On a Thursday night in November, Craig MacInnis sits in a dark corner of the Horseshoe Tavern, a downtown Toronto rock club, smoking a Winston and sipping a Coke. He watches impassively as Go Four 3, a promising young quartet that has recently moved east from Vancouver, crashes into its opening song. MacInnis, who writes… Continue reading Growing Up on the Rock Beat
From Hero to Villain to National Shame
Last September 27, in the dark hours of the morning, a sleepy press village in Seoul, South Korea, awakened to the sniff of scandal. Lights flickered on across the compound as word of what was later called “the smelliest scandal in the history of the Olympics” spread to reporters from around the world. Ben Johnson,… Continue reading From Hero to Villain to National Shame
The Quest for Holy Joe’s Grail
On page 20 last November 22, The Toronto Star admitted it had lost. The people of Canada had voted against it, had “spoken convincingly.” An editorial, a quietly disappointed concession speech, signaled the end of the paper’s three-year fight to undo the free trade initiative. It was an emotional fight, one in which the Star… Continue reading The Quest for Holy Joe’s Grail
The Native People’s Choice
The Program in Journalism for Native People at the University of Western Ontario changed Juanita Rennie’s life. The intense, 12-month course prepared her and six other graduates of PJNP’s first class for entry-level media positions. Rennie, then a 40-year-old mother of six and grandmother to three, graduated in 1981 knowing exactly what to do next:… Continue reading The Native People’s Choice
The Firing Line at the Globe and Other Marketing Targets
A basic principle of journalism is that the duty of the news media is to create an informed electorate. That’s one of the first things taught to fresh young students when they enter journalism school. Sadly, that principle is becoming more and more endangered as journalists allow their priorities to be twisted to suit commercial… Continue reading The Firing Line at the Globe and Other Marketing Targets
