John Ibbitson’s evening is spiralling out of control – and there’s nothing he can do but sit back and smile. It’s a cold November night at the University of Toronto’s Innis College, and Ibbitson, The Globe and Mail’s national political affairs columnist, is in the middle of a book-tour-turned-verbal-slug fest. Ibbitson grips his leather chair… Continue reading Being John Ibbitson
Category: The Magazine
Dude, Where’s My Journalism?
On the October 14, 2005 cover, a fried chicken leg sits on a pea-green plate. The cover line reads: “You can’t get it from fried chicken – and other truths about bird flu.” Kitschy covers beckon passersby from inside newspaper boxes with come-hither cover lines such as, “Clicking to Climax,” or “Is There a Place… Continue reading Dude, Where’s My Journalism?
Bright Side of the Dark Side
Ben Chin hasn’t been near a television studio in months, but the former news anchor still dresses for the lights and cameras. His tailored suit, cuffed shirt and blue-and-yellow striped tie come straight from a men’s fashion magazine. His new office is another story. Papers and files lie in heaps on top of the wooden… Continue reading Bright Side of the Dark Side
Narcissus in Chief
At a time when every newspaper editor in the country is “revisioning” his or her paper (i.e. making it palatable to a coming generation of Xbox-ed Netheads), you’d think that the redpen set wouldn’t have the time to pontificate the way they used to from the safety of their editorial board cubicles. And yet, the… Continue reading Narcissus in Chief
Ethical Dilemma
In 1995, I went to Kikwit in the Democratic Republic of Congo, then Zaire, to produce a documentary on the Ebola outbreak. When I arrived, news teams from all over the world were clamouring to get inside the ward. But local and international medical staff refused to let any journalists in. Victims were dying a… Continue reading Ethical Dilemma