Category: Spring 1994

LORNE SAXBERG TUNED IN HOPING TO FIND A WHITE KNIGHT. THE CBC Newsworld anchorman was on the evening shift in the national newsroom in Toronto. It was December 6, 1990, and all everybody had been talking about were the devastating “Black Wednesday” budget cuts announced the day before by management. The bloodletting was going to… Continue reading Watson Shrugged

PERHAPS THE FIRST MAINSTREAM Canadian journalist. to admit publicly that he was gay was Richard Labonte, who outed himself in The Ottawa Citizen in June 1980. Labonte, an entertainment writer and copy editor, wrote about how, at age 14, he was told by parents and peers that his type of love was “wicked”; how he… Continue reading Coming Out in the Newsroom

The small, fifth-floor office near Yonge Street in downtown Toronto is pure Michael Coren: British pompous, and slightly eccentric. Row after row of old English generals, hunting horsemen, and world war memorabilia hang on the walls; gargoyles and cherubs perch above wooden bookcases lined with literary greats; a huge maroon silk scarf and the Union… Continue reading Cloak and Dagger

GETTING “ON FRONT” IS unofficially the highest accolade at most newspapers and generally one of the surest ways for a reporter to garner respect and gain promotion. Editors use front-page hits to gauge a reporter’s ability to handle highprofile beats and important stories, experience that in turn increases their byline play on the front page.… Continue reading Front Page Challenge

IN JULY 1992, THE GLOBE AND MAIL carried a 65-inch article by John Partridge on the first stage of a reorganization of The London Free Press newsroom that had begun two months earlier. The story’s headline was a clear indication of the largely uncritical tone of the piece: “Bold Experiment Shatters Newspaper Stereo types.” The… Continue reading Team Dispirited