in which some idiot shouted an infamous vulgar catchphrase at a female reporter, and another in which a panelist described Doug Ford as “a bit of a dick.” The panel found no breach of broadcast codes, because neither utterance could have reasonably been predicted. Two members of the panel dissented over use of the word “dick”, which they found to be unfair comment insulting an individual.
• Someone complained to CBC’s ombudsman that Johanna Wagstaffe was incorrect in describing the link between climate change and hurricanes, suggesting CBC “simply ask your meteorologist” (as if Wagstaffe wasn’t already its most prominent one). As the ombudsman notes, Wagstaffe chose her words carefully and was correct that climate change does not cause more hurricanes, but does increase their intensity.
• Another complaint questioned the decision to report on the Toronto Danfort shooter’s parents stating that the man had a mental illness. As the ombudsman noted, the statement from the parents is relevant and important, and the information was presented in context.
• Another complaint about a Neil Macdonald column in which “privileged old men” resisting change in the Catholic Church were compared to gun control opponents. The ombudsman said the comparison was not correctly described by the complainant, and did not violate journalistic policy as a clearly-labelled opinion piece.

TV

• Télé-Québec has joined a group of broadcasters making content available on Radio-Canada’s Tou.tv Extra premium subscription platform. V, Bell, TV5 and the NFB are also on the platform, which represents a large part of the French-language TV market. (Major holdouts are Corus, Serdy, and of course TVA.)
• The Bell Fund has announced its latest round of funding for TV projects under its “TV Pilot Program” (despite the name, many of the projects are new seasons of existing shows like Corner Gas Animated or Holmes on Homes). Among the English-language recipients are new to-be-announced drama series from Bell and Corus. The Bell one is a Quebec series by Datsit Sphère, which has adapted Rumeurs, 19-2 and Nouvelle adresse into English (to varying success). If this is another adaptation of a popular Quebec series it has produced, its options include Hubert et Fanny (which lasted only one season) and L’Imposteur (which lasted two).
• Hamilton’s CHCH has found a new property to build a home on in the city. The station expects to be operating from its new home in 2021, which is a pretty long-term plan considering the state of local television these days.
• Anne-France Goldwater has won a lawsuit against V over the unauthorized rebroadcast and early cancellation of her reality TV show L’Arbitre. Goldwater, who is also facing a disciplinary hearing over statements she made about a client, has since taken her talents to Bell Media for a show on Canal Vie.
• Sportsnet has announced its CHL broadcast schedule. It includes four QMJHL games — two in Quebec and two in Halifax — plus the Canada-Russia Series and Top Prospects Game.
• Corus’s CEO says Canada’s TV industry needs to do a better job serving on-demand audiences to battle competition from Netflix, YouTube and others.
• Fox is developing a comedy series based on the Property Brothers‘ life story.

Radio

• Three Radio-Canada retransmitters in Atikamekw communities have switched the source of their programming from Chisasibi (which carries some CBC North programming) to Trois-Rivières (which is geographically closer) following consultation with those communities and approval by the CRTC. To mark the change, afternoon drive show 360 PM will broadcast a special show from La Tuque focused on the communities.

Print

Cartoonists sometime inadvertently draw the same thing. Yesterday, I had drawn this below for Saturday's Gazette. Then Garnotte drew the same idea that appeared in today's Le Devoir. Thanks to Gazette editor Edie Austin for spotting this! I'm drawing something else for Saturday. pic.twitter.com/bcdTDzMPKx

— Terry Mosher (@TerryMosher1) October 19, 2018

• Vividata has released its fall survey of newspaper and magazine audience. Montreal numbers show the Journal de Montréal is still the most read in print and overall, and La Presse remains #1 in digital. The Montreal Gazette had a slight drop overall but a significant drop in digital readership, from 254,000 to 204 000.
• Postmedia’s Kingston Whig-Standard and North Bay Nugget have won arbitration cases over their new labour contracts. Both papers’ unions signed new contracts that stated that their benefits plan would match that of another union that negotiated a better one. When the Windsor Star did exactly that, Postmedia argued that Windsor’s very generous benefits plan did not count. An arbitrator rejected Postmedia’s argument and so those papers will get the same plan as Windsor. (My union at the Montreal Gazette is also in contract negotiations with Postmedia, and the benefits plan is a sticking point.)

Other

• Quebecor has signed a deal with Laval’s transit agency to take over ads on its buses.

News about people

Best part of my 30 year anniversary was my daughter Michelle showing up at the request of ?@sarahdeshaies? thank you ?@CJAD800? listeners for giving me the privilege of waking up with you every morning. I am blessed. pic.twitter.com/DzNTAL9qMW

— Andrew Carter (@andrewcarter800) October 17, 2018

• Manon Brouillette is leaving her post as CEO of Videotron. Analysts note that no immediate successor was announced, but are comforted by the fact that she will be given a seat on Quebecor’s board.
• Outgoing Sportsnet boss Scott Moore appeared on an episode of the podcast Toronto Mike. Moore was surprisingly candid about staffing issues, responding to questions about George Stroumboulopoulos, Ron MacLean, Bob Cole, Paul Romanuk, Bob McCown and others.
• Changes at La Presse: Alexandre Pratt leaves his job as news director to become a sports columnist, Jean-François Bégin takes over as news director, and Philippe Cantin is retiring, but will maintain a weekly sports column as of January.
• Gazette Alouettes beat writer Herb Zurkowsky is back on the job covering the team’s disaster of a season after surgery to treat bladder cancer. He spoke to TSN 690’s Mitch Melnick about his health.
• Mike Boone is back to liveblogging Canadiens games for the Gazette after his own health issues.
• Steph Wechsler is the new interim managing editor at J-Source, replacing H.G. Watson who is leaving for TVO.
• Martine St-Victor writes an appreciation for Raymond Laurent, host of CKUT’s Samedi midi Inter and an important voice for the Haitian diaspora.

Obituaries

• Charles (Charlie) McQuade, CTV Montreal cameraman
• Marcel Adam, La Presse journalist, columnist and editorialist
• More obituaries of Concordia professor Linda Kay in the Globe and Mail and Chicago Tribune.

Jobs

• 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)
• News director, 660 News in Calgary

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.

Continue reading →

News about news

• Data crunched by the Local News Research Project shows more than 250 media outlets, mainly community newspapers, closing in the past 10 years. And the 93 new outlets created haven’t been enough to compensate.
• Community newspapers are now eligible for the National Newspaper Awards, but only if they publish original content online at least five days a week. The organization has also amended its photo essay category so portfolios are no longer accepted as entries.
• A Quebecor-owned publishing house is suing La Presse for altering an image of a book cover to remove its logo in a story. It’s unclear to me how the image was altered and why (was it digitally altered, covered up, or merely cropped out?), but La Presse apparently issued a clarification that didn’t satisfy the company.
• The Toronto Star is doing an ask-me-anything on Reddit’s r/Journalism channel about building trust.
• Journalist murders of the week: Viktoria Marinova in Bulgaria and Jamal Khashoggi in a Saudi consulate in Turkey.

