Category: Media
Does he have a guitar instructor, too?
Dave Carroll has a publicist.
I’m going to say that again. Son of Maxwell Dave Carroll, the Nova Scotia folksinger who needed only $150 and some creative friends to turn a beef with a US airline into a mortifying (to the airline) viral video that drew nearly 12 million pageviews, now has his own publicist.
Eliza Levy is a pleasant sounding young “assistant to the publicity team” at Media Connect, a division of Finn Partners of New York. She’s handling PR for Carroll’s newly published book, United Breaks Guitars: The Power of One Voice in the Age of Social Media, and his related Gripevine.com website.
Contrarian heard from her, likely because we featured UBG, as she calls it, the day after Carroll posted it on YouTube, when it had only a few hundred hits. You can buy the book here or, no doubt, at your nearby bookstore.
These Canadian fans
The surprisingly (to me) young audience that gathered Thursday night at Empire’s Park Lane Cinema in Halifax to see a simulcast of the American Public Radio program This American Life.
The slightly older audience that gathered for the actual show at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City:
Given the affection for radio among Canada’s chattering classes, I’m surprised at how many Nova Scotians have never heard of This American Life, a superb one-hour program produced each week at WBEZ in Chicago. A typical episode features a collection documentaries, essays, readings, memoirs, and found footage loosely grouped around a single theme. By times quirky, funny, and serious, it’s one of the reasons I spend more time listening to podcasts these days than to the CBC.
The live show featured the writer David Sedaris, a short film by Mike Mike Birbiglia, music by the Chicago group OK Go, and a hilarious routine by comedian Tig Notaro about a series of chance encounters she had with singer Taylor Dayne. Sample TAL’s archive of 463 shows or subscribe to the podcast.
Circulation
Our friend in Fredericton writes:
This morning my street was crawling with Jehovah’s Witnesses: at least a half dozen pairs of women, making their way from house to house, all neatly attired in skirts of a certain style. Before long, two Witnesses landed on my doorstep, introduced themselves as Queenie and Muriel, and handed over copies of The Watchtower and Awake!
I’m well-known as a magazine addict, so after getting through the most pressing work of the day, I paused to flip through these publications. I was shocked to notice the circulation numbers: 42,182,000 copies in 194 languages for each issue of The Watchtower; 41,042,000 copies in 84 languages for each issue of Awake!
In disbelief, I turned to Wikipedia, which ranks these publications as the two most widely circulated magazines in the world. For comparison, assuming Wikipedia has its facts straight, the closest recognizable periodical on the list is the fifth-most widely circulated: The Reader’s Digest. It clocks in at a paltry 17 million copies per issue, in 21 languages. Third and fourth places belong to magazines published by the AARP – the American Association of Retired Persons. Both have circulations topping 23 million copies, in just one language: English…interesting enough in itself.
I’m left wondering what the distribution plan for Jehovah’s Witness publications looks like. Does it consist entirely of women in skirts going door-to-door for days and days on end?
I think being one of those Jehovah’s Witnesses who goes door-to-door takes guts. Huge guts. And I respect that. I’d say most of people they encounter are predisposed to respond negatively when Witnesses knock. You really have to believe in yourself, and what you’re saying, to keep going back for more, door after door, street after street, town after town. So I’ll always give the Jehovah’s Witnesses a moment of my time, even if I don’t invite them in for tea, or include my home address here.
Besides, they’ve got all of those free magazines. Like, a lot of free magazines.
More news, less faux psychodrama in legislature reporting, please
I don’t mean to be overly cranky with my former colleagues in the political journalism racket, but I could do with a little less psychoanalysis and a little more content in reports from the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.
CBC legislature reporter Jean Laroche’s weekly debrief this morning was long on the former and light on the latter.
Premier Dexter, he explained, normally doesn’t have a short fuse, but the Chignecto-Central Regional School Board’s threat to decimate library staff caused him to blow his stack. The debate, opined Laroche, had an unusual, intensely personal character.
Really? None of the clips Laroche played showed anything like that. In them, the premier calmly, if wearily, pointed out that the board’s empty threat was the oldest, tiredest arrow in the school board’s threadbare quiver, a tactic described here months ago as “Kill the Friendly Giant.” Laroche himself must have seen it play out 50 times, as have the opposition leaders who cynically played along.
After a decade in which school enrolment dropped by 30,000 students, while school board budgets marched briskly upward, the government has rightly ordered modest restraint in the coming year. The Chignecto board responded by announcing that a popular program with a vocal constituency will be eliminated as the only possible means of coping with “massive cutbacks imposed by the province.”
Yawn.
The real news in the exchange was the premier’s sharp (and long overdue) criticism of the Nova Scotia Teachers’ Union for its obdurate defence of the status quo in a system undergoing thermonuclear demographic implosion. Dexter thinks a progressive union should be an enthusiastic partner in the search for better ways to operate a system that hasn’t changed much in 100 years.
Laroche helpfully explained that this is entirely untrue, that teachers embrace change every year by adjusting to annual tweaks in mandated curricula. Do tell.
Perhaps, just perhaps, the premier and his education minister will consider two cost-free proposals for injecting a spirit of innovation into the system.
Shaming without evidence: readers respond
On Sunday, I questioned the sudden closure of the Talbot House Recovery Centre, and the treatment accorded it’s executive director, Fr. Paul Abbass, after a victim’s rights activist apparently passed along an unspecified third- or fourth-party complaint about Abbass to the Department of Community Services.
