Category: Spring 1989

The journalist’s badge. That’s how Ron Adams, host of CBC Radio’s Media File, referred to getting sued. He was questioning Jock Ferguson of The Globe and Mail about libel chill. Lawsuit phobia, if you prefer-the notion that the threat of fighting legal actions, with their high costs in time and money, often inhibits aggressive reporting.… Continue reading Libel Law: The Chilling Effect

Director Peter Raymont’s most recent documentary The World is Watching is much like Raymont himself: earnest and passionate, it argues that the American news media slant their coverage in response to political pressure and advertising revenues. At the heart of the film is a scene at a Nicaraguan farming cooperative devastated by Contra rebels in… Continue reading Point of View

World Beat News, Tuesday, June 14, 1988: At the anchor desk, Gail Smith is reading a copy story. It’s about eight people, seven of whom, until a week ago, worked with Smith in the CFTO newsroom. “Metro Police today issued arrest warrants for eight people wanted for unlawful acts arising out of the labor dispute… Continue reading Sins of Omission

Minutes after being voted onto the board of the National Magazine Awards Foundation last October, Margaret Wente, editor of Report on Business Magazine, spoke up to pass on a message from her boss, Globe and Mail publisher Roy Megarry. The meeting had moved on to the perennial subject of replacements for retiring sponsors when Wente… Continue reading Tainted Triumphs: The Great Awards Debate

In his columns as ombudsman for The Toronto Star, the late Borden Spears was a pioneer in the field, setting his own agenda for criticism and constantly advocating higher standards in journalism. During his tenure in the 1970s, Spears attacked the “Credibility Gap” he saw developing as readers lost trust in the media. When one… Continue reading Limited Visions