At the CRTC

• An application by a group of major media companies and unions to get the CRTC to allow blocking of websites engaging in rampant piracy has been denied because the commission does not believe it has the jurisdiction under the Telecommunications Act to do so. The full decision is here.
• The commission’s wholesale code, that sets rules for distribution contracts between TV broadcasters and distributors, has been struck down by a 2-1 decision by the federal court for being an overreach of CRTC jurisdiction. Or maybe it wasn’t struck down, but merely ruled invalid in the way it’s been implemented? The full decision is here.
• The commission has determined that the first wireless emergency alert test during Emergency Preparedness Week “did not achieve full success.” Another test is planned for November and the CRTC wants wireless service providers to warn their customers ahead of time.
• New applications for radio stations in Afton Station, N.S. (low-power Native), Listowel, Ont. (English commercial), and Carlsbad Springs and Vars, Ont. (low-power bilingual community, converting an existing tourist info station).
• Radio Humsafar has been denied technical changes to an unlaunched ethnic station in Brampton that would have effectively turned it into a Mississauga station.
• Christian radio station CIAM-FM has been approved for low-power retransmitters in Telegraph Creek, B.C., and Corman Park, Sask.
• CFET-FM in Tagish, Yukon, has been approved for low-power retransmitters in Atlin, B.C., Carcross, Yukon, and Inuvik, N.W.T.

Ethical reviews

• A CBC News story in Halifax about a funeral home mixup did not violate journalistic policy despite a complaint by Frank magazine (the Halifax one, not the Ottawa one) that it had the story first. The ombudsman’s report notes that CBC did not claim an exclusive, that producers were unaware of the Frank story, and that they were aware of it before the Frank publication. But the use of the term “uncover” may have not been the best choice after the Frank story was published.
• A CBC story exposing the mental health problems of the Toronto Danforth shooter did not violate journalistic policy.

TV

• Knowledge Network has announced it will shut down BBC Kids Canada on Dec. 31.
• Unionized workers at TVA have voted 90.2% in favour of a new labour contract. The five-year deal expires Dec. 31, 2021, includes salary increases based on inflation (minimum of 1%, maximum 3% per year). TVA will also create 25 new permanent jobs.
• Rogers is trying its Ice Surfing program again, making it weekly after a pilot attempt last season. The broadcast on Twitter will follow live NHL games and also include commentary and interaction with viewers. It’s looking for sponsors.
• Big Brother Canada is doing a nationwide casting tour, stopping in Montreal Oct. 20.
• Canada’s Worst Driver returns for a 14th season on Discovery Channel on Oct. 29.
• The Canadiens-Leafs game Wednesday on Sportsnet had an average overnight audience of 1.73 million, the best season opener since 2014.
• Bill Brownstein talks to the writer behind Bad Blood, the Montreal Mafia drama that begins its second season next week on Citytv.
• Bell Media has begun production of Mary’s Kitchen Crush, a half-hour, 30-episode food series starring Masterchef Canada winner Mary Berg. It will air on CTV and Gusto.
• AMI is the latest company to try radio on TV. AMI audio’s Live from Studio 5 is joining AMI TV‘s morning schedule in a video form. AMI talks to the hosts and gives an idea of what the TV version will look like.
• Amazon Prime Video is now available on Roku devices in Canada.

Radio

• Yet more conflict at Jazz.FM91 in Toronto, which may end up in court over access to a list of members.

Print

• Time Out is launching an arts and restaurant publication in Montreal, joining a worldwide network of such publications.
• To mark the centennial of the First World War, Maclean’s has printed 66,349 special covers, each one with the name of a different soldier who died during the conflict.
• Le Devoir has signed new contracts to outsource digital ad sales to M32 Media (programmatic ads) and Groupe Capitales Médias (national ads). It also has a new sales manager, Richard Ngyuen.
• TC Media has acquired Somabec, a pan-Canadian distributor of French-language books, and publishing house Edisem.
• The New York Times explains why it only started printing in colour in the 1990s.

News about people

It's official: our excellent colleague @REBCBC_RC is leaving us – headed to Happy Valley-Goose Bay to produce @CBCLabrador. BON VOYAGE! And @Shawn_Lyons_ is back in the band – taking over the news shift for the wonderful @ajmontgomery who's on leave for the next few months.

— Susan Campbell (@Snooze1031) October 5, 2018

• Janice Goudie is the new host of Labrador Morning on CBC Radio. The show has also hired Rebecca Martel from Quebec as producer and Alyson Samson from St. John’s as reporter. The previous team of Matt McCann and Bailey White have taken new jobs in St. John’s. Meanwhile, Shawn Lyons is going back to Quebec City, filling in for Angelica Montgomery while she’s on leave.
• Edmonton Journal columnist Paula Simons has been appointed to the Canadian Senate.
• Scott Moore is leaving his job as president of Sportsnet and head of its NHL properties at the end of October. He tells the Globe and Mail he considers the job done there and is looking for another project.
• The Toronto Star has hired Fredric Karen of Sweden as senior vice-president of editorial, tasked with building the Star’s digital presence and maximizing digital subscriptions for the Star and other Torstar publications.
• Stephanie Nolen is leaving Brazil as the Globe and Mail moves its Latin American bureau to Mexico. She writes a long goodbye to the country she has been reporting from through a World Cup, an Olympics and a lot of political upheaval.
• Martin-Luc Archambault has been dropped from the Quebec version of Dragon’s Den after a La Presse report that his software company Wajam was scamming users into installing secret spyware on their computers.
• Sean Gordon, until recently the Globe and Mail’s sports journalist in Montreal, has decided to leave the Globe to “try something new.”
• Montreal Gazette Canadiens beat writer Pat Hickey has a new book out with tales from the dressing room and press box covering the team.
• Global Montreal Morning News anchor Laura Casella is pregnant with a second child.
• Mathias Brunet is starting a weekly minor hockey column for La Presse.
• Journal de Montréal journalist Laurence Houde-Roy has become the new press attaché to the city of Montreal executive committee.
• Ishmael Daro is leaving BuzzFeed News in Toronto to move to New York and freelance.
• Caroline Cameron is moving from the Sportsnet Central anchor desk to Hockey Central Tonight, where she’ll be seen during Canucks, Oilers and Flames regional games.
• Dan Robson is leaving his job as a senior writer for Sportsnet.
• BCE has promoted Mirko Bibic to chief operating officer. Bibic, who has been Bell’s leader on regulatory and corporate affairs, including the acquisition of Astral Media, is likely being groomed to succeed CEO George Cope, the Globe and Mail says.
• Telus executive vice-president Dave Fuller is leaving the company in January. Telus has appointed Zainul Mawji and Jim Senko as President, home solutions and small business and President, mobility solutions, respectively.

Obituaries

• Bertrand Tremblay, Saguenay journalist

Jobs

• CBC/QWF writer in residence (deadline: Oct. 15)
• Producer, weekend assignment, CBC Edmonton (deadline: Oct. 25)
• Summer interns, Globe and Mail (deadline: Oct. 26)
• Summer interns, Montreal Gazette (deadline: Nov. 2)
• 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

Editor’s note: In the interests of maintaining my sanity and reducing the amount of time I put into these things, I’m limiting their scope to news that directly affects Canada (though I may occasionally add international news of particular interest to journalism). If you’re interested in getting international media news, you can check out sources like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, the New York Post, Variety.

