The last time I was in church was when I was 14 in Singapore. On those Sunday mornings at St. Andrew’s Cathedral I always felt a sense of moral inadequacy as, from the pulpit, Father Thomas feverishly condemned the dishonesty and debauchery he was all around him. The same feeling came back to me after… Continue reading Is Nothing Sacred?
Post Mortem
Once upon a time, there was a great grey lady of the financial press. Prim, pedigreed, if a trifle sheltered and old-maidish, she was a respectable broadsheet, born of leisurely and writerly ways, contemplative and conservative in her nature. Every week (more or less at the same time, depending on the whims of Canada Post),… Continue reading Post Mortem
Looking Back on a Legend
Ralph Allen was angry. You could tell by the way his face changed color, and it was now a deep shade of red. The staffers of Maclean’s magazine, all sitting at tables in a private room of a Bay Street restaurant, shifted uneasily in their seats. The 1950s were drawing to a close, and Maclean’s… Continue reading Looking Back on a Legend
The Power and the Story
Journalism is about power. From the stories we choose to cover, to the way we present them, to the conflicts between writers and editors-every aspect of the industry assumes some type of control over our audience, our subjects and ourselves. More and more, journalists are seen as sources of information, “experts” on whatever subject they… Continue reading The Power and the Story
Dr. Jackman Wants you to Feel Good About Yourselves
The idea had been building in Dr. FL “Eric” Jackman’s mind for some time. Back in 1980, when he’d run for Parliament in the federal election and fumed over how reporters constantly misquoted him, a possible solution had first begun to take shape. But it wasn’t until 1985, when his friend John Aird had just… Continue reading Dr. Jackman Wants you to Feel Good About Yourselves
