tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post4827879431147292496..comments2024-03-29T10:02:52.586-04:00Comments on Politics and its Discontents: Too High A Price To PayLornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-8568020648178619502017-10-13T20:41:11.520-04:002017-10-13T20:41:11.520-04:00The Tyee article is an inspiring piece, Mound, and...The Tyee article is an inspiring piece, Mound, and could very well be a model for local news. The model reminds me of what Naomi Klein has documented in Argentina: worker-owned factories:<br /> http://thetake.org/index.cfm?page_name=synopsisLornehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-82025329328744318172017-10-13T19:57:48.034-04:002017-10-13T19:57:48.034-04:00Following up on my remarks about CHEK there's ...Following up on my remarks about CHEK there's a new report on the Victoria TV co-op in The Tyee.<br /><br />https://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2017/10/13/CHEK-Put-Workers-In-Charge/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=131017The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-53937383663247264592017-10-12T14:10:23.072-04:002017-10-12T14:10:23.072-04:00Helping to foster a real sense of community is sur...Helping to foster a real sense of community is surely a very, very important role for local and regional media, Mound.Lornehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-63679416012799724362017-10-12T13:18:20.147-04:002017-10-12T13:18:20.147-04:00I remember "the Spec" from a time gone b...I remember "the Spec" from a time gone by when it was a very respected newspaper, holding its own even in the shadow of the Toronto giants. It served a 'beyond-Toronto' constituency and did it very well. Then it got vacuumed up into the corporate media cartel with the predictable, perhaps inevitable, outcome. I'm convinced that did not need to happen.<br /><br />What saved the TC carried on for the local TV station, CHEK. Again its network announced it was shutting the station down. What happened was that the community came together,bought out the assets at fire sale values, kept the on-air personnel and stayed on the air as the 'island' station. It's far from perfect but it will furnish local stories from Port Hardy all the way back down to Victoria. It covers the island communities, the island economy, island news, first and foremost, but it also picks up feeds from CBC and CTV for other news. Perhaps the island factor played a larger role than we might imagine. There's something that feels wrong in being cut off, dependent on the mainland, creating perhaps a broader feeling of needing 'our own.'The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-914863828952405032017-10-12T12:45:56.984-04:002017-10-12T12:45:56.984-04:00It is very heartening, Mound, to know there are st...It is very heartening, Mound, to know there are still some success stories in the world of journalism. Local and regional news coverage is crucial, given how much of our lives are affected by what goes on immediately around us. <br /><br />A few years ago, it looked like our local television station was going to fold. Instead, it was bought by another organization which ultimately decimated the staff, but despite that it still provides some useful local news. Our local paper, The Spectator, has been hit by the same kinds of reductions other newsrooms have experienced, but without its existence, the community would be far poorer and more ignorant.Lornehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-34576063498438634632017-10-12T12:33:03.520-04:002017-10-12T12:33:03.520-04:00There are far too many amongst us who fear and loa...There are far too many amongst us who fear and loathe them, Owen.Lornehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-25742665560464870732017-10-12T12:21:03.874-04:002017-10-12T12:21:03.874-04:00If we want to restore a functioning and genuinely ...If we want to restore a functioning and genuinely free press in Canada we would do well to dust off the Davey (1970) and Kent (1981) Commission reports. Paul Martin was in the process of an updated review when he was toppled by Harper/Layton. Journalism in Canada has degenerated under our current corporate media cartel. Even the CBC has declined significantly. I stopped watching television news years ago and see no purpose in going back.<br /><br />I was talking with my ex about this a few weeks ago. She studied journalism at Carleton. I went into news while she headed to public relations. Back then those careers were adversarial. She was a "flack," self-excommunicated from the priesthood.<br /><br />This may sound ridiculous but in my newsroom your work was intensely scrutinized by your colleagues. Everyone had their leanings but you were expected to suppress them in your work. Anyone who blurred opinion with information would be ridiculed by their peers for writing a "blowjob piece." The scorn was genuine and palpable. Your colleagues might withdraw and stop kicking around ideas with you anymore. You were suspect. That didn't mean you were bound to present "both sides of the story" if one side was bullshit. It just meant that you recognized your biases and did your best to restrain them in your writing. I have no sense of that continuing today and the product is worse off for it.<br /><br />The Victoria Times Colonist ought to be the poster boy for newspaper reform. At one time just another captive outlet of the CanWest chain, it went indie, standalone. The paper changed its focus from just a repeater outlet for editorial content written at some strip mall in Hamilton into a broadhseet daily for Victoria and the rest of the island. It re-kindled a connection that is lost in most contemporary newspapers. I was delighted one morning to see the headline story a review of the previous night's Tony Bennett concert in Victoria. I just found that wonderfully refreshing, really capturing the 'small town' character papers no longer provide. I'm pretty sure they ran most of the stories similar size papers in other provinces had that day only Tony Bennett, who apparently was terrific, led that day.<br /><br />The Times Colonist wasn't given great odds of survival when it broke away to go indie. For quite a while I wouldn't subscribe imagining it to be just another CanWest/NatPo repeater but a free trial subscription certainly changed all that.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-51319711281384340222017-10-12T11:32:46.805-04:002017-10-12T11:32:46.805-04:00Countervailing views. They're imperative, Lorn...Countervailing views. They're imperative, Lorne. Without them there can be no critical thinking.Owen Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.com