News about news

• A report by the Public Policy Forum that studied 20 markets in Canada shows a decline in newspaper coverage of local politics. Which, duh. The drop doesn’t seem to be as big as expected, possibly because newsrooms have prioritized local political reporting and cut elsewhere instead. It also doesn’t really explore the entire news ecosystem to determine if there’s been an increase in coverage in other types of media as newspapers have declined.
• With just two days to go before voting day in Quebec, it’s time for newspaper editorial endorsements. So far I’ve only found two: the Montreal Gazette endorsing the Liberals (I know, shocking) and Le Devoir endorsing the Parti Québécois but also Québec solidaire a bit (it’s kind of confusing and doesn’t explicitly say who to vote for, but nevertheless they had to warn people they would take a stand). Le Soleil and other Groupe Capitales Médias newspapers merely encouraged people to vote.
• I compiled election night coverage plans for local broadcast media for the Gazette. CTV, CBC, Radio-Canada and TVA will have all-night election specials on their local TV stations in Quebec as well as their all-news networks. Global and Citytv in Montreal will keep their regular primetime but be active on social media and have special election wraps at 11pm. CJAD and CBC Radio will also have election night specials.
• Stéphane Giroux, president of the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec, wrote an opinion for several Quebec media outlets on the issue of government transparency and access to information, criticizing the Liberal government for its failure to meet a 2014 campaign promise to improve things.
• One of the Globe and Mail’s “unfounded” cases of sexual assault has resulted in a conviction after the police reopened the case.
• A man who yelled “a vulgar phrase” (FHRITP) at a CTV Atlantic reporter has apologized and will perform community service as punishment for public mischief and causing a disturbance.
• A Slate story pours some cold water on Apple News, noting that revenue per view on the platform is much less — by several orders of magnitude — than publishers’ own websites.
• BBC News Africa explains how it verified a controversial video and forced the Cameroon government to walk back its denial.
• A British study of the newspaper The Independent showed that going online-only caused most of its audience to disappear as the print audience vanished and the online audience stayed flat rather than increase.

At the CRTC

#CRTC approves new CBC Radio One transmitter in Belleville ( 10kW, 104.7 FM), retransmitting CBC Ottawa https://t.co/eGyvF4YBdU

— Steve Faguy (@fagstein) September 26, 2018

• The commission has approved a new CBC Radio One transmitter in Belleville, Ont., at 104.7 FM. The transmitter will fill a hole between Kingston and Peterborough in the network. Meanwhile, an existing Radio-Canada Première transmitter will be relocated to the new tower for this transmitter.
• The Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel, put together by the federal government to recommend changes to the Broadcasting Act, Telecommunications Act and other related legislation, has put out its request for public comments. The deadline is Nov. 30. Its questions are broad and open-ended, but will result in recommendations for major legislative changes in 2020.
• The commission has put out a call for comments on whether new stations should be allowed in Timmins, Ont., and North Bay, Ont., after applications for both markets by Vista Radio.
• The commission has deleted a condition of licence for CHTG-FM Haldimand County (92.9 The Grand) that prohibits it from soliciting advertising in Brantford and Simcoe. Because of a change in the station’s signal, the condition became unnecessary, and Brantford/Simcoe stations don’t have similar conditions related to Haldimand County.
• CIAM-FM-23 in Taber, Alta., has gotten permission for a transmitter relocation.
• Cogeco’s FM radio transmitters in Montreal (CKOI, Rythme FM, 98.5 and The Beat) have been approved for relocation onto a combined new antenna on the Mount Royal tower.
• The commission has set criteria to judge which projects will get access to a $750-million fund to improve access to broadband internet in Canada’s remote regions.

Ethical reviews

We're sorry for this tweet. In retrospect, a Twitter poll is insensitive in light of the gravity of this hearing. We've deleted it. pic.twitter.com/4CqRhkuCat

— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) September 27, 2018

• Torstar has updated its journalistic standards guide. Public Editor Kathy English explains that the guide calls for more transparency so readers understand the journalistic process.
• English also explains why the Star does not believe all candidates for mayor of Toronto need to get equal treatment.
• Globe public editor Sylvia Stead explains that the paper took care in getting proper consent in a series about dementia, either from the patients themselves where informed consent was possible, or from family members with power of attorney.
• CBC ombudsman Esther Enkin believes a Terry Milewski piece about Sikh nationalism was not incorrect or biased in violation of policy.
• Radio-Canada’s ombudsman Guy Gendron responded to a complaint (in English) about an article about the People’s Alliance of New Brunswick that described it as being “hostile” to bilingualism and its leader’s comments as “incendiary”. The ombudsman found that the descriptions were reasonable.

TV

• TVA’s union reached a deal with the employer just in time to avert a planned Sept. 22 strike. Workers will meet Oct. 6 to vote on it.
• The International Emmy Awards has announced its nominations, and five of them are from Canada:
  • Arts programming: Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas (CBC)
  • Performance by an actor: Billy Campbell, Cardinal (CTV)
  • Comedy series: Workin’ Moms (CBC)
  • Short-Form Series: How to Buy a Baby (CBC)
  • Short-Form Series: L’âge adulte (Radio-Canada)
• DHX Media, which owns the Family Channel and its sister channels, has taken itself off the auction block and announced that it will focus more on short-form digital content for children and less on traditional television.
• The Quebec cop series 19-2, which has already been adapted into an English Canadian series of the same name, will be remade again, this time in the U.S. by CBS. CBS’s version will be called H-Town and set in Houston.
• Some coverage of 514 Undiscovered, the new MAtv series, in the Suburban and Gazette.
• RDS will broadcast 18 Laval Rocket AHL games this season.
• CBS Television Studios is opening a “production hub” in Mississauga.
• A controversy is building in Ontario that could wind up at the CRTC or another tribunal. Faith Goldy, a candidate for mayor of Toronto who has been criticized for being a bit too sympathetic to neo-Nazis and white supremacist arguments, had ads banned from Bell Media’s CP24 this week. But whether Bell has the authority to do this is unclear. The CRTC requires broadcasters be equitable in treating candidates during elections, both in free and paid time. Goldy is a municipal candidate, not a provincial or federal one, but presumably should be afforded the same rights.

Radio

• CBC has posted the job of host of Breakaway on CBC Radio One in Quebec City. The job is to replace Saroja Coelho, who left last month.
• Radio-Canada’s ICI Première station in Montreal (CBF-FM at 95.1) has activated an HD Radio transmitter and its second channel is broadcasting the ICI Musique Classique channel, a digital-only service that airs just classical music.
• Radio-Canada has a new fiction podcast called Cavale that is recorded in “3D” audio. By “3D” they basically mean “stereo”, though it’s a bit richer than that because the microphones capturing the audio moves during scenes. I listened to an episode and you definitely feel the stereo sound (sometimes the difference between the two sides is too much and gets distracting), but it doesn’t feel that “3D”, whatever that’s supposed to feel like.
• CBC Radio One’s satirical news show This is That is ending its run. The show, probably more famous for having fake news articles online that would be trusted because they were on the cbc.ca domain, will air its final episode Dec. 29.
• Former 92.1 CITI host Dave Wheeler is suing his former employer after he was fired for making transphobic comments. The lawsuit raised eyebrows for revealing that he was making $335,000 a year.
• TJ Connors is returning to Winnipeg to co-host the morning show on 92.1 CITI. Connors was hired a year and a half ago at St. Catharines’s HTZ FM.
• New station 104.5 More Country has launched in Strathmore, Alta., and announced its on-air staff.
• Amazon Music Unlimited has launched in Canada.

Print

When you offer to share cover design with Calgary, and they take a few liberties! Apologies to our lovely Edmonton readers for our mistake. And rest assured it’s still full of Edmonton stories written but our hardworking team here! #yeg pic.twitter.com/pXlRhiwZta

— Alex Boyd (@alex_n_boyd) September 21, 2018

• The Express d’Outremont is shutting down along with sister publication Express de Mont-Royal. They’re the second and third Montreal community newspapers to stop production this year, following Le Plateau in Plateau-Mont-Royal, which quietly stopped publishing this summer. Another paper, the Progrès Villeray, was reborn as “Quartier V”, but with no local news content. All of these papers were part of a network of newspapers in Montreal (including Métro) and Quebec City that Transcontinental sold this year. Of the 95 newspapers Transcontinental put up for sale last year, at least 10 have since shut down (three by Transcon, the other seven by new owners).
• The Toronto Star has put its paywall back up. It’s $15 a month if you subscribe for a year ($20 a month if you don’t), and you get five articles a month before you hit it. Editor Irene Gentle makes a pitch for subscriptions on Twitter. The paper has also stopped giving away free copies in universities.

Online

• Refinery29, a website targeted to young women, is launching a Canadian version in October.
• Diply is laying off 35 people and admits it’s not profitable.

News about people

He’s got that “see ya later” kinda smile! Our pal & colleague ?@JohnLaberge? is retiring to pursue other interests and we’ll miss him terribly! Congrats buddy! ?@CTVMontreal? pic.twitter.com/9vDNp58jFg

— Christine Long (@CTVChristine) September 28, 2018

• CTV Montreal editor John Laberge, a popular guy among his colleagues, is retiring.
• Bob Cole is coming back to Sportsnet’s NHL broadcasts for one final 50th year. He’s scheduled to call 10 games, all in the first half of the season.
• Juanita Taylor has been named the new host of CBC Northbeat, the daily TV newscast for northern Canada.
• Ashley Brauweiler is the new meteorologist for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador.
• James Keller is the Globe and Mail’s new Alberta bureau chief.
• Former CTV reporter Bridget Brown is suing CTV and Paul Bliss, the man she alleged sexually assaulted her. Bliss, who was suspended from CTV and later left the company, is also suing Brown.
• Photographer Randy Risling had his last day at the Toronto Star.
• Auto reporter Greg Keenan has retired after 31 years at the Globe and Mail.
• Victor Young is leaving London’s 980 CFPL for Vancouver’s 980 CKNW to be network producer for Charles Adler’s show.

News about companies

• Workers at CBC/Radio-Canada in Quebec and Moncton have approved an agreement in principle on a new contract. The new contract creates dozens of new permanent positions and limits abuse of contract or casual workers. Or at least it does in theory. Some nonpermanent workers are upset that some of the new rules will be worse for them, including an expectation that they respond to phone calls within five minutes when they’re not working.
• SiriusXM is buying Pandora for $3 billion.
• Bill Brownstein writes about the National Film Board’s coming move, from an industrial building next to Highway 40 to a brand new building in the heart of downtown Montreal.

Jobs

• Anchor/reporter, CP24 Toronto (one-year contract; deadline: Sept. 30)
• Reporter/editor, paNOW.com in Prince Albert, Sask. (deadline: Sept. 30)
• Anchor/reporter, 620 CKRM in Regina (deadline: Oct. 5)
• Summer interns, Globe and Mail (deadline: Oct. 26)
• Assistant Professor in Solutions Journalism for Health Improvement at Concordia University in Montreal (deadline: Nov. 15)
• Video journalist, CityNews Montreal

News about news

• CBC has a new website, CBC Kids News, that features news stories by and for children.
• (English) Canada’s five main freelance writing associations are joining forces in a campaign to get people to say no to bad contracts. So far the initiative is mainly about educating freelancers, and proposes little that takes advantage of their numbers.
• Politico Pro Canada, which publishes news about the Canada-U.S. political relationship, is now live. It’s run by Alex Panetta, former Washington correspondent for the Canadian Press.
• AB Today, a subscription newsletter covering Alberta politics, is launching. It’s from Allison Smith, the publisher of Queen’s Park Today and BC Today.
• A defamation lawsuit against Alain Gravel has been dismissed. The suit, related to an Enquête story from five years ago, wanted damages after Gravel said businessman Lee Lalli had ties to the mafia. The judge found that, actually, he did have ties to the mafia.
• Six Montreal English-language media organizations teamed up on Monday to fact-check the first televised English leaders’ debate. The resulting story was published to all their websites.
• Le Devoir is getting $500,000 from Air Transat over five years to support its international journalism. The money, which the paper says comes with no quid pro quo, will support travel and accommodation costs, while Le Devoir takes care of salaries.
• The Houston Chronicle is investigating whether one of its journalists, Mike Ward, fabricated sources for stories. Ward has resigned from the paper.
• Ottawa police did an oopsie and emailed an investigation report to a bunch of journalists, and is now desperately trying to get them to not use it.
• 20 newsrooms in Texas got together to buy the state’s voter registration database and voting history data for $3,600.

Continue reading →

News about news

• Members of the Ottawa Newspaper Guild, which represents workers at Postmedia’s Ottawa Citizen and Ottawa Sun, are voting on a new contract offer after the employer threatened to lock them out if they did not accept it. The results will be known on Wednesday, and if the offer is rejected, the lockout begins at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. The Montreal Newspaper Guild, which represents workers at the Montreal Gazette (including me) has a pact with the ONG that means a lockout in Ottawa would trigger a strike in Montreal.
• Hyperlocal Montreal news site Pamplemousse.ca, covering the Mercier, Plateau and Petite Patrie neighbourhoods, is back in business after a successful crowdfunding campaign brought the website back from the dead.
• Brampton, Ont., has a new subscription news site called The Pointer.
• A new non-profit called the Fonds québécois en journalisme international will provide up to $75,000 a year in grants to Quebec journalists doing international reporting. Individual journalists can get up to $6,000, or $9,000 for a team.
• Québec solidaire isn’t getting much demand for journalists to follow its campaign bus, so it is opening up media accreditation to just about anyone who wants it. People covering the campaign would be given freedom to say what they want, but they would have to pay for the privilege to compensate the party for expenses related to their seat on the bus.
• The Globe and Mail is now pre-moderating comments on all its stories.
• The Halifax Chronicle-Herald’s Hamilton Spectator’s Susan Clairmont has been allowed back in a courtroom to cover a Family Court case.
• Freelancers have vowed not to work for The Outline after it fired all its staff writers.

Continue reading →

News about news

• Two Reuters journalists imprisoned in Myanmar for supposedly breaking the country’s Official Secrets Act have been sentenced to seven years in prison. Governments around the world, including Canada, are calling for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo to be released.
• The Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale started a bit of a firestorm after he published an account of an off-the-record conversation between U.S. President Donald Trump and Bloomberg News journalists about NAFTA. Trump got mad (then pretended he wasn’t mad) and everyone just assumed the Bloomberg journalists fed Dale the quote, forcing him to clarify that the info didn’t come from the journalists.
• NBC News is defending its decision not to publish Ronan Farrow’s reporting into Harvey Weinstein, which prompted the journalist to go to the New Yorker instead. NBC points out that Farrow did not have any on-the-record sources who would be willing to go on camera, making it difficult to broadcast such a story, and that much of the on-the-record accounts that solidified the reporting came after he had left NBC.
• The Associated Press had to retract a news alert that film director Costa Gavras had died after learning the news came from a fake Greek Culture Ministry Twitter account.
• WSAZ TV meteorologist Chelsea Ambriz was charged with battery after allegedly attacking and seriously injuring a colleague, anchor Erica Bivens, after a romantic dispute over Bivens’s husband.
• The New Yorker has cancelled plans for a live on-stage interview with former White House staffer Steve Bannon at its New Yorker Festival after a social media backlash and threats from other guests to cancel.

Continue reading →

News about news

Woups ! Le PLQ a décidé d'identifier l'autocar de campagne des MÉDIAS avec leurs logo et slogan. Les médias sont indépendants. Leurs autocars ne devraient pas être identifiés (d'autant plus que les médias paient leurs autocars) #PolQc #qc2018 #Quebec2018 @LiberalQuebec @FPJQ pic.twitter.com/dbS5pe9OOH

— François Cormier (@fcormierQC) August 22, 2018

• Someone at the Quebec Liberal Party probably thought it would be cool to properly brand the media bus, until the media objected to having political logos and slogans affixed to the bus they paid for to follow leader Philippe Couillard around. The logos have since been removed.
• Quebecor is suing the Quebec Press Council because it continues to reach decisions about Quebecor’s news coverage despite the fact that Quebecor is no longer a member and refuses to participate in its proceedings. Quebecor says that TVA is part of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, which is true but ignores the fact that the Journal de Montréal (which is way more often the subject of complaints) submits itself to no outside ombudsman. The council has only acknowledged the news so far.
• CBC has more details on the cancellation of the New Brunswick French leaders’ debate.
• La Presse is charging $40 a head to attend its Quebec leaders’ debate viewing party on Sept. 13.
• CBC has launched its Vote Compass for the Quebec election. The analysts have put the Quebec Liberals as closest to centre on policy, which I’m sure won’t please everyone.
• U.S. news media lost audience on just about every platform in 2017 versus 2016, likely because it wasn’t a presidential election year.
• The New York Times redesigned its website homepage and no longer shows reporter bylines there (they remain on the actual stories). People lost their minds.
• David Pecker, CEO of the company that owns the National Enquirer, has been granted immunity in exchange for information about Donald Trump and lawyer Michael Cohen. Pecker, who reportedly would help Trump’s campaign kill stories about his affairs by buying exclusive rights to them and never publishing them, is on the board of directors of Postmedia (my employer).
• BuzzFeed reporter Megha Rajagopalan has been kicked out of China, for reasons that remain unclear.
• The Globe and Mail has its annual grammar quiz out. (Full disclosure: I got 14/16)

Continue reading →

News about news

Another successful charity softball game v Jewish General Hospital Memory Clinic Trailmakers. @CBCMontreal lost 11-2. Raised about $250 & Nobody needed an ambulance. Thanks to all CBC listeners and watchers who came out! Wins all around! pic.twitter.com/USA21Mi79R

— Douglas Gelevan (@DGelevan) August 15, 2018

• The Nieman Lab looks at how the Globe and Mail will be covering cannabis, including the launch of a premium subscription news service that will start at $999 a year.
• The Winnipeg Free Press mobilized its newsroom to cover 24 hours in the life of the city, focused on food.
• More than 300 newspapers joined the Boston Globe in printing editorials condemning the White House’s verbal attacks on the media. CNN has compiled some highlights.
• Police are investigating after Toronto Sun photographer Stan Behal was attacked by a man during an anti-hate protest in Toronto. Various people have opined that this is either being underplayed or overplayed or misinterpreted, but the truth is that no person should fear for their safety at a protest, regardless of whether the threat of violence comes from a member of the police or an activist. And if your protest condemns violence, it should not use its size to de facto protect those who engage in it. (UPDATE: An arrest has been made in the case.)
• A New Brunswick judge has lifted a publication ban on details related to the Aug. 10 Fredericton shooting, which was put in place even though much of that information had already been published.
• A Florida school district learned that when you release redacted information online, you can’t just cover it with a black box. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel found the redacted info in the files and published it, and argued with a judge over whether doing so was legal.
• Star Democratic Congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held a town hall last Sunday which was open to the public but closed to journalists, either because she wanted constituents to be free to speak their minds or because she’s just annoyed at journalists mobbing her for comment. Anyway, they’ve promised not to do that again.

Continue reading →

News about news

• The Supreme Court of Canada will hear an appeal by Radio-Canada, which is seeking to prevent reporter Marie-Maude Denis from having to reveal her sources for a story about Marc-Yvan Côté, former vice-president of engineering firm Roche, who is on trial for corruption charges and has demanded Denis testify about leaks to her.
• The Boston Globe is coordinating a common front among U.S. newspapers to present a joint editorial on Aug. 16 to condemn president Donald Trump’s “dirty war against the free press.”
• The Hamilton Spectator’s Susan Clairmont did not appreciate being kicked out of a family court hearing. There was a sealing order placed on the documents in the case, but the case itself was not closed to the public. The editor-in-chief suggests this may be part of a disturbing trend.
• Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner personally ordered a software developer at The New York Observer to delete stories critical of his friends, which did not amuse former editor Elizabeth Spiers.
• Le Devoir talks to various Canadian publications about the trend of hiring cannabis reporters.
• NPR is having to defend itself after a host allowed a white supremacist to rank the races by intelligence on air. The interviewee was challenged, but not enough, critics say.

At the CRTC

• There was no public process, but the CRTC has approved the acquisition of Attraction Radio and its 14 radio stations for $21 million. The new owner is Sylvain Chamberland, who already leads the group and co-founded it with Attraction Media owner Richard Speer. He has 50.25% of the stake in the new group, with the rest going to the CSN’s Fondaction fund. The deal was announced in March, and means Speer’s Attraction Media will no longer have radio assets. (It also means Attraction Radio will need a new name and identity.) The CRTC had some issues with the agreement between Chamberland and Fondaction, and they agreed to changes in wording to ensure that Chamberland remains the person in effective control of the radio licenses.

Ethical reviews

Another dump of Quebec press council decisions:

• A 2016 decision about a series of 2015 columns by La Presse’s Patrick Lagacé was appealed and then sent back to be reconsidered after the appeals committee found that they should be analyzed as factual journalism rather than opinion journalism. The review nevertheless maintained that as a columnist Lagacé is not bound by the same rules about balance and has leeway in his writing. This is a problem that I think needs further study. As newsrooms and particularly newspapers cut back on staff, we often see columnists doing original reporting, and newspapers doing away with companion factual news stories because they’re seen as redundant. In other words, they’re trying to have their cake and eat it, too. Columnists are considered journalists and their reporting treated as front-page scoops, but when they’re called out for any bias in their stories, they hide behind their columnist logo. (I’m not speaking about Lagacé here — I haven’t read the stories and have no opinion on their potential bias.) We need new rules to reflect this new reality.
• Stéphane Thibodeau vs. Le Soleil: A complaint about a story on the ridiculous pseudoscience of “electromagnetic hygiene” was dismissed because the story was found not to be a de facto advertisement for the company mentioned in the story, and the complaints about impartiality were not specific enough. The story is single-source and presents absolutely no skepticism about the idea that electromagnetism is dangerous to your health, that fluorescent light bulbs pose a risk of mercury poisoning or that LED light bulbs create “dirty electricity”, whatever that is.
• Union des producteurs agricoles vs. La terre de chez nous: A complaint about a story critical of the UPA was judged to be outside the press council’s jurisdiction because it was in the form of an opinion piece submitted by the public.
• Jimmy Girard vs. La Presse: A story about an investigation into a man who allegedly encouraged people to not pay taxes based its reporting on information submitted to court to obtain a warrant, and made that clear in a story that accurately reflected its contents, and so Girard’s complaints as to accuracy were dismissed.
• Autobus Dufresne vs. Le Soleil de Châteauguay: The bus company subcontracted by the Conseil intermunicipal de transport du Haut-Saint-Laurent (CITHSL) complained about the Soleil story about a lawsuit because it believed the word “transporteur” could have been construed to refer to it rather than the transit agency. The council found that was not the case, because, among other things, Autobus Dufresne is never mentioned in the article. Dufresne also complained about the photo used, because it shows a bus with the word “Dufresne” clearly visible. The council was split on this, with 4/5 finding no fault in presenting a story about a transit agency with a photo of a bus being used on one of that agency’s routes.
• Josée Couture vs. Le Soleil: A François Bourque column about Frédérick Tétu, who resigned from his teaching job after a radio appearance as a CHOI-FM contributor sounded like he was drunk on-air (he said he was just extremely tired) found no fault, and the complaint that bringing up his teaching job was an invasion of privacy was dismissed because it’s relevant, he’s a public figure, and he himself had brought that up publicly in the past.
• Marc Plamondon vs. 24/60: A TV interview with far-right French party leader Marine Le Pen was not unfair or unduly hostile to her.
• Julie Lévesque vs. La Presse: A François Cardinal editorial that mentioned an attack on Khan Shaykhun in Syria was based on reliable sources and, while it could have been less firm about assigning responsibility for the attack, did not violate the ethics code.
• Huguette Poitras vs. La Presse and Le Soleil: A story about disputes between neighbours was criticized by Poitras for not getting her side of the story after speaking with the neighbour she was in conflict with. The story did not name Poitras, but she said people close to her recognized her from the description in the story. La Presse had already apologized for not getting the neighbour’s side of the story. The council said it’s not enough that people close to you recognize you, but strangers must be able to easily identify you based on what’s in the story for it to violate your privacy. As for the lack of balance, 4/6 panel members dismissed that complaint because that particular conflict was not the focus of the article.

TV

• The second season of Parc Avenue Tonight, which I talked about last month, is finally on YouTube (or at least most of the episodes are). A highlight: Terry DiMonte explains how the CHOM Rock Rides are boring for announcers (because they don’t do anything) and the necessity to tinker with (mostly automated) playlists depending on the mood of the city.
• DAZN, which acquired exclusive Canadian rights to out-of-market NFL games, then pissed off fans last year when technical problems made it hard for paying customers to watch the games, has decided to continue to sublicense NFL Sunday Ticket to traditional cable TV providers in Canada. Bell, Rogers, Shaw and SaskTel have signed deals that also allow them to sublicence, which Bell has done with Telus.
• RDI has announced the lineup for its new political talk show Mordus de politique, which begins Monday at 4pm. It includes:
  • Former CAQ MNA Hélène Daneault
  • Former PQ MNA and Montreal city councillor Elsie Lefebvre
  • Former Québec solidaire MNA and co-spokesperson Françoise David
  • Former Liberal MNA and minister of public security and deputy premier Jacques Dupuis
• TVA’s investigative news show J.E. returns with a new host: Marie-Christine Bergeron replaces Paul Larocque.
• Sharp Objects director Jean-Marc Vallée explains the process of getting Led Zeppelin songs into the TV series (and his earlier failure to do the same with the movie Café de Flore).
• CBS Sunday Morning is doing a Friday evening anniversary special on Sept. 14.
• CNN is bringing S.E. Cupp’s show from sister channel HLN to the main network, where it will air Saturday nights.
• The Primetime Emmy Awards have a new eight-year TV deal that will continue to see it rotate among the big four networks.
• U.S. over-the-air network The CW is adding a Sunday night lineup to its primetime schedule.

Radio

• Saroja Coelho has left her job as host of Breakaway on CBC Radio One in Quebec City and on the Quebec Community Network. She thanked listeners for the two years they were together via a Facebook post and on air during her final show on Friday. She didn’t go into much detail about why she was leaving, but she is moving and will be reuniting with her partner.
• CBC Radio’s A Propos, hosted by Jim Corcoran, is going away. The last show will be Sept. 1. It will be replaced with another show with a similar mandate, exposing francophone music to English Canada. It’s called C’est Formidable, and will be hosted by Florence K. Le Devoir talks with Corcoran about his career.
• The Jewel 106.7 in Hudson is making a change to its lineup, giving West Island Blog founder Rhonda Massad her own afternoon show on weekdays. She’ll host from 3-5pm starting Sept. 4. Ted Silver, who currently hosts 3-7, will keep the final two hours, and Kris Leblanc will do news and traffic through the afternoon.
• Rythme FM has a new logo, and announced lineup changes that start Monday.
• La Presse goes over some of the changes to expect in Montreal francophone radio this fall.
• Real estate site Toronto Storeys talks to Mike Boon aka Toronto Mike about his podcast interviews with various Toronto media personalities in his basement.

Print

Panoram Italia Magazine set Montreal-based Italian-Canadian stuntman Marcello Bezina on fire for its latest cover shoot. Photo by @vingenz Video: https://t.co/LdQpTnQMA2 pic.twitter.com/xnxqwQgR7h

— Steve Faguy (@fagstein) August 7, 2018

• The West Quebec Post is no longer going to pay to have its newspaper delivered for free to some areas, and is cutting back on freelance contracts as it tries to save money.
• Groupe Capitales Médias came up with an interesting way to make money: Sell access to daily opinion polls (and analysis of their results) directly to consumers for $45 during the Quebec election campaign.
• The New York Times is continuing to do well financially, growing digital subscribers and making a profit. But the growth in digital subs is slowing.

Online

• The decisions by Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Facebook and others to remove content linked to Alex Jones and InfoWars has prompted a discussion on whether Twitter should do the same. A Twitter thread by chief executive Jack Dorsey explained why they chose not to ban their accounts, prompting a lot of criticism. On Friday, Twitter held an internal policy meeting and invited the New York Times to witness it (the story is frustratingly lacking much of the substance of the debate).
• The New York Times also reports on YouTube’s fight against fake video views, and the industry that sells fake views to people.
• Meanwhile, Facebook is requiring more verification steps for pages that have a large U.S. audience.
• The European Court of Justice has ruled that you can’t just grab photos that are legally on other websites and use them on your own. The copyright infringement ruling has some significance even though the defendant — a high school student doing a school project — seems a bit petty.
• Pornhub is doing an awards show next month.

News about companies

• Tribune Media has cancelled its proposed merger with Sinclair Broadcast Group and is suing Sinclair for having “repeatedly and willfully breached its contractual obligations in spectacular fashion” by being overly aggressive with the FCC. But this probably won’t stop the consolidation trend.
• Pierre Karl Péladeau’s decision to plead guilty to violation of campaign finance law by personally paying off the debt of his 2015 PQ leadership campaign could be very bad news for Quebecor, because Quebec’s anti-corruption law makes companies controlled by people who have committed such offences ineligible for public contracts. I explain a bit what the laws say in this story for Cartt.ca, but Kevin Dougherty explains it for CBC as well, and notes that not only could this impact Videotron’s Internet service contracts and Quebecor Media’s advertising contracts with public bodies, but even things like Videotron’s contract for Quebec City’s Centre Vidéotron and the TVA program La poule aux oeufs d’or (a partnership with Loto-Québec).
• A CIBC analyst has thrown out a number estimating La Presse’s operating losses at between $30 million and $50 million a year. There’s little explanation of how that number came about, but now that La Presse is no longer on Power Corporation’s books, we should start seeing the impact on its balance sheet and be able to calculate from there (depending on how they account for the $50 million donation they’re giving La Presse to keep going).
• Sportsnet has gotten into the restaurant business for some reason. The Sportsnet Grill overlooks the Rogers Centre, allowing patrons to watch Blue Jays games.

News about people

• Graeme Hamilton has left the National Post, leaving that paper without a reporter in Montreal.
• Columnist Barry Critchley bids farewell to the Financial Post.
• Assistant news director Kate Shingler has left Global Montreal. She hasn’t announced where she’s going or why she’s leaving.
• More details about the upcoming roast of Tony Marinaro produced by his TSN 690 colleague Mitch Melnick. It’s at Club Soda on Sept. 27, and tickets are about $50. Roasters include Derek Seguin, Joey Elias, Walter Lyng, Chris Venditto, Pat Hickey, Robyn Flynn, Andie Bennett and Jessica Rusnak, and Shane Murphy will perform music (I believe Shane Murphy is contractually required to perform at any event Melnick organizes).
• The New York Times profiles comedian Sugar Sammy.
• Former Canadiens players José Theodore and Mathieu Dandenault are no longer with TVA Sports.
• Stéphane Gendron is out at Énergie 98.9 in Quebec City.
• Arshy Mann has been laid off by Xtra.
• Gregg Spratto has been named Chief Operating Officer of Cision, the company behind the Canada Newswire press release distribution service.
• Tim Duboyce, former CBC reporter and PR professional with oil company TransCanada, has been named communications director for the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation.

Obituaries

• Gary Dalliday, former sports director of CHEX-TV in Peterborough.
• Ralph Howard, New York radio news announcer

Jobs

• Managing editor, digital, eTalk (deadline: Aug. 15)
• Reporter, Queen’s Park Today in Toronto (deadline: Aug. 19)
• Newsroom director for newsletters at the Toronto Star (deadline: Aug. 23)
• News announcer, CHED 630/Global News 880 Edmonton
• Business reporter, Globe and Mail in Toronto

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

News about news

• A CNN reporter was barred from covering an event at the White House because they didn’t like the questions she was asking. That led to some absurd discussion over whether she was “banned” and other media outlets coming to CNN’s defence.
• The Toronto Star has yanked a press release published as-is from its website after saying that was not consistent with its editorial standards. Beyond saying it was an “error”, it’s unclear why this happened.
• Hedley singer Jacob Hoggard was arrested and charged with sexual assault. The arrest, and subsequent police release of his mugshot, led to questions about when police choose to release such mugshots in Canada, and whether those criteria are fair. The police said they released the mugshot because there might be other victims.
• Major layoffs at the New York Daily News, cutting its newsroom in half.
• The New York Times has a big profile of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop operation, which includes the information that Goop was originally going to be published as a magazine with Condé Nast but that fell through in part over the respected magazine publisher’s insistence on fact-checking. The article says it has hired people to vet the crazy pseudoscience medical claims in its articles.

At the CRTC

• The CRTC has approved a first commercial radio station for Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, south of Moose Jaw and southwest of Regina. The commission found that despite objections from established broadcasters, it would not have an undue impact on radio stations in those other markets. The new 29kW FM station at 98.1 proposes a country music format.
• The commission has determined that the Lloydminster (Alberta/Saskatchewan) market is not healthy enough to support an additional commercial radio station. It’ll be at least two years until they can reconsider.
• The hearing into replacements for OMNI has been delayed, from Oct. 15 to Nov. 26.

Ethical reviews

• Globe and Mail’s Sylvia Stead writes about coverage of an acquittal in a sex assault case, which one reader complained was buried compared to coverage of the accusation.
• CBC ombudsman: Neil Macdonald opinion about the death of a Palestinian journalist did not violate policy, but the opinion section should be more diverse in viewpoints about the conflict.
• A conspiracy theory about the White House editing out questions from the transcript and video of a joint press conference with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin turns out to be little more than a technical issue involving simultaneous translation and audio channels. On the other hand, a story about the White House no longer providing summaries of phone calls with foreign leaders is true.

TV

Me and Evan are being inducted in to Canada’s Walk of Fame and we couldn’t be more honoured. We made this special video to say thank you. (To non Canadians, this will make very little sense) @CWOFame #CWOF2018. pic.twitter.com/nulBpumPFd

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) July 23, 2018

• Roku has launched a free ad-supported streaming channel in Canada. The selection is pretty weak — highlights include the 1995 Will Smith/Martin Lawrence movie Bad Boys, 12 seasons of Unsolved Mysteries, some John Wayne movies and 3rd Rock from the Sun.
• Bell signed a content deal at Just For Laughs with Jae and Trey Richards of 4YE, to produce an eight-part comedy web series called Judge Tyco for Much Studios.
• Speaking of Just For Laughs, there was a lot of TV taping going on there. I don’t have an exhaustive list, but the ones I’m aware of:
  • The galas, as usual, recorded in both languages for various uses
  • France’s Canal+ at the Quebec/France show at Cinquième Salle, for broadcast this fall
  • An Amazon Prime Video documentary series following some of the New Faces at their Monument National and Katacombes performances
  • Netflix taping solo shows in French and English at Club Soda and Monument National
  • Comedy (soon to be CTV Comedy) recording the Katherine Ryan standup shows and Homegrown Comics show at L’Astral
  • Kevin Hart’s Laugh Out Loud recording LOL Live at Théâtre Berri
• HBO will broadcast a recording of a live Flight of the Conchords special this fall.
• OMNI begins the second season of scripted comedy series Second Jen on Aug. 4.
• A plan is in place to bring back Buffy The Vampire Slayer to TV. But don’t worry, they’re not replacing the characters.
• Hearst Television in the U.S. has shut down the transmitter for WNNE, its 40-year-old station in Hartford, Vt., which has sold its spectrum for $50 million for wireless companies to expand. WNNE, a sister station (and de facto retransmitter) of WPTZ in Plattsburgh, N.Y., has moved its city of licence to Montpelier and is sharing a channel with WPTZ. The net effect is virtually unnoticeable for viewers in the north of the state and in Canada, as digital channel 5.2 will still carry CW programming, with CW now the primary network of WNNE.

Radio

• L’Actualité has launched a new podcast called Les « grands » débats, a comedic take on news. You can listen to episodes here.
• Yet more from the Toronto Star about the situation at Jazz.FM91.

Print

• Postmedia is in the process of relaunching websites for its 92 community publications. The new websites have a look similar to the old Transcontinental community papers’ websites, and use a similar platform as the Postmedia dailies. There’s also lots of story sharing among them.
• The Gazette’s Ian McGillis speaks to the creator of Corsé, a new premium French-language magazine devoted to coffee.

Online

• A Quebec law that allows Loto-Québec to demand Internet providers block illegal gambling websites has been struck down by Quebec Superior Court because telecommunications are a federal jurisdiction. Which was pretty obvious when the law was first proposed in the 2015 budget. The full decision is here.

News about people

Introducing Shannon Kelly, our @CTVMontreal camerawoman now working with me at the Quebec City Bureau! Nous avons déjà beaucoup travaillé ensemble à Montréal et je suis très heureuse qu'elle ait décidé de relever un nouveau défi, ici à Québec ! Bienvenue ! #assnat #polqc pic.twitter.com/18gFlklisP

— Maya Johnson (@MJohnsonCTV) July 25, 2018

• Sean Coleman had his last day at TSN 690, as he prepares to begin an MBA at McGill.
• Patrick Rozon (second cousins with disgraced former JFL owner Gilbert Rozon) has been named the new head of the French part of the annual comedy festival. He retains his other role leading its lower-cost related festival Zoofest.
• CBS boss Les Moonves is the latest target of Ronan Farrow’s reporting on past cases of sexual misconduct. The company is figuring out what to do next.
• Former CTV Toronto reporter Karlene Nation is running for city council.
• Shruti Shekar has left the Hill Times and joined IT World Canada.
• Chuck Kaiton has been dropped as the Carolina Hurricanes’ radio play-by-play man … oh wait, no he hasn’t.
• Kevin O’Connell has left his job as weatherman at Channel 2 in Buffalo.

Obituaries

• Harry Gulkin, Montreal film producer
• Jonathan Gold, Los Angeles Times restaurant critic

Jobs

• Washington Bureau Chief, The Canadian Press (deadline: July 31) — this is Alexander Panetta’s former job
• Station manager, CJLO radio in Montreal (deadline: Aug. 2)
• Reporter, CJAD 800 in Montreal (deadline: Aug. 3)
• National online journalist, politics, Global News in Ottawa (deadline: Aug. 7)
• Newsroom director for newsletters at the Toronto Star (deadline: Aug. 23)
• Afternoon traffic reporter, Canadian Traffic Network in Montreal (providing traffic reports to Bell Media radio stations)
• News announcer, CHED 630/Global News 880 Edmonton

News about news

Yesterday 10 women editors met to congratulate @IreneGentle, new editor @TorontoStar. Many of us had never met in person before. Many thanks @AdrienneBatra for making it happen. cc @jmcguirecbc @sarah_fulford @alisonuncles @semmons @AnneMarieOwens @CathrinBradbury (+ @alau2) pic.twitter.com/lWPH6bo9mI

— Jessica Johnson (@ejessicajohnson) July 20, 2018

• A marketing company has started a new online news outlet covering the eastern part of Montreal (basically everything east of St-Michel or Pie-IX Blvds.). So far the news stories out of Est Média Montréal are not exactly earth-shattering, but it’s still early.
• Canadaland’s Jesse Brown sits down with Pierre Elliott Levasseur of La Presse to discuss its future.
• The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., has apologized to readers after a review of journalist Anne Blythe’s work found several instances of plagiarism. She has been terminated and editor’s notes appended to her stories.
• A La Presse story almost four years ago criticizing a decision not to charge a police officer who was driving 80 km/h over the speed limit in an unmarked car and crashed into another vehicle killing a five-year-old boy has finally resulted in that officer, Patrick Ouellet, being convicted of dangerous driving causing death. As several people have noted, that conviction would never have come without media coverage, which prompted public outrage that led to political intervention.

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News about news

• La Presse has officially transitioned from a division of Power Corporation to an independent nonprofit company controlled by a trustee. Louis LeBel, former Supreme Court of Canada judge, has been named that trustee, charged with ensuring the publication follows its mandate. Alain Gignac, former TC marketing boss and general manager of the group that organized Montreal’s 375th anniversary, has been named chair of the board of directors, and will recommend other directors to LeBel. The trust’s rules state that, once the founding board has been formed, further appointments to it will be made by the trustee on recommendation of a 2/3 vote of the board.
• Myanmar has filed charges against two Reuters reporters for violating the Official Secrets Act. They were investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya men. Reuters has an entire section of its website devoted to updates.
• Vice Canada has cut another 23 jobs.
• London’s Times newspaper has fired a journalist for posting fake reviews in order to get free stuff.

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News about news

• Ontario courts have changed their rules to allow journalists to use electronic devices in court provided they’re not disruptive. But the rules don’t define what “media or journalists” means in this context. There’s a list of media established solely for the purpose of determining access to digital recordings (that explicitly says it “should not be referenced as a list of designated media for any other policy or protocol applicable to the courts”), but otherwise it’s not defined, which could cause problems when journalists are given special privileges not allowed to members of the public.
• About 25 jobs have been cut at Quebec City’s Le Soleil.
• BuzzFeed exposes a writer who contributes to websites like Forbes and Entrepreneur for taking money from clients in exchange for mentioning them in his stories. The story is a warning to all media outlets who think they can profit off free content contributed by people they don’t monitor.
• Prompted by a tweet from Louie Mantia, I created a Twitter moment of tweets from journalists (and some of my own contributions) about things people probably don’t know about journalists that would be obvious to anyone working in the industry.
• CBC News published its first story entirely in Inuktitut about Nunavut’s legislature ousting its premier.
• The National Newsmedia Council is now offering ethics advice support to freelance journalists.
• CTV News has filed its defence in the lawsuit brought by former Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leader Patrick Brown. There’s not much earth-shattering new here, but there are some details about the process CTV News went through in reporting its story about Brown’s alleged behaviour toward young women.

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