A sample of the responses follows, but please also see this clarification of my original post.
A reader writes:
I am a former resident of Talbot house and I am convinced the experience saved my life. At no time during my therapy did I witness any impropriety on the part of Paul Abbass or any staff member. Talbot House has been a place of healing for many, for many years.
Ed Murphy, retired director of the St. Francis Xavier Extension office in Sydney, writes:
I’ve known this guy a long time, and I’ve been a long-time admirer of the work of Talbot House. I’m so pissed about the way this has been handled. Thanks for doing something when the rest of us do nothing.
A former parishioner of St. Andrew’s Church, Boisdale, where Father Paul Abbass was the parish priest, writes from Ontario:
I am in total agreement with your article. Innocent till proven guilty… Everyone has a right to confront their accuser, and Fr. Abbass is no less entitled.
A Halifax resident who calls Beaver Cove home writes:
Although I did not have the opportunity to get to know him very well, people whose opinion I value speak very highly of him. Furthermore, based on my limited interaction with him, I, too, found him to be a good and spiritual person.
If Father Abbass is guilty of impropriety, particularly in light of the recent events in the diocese, then this is very alarming and the church in this area may be damaged beyond repair.
Furthermore, Father Abbass will have to take responsibility for his actions.
However, what worries me as much is: What happens if the allegations are not criminal and he is innocent? The people at the Department of Community Services and the Board at Talbot house will have to explain to the public and to the parishioners how they plan to put this genie back in the bottle.
Father Abbass has already been dealt with as if he is guilty, losing all positions of trust. While this is appropriate, it places a great deal of responsibility on those who are investigating the allegations. They must be expeditious yet diligent.
What worries me is that the department’s responsibility to be expeditious may not be considered important. If the allegations are ultimately unfounded, Father Abbass’s reputation will be none the less harmed. If so, I hope the press will demand that the department explain in clear terms why the investigation took as long as it has.
A former board member of Talbot House, whose son was treated there, writes:
My son spent the better part of a year there, continued his education, remains sober and works full time. He did all the work. Talbot House was the perfect supportive setting.
I sent Father Paul an email when I read about the allegations. I told him that I believe in him and all his goodness. I still do.
I was crushed to hear the place was closed so quickly. I don’t know why, and have not talked with any board members or staff. I wish this investigation would shed some light not only on the allegations, but on Talbot House’s effectiveness. I believe it will stand up to scrutiny.
Talbot House was designed around the belief that an addicted person can recover and rebuild a life.
That approach conflicts with other provincial facilities, which seem to be more about preventing harm to society than helping someone who is sick. That’s my biased view. And don’t get me started on the ridiculous policy of only opening the door to treatment if the sick person quits cigarettes too.
Questions should be asked about Talbot House’s premature demise. It happened too quickly and without explanation. Those questions aren’t likely to be asked by sick people who struggle to cope with recovery from addiction.
Teresa MacNeil, former Chair of the Cape Breton Development Corporation, Vice-Chair of Enterprise Cape Breton, and director of Extension at St. FX, writes:
Thank you for so clearly articulating the essential features of the shoddy treatment of one who deserves open and just treatment. Actually every accused person deserves that much.
I have been aware of Father Paul Abbass’s work over the years, especially when he was located in Antigonish and new Glasgow; always characterized by a high level of service, concern, dedication, commitment. It is entirely unacceptable to allow him to be quietly banished without open and just attention to the complaint that forced him to “step down.”
Thanks to all who wrote.
The shaming of Fr. Paul Abbass — a clarification
In my post about the Queen-of-Hearts treatment accorded Fr. Paul Abbass—sentence first, trial later—I wrote that the Cape Breton Regional Police “said it had begun investigating allegations concerning a Talbot House employee.”
In fact, police spokesperson Desiree Vassallo chose her words more carefully than that.
“We are looking further into [information received from the Talbot House Board] and will determine whether there’s anything that needs a criminal investigation,” she said.
While Vassallo didn’t identify Abbass, everyone knew who she was talking about.
Almost seven weeks have passed since Vassallo made that statement. If the police have determined that the information does not warrant a criminal investigation, then in light of the personal cost to Abbass and the residents at Talbot House, they bear a heavy onus to acknowledge that the case is closed—or indeed, that it never opened.
Mulcair’s CBC boycott ends
Contrarian reader Michael Colborne points out that NDP leader Tom Mulcair’s boycott of CBC Radio’s English service, if that’s what it was, ended tonight with an interview on As It Happens.
He sounds like a guy who can take on Harper successfully. To do that, he’d be wise to avoid peevish boycotts in future (and that’s advice from someone who’d love to see him succeed).
Mulcair’s boycott of CBC Radio
I’m glad Thomas Mulcair won the leadership of the NDP Saturday. He has the best shot at retaining at least some of the party’s beachhead in Quebec. He’s said to be tough and politically shrewd, both of which he’ll need to be when dealing with the wily Stephen Harper. He clearly plans to edge the party toward the centre, ala Darrell Dexter and other successful NDP premiers, and that’s a good tactic when facing a government of right wing ideologues.
But I’m not without a few qualms, including Mulcair’s reputation for carrying grudges, and his occasional bone-headed statements on foreign policy, including his knee-jerk support for right-wing Israeli policies that pose a danger to Israel and the world.
My qualms are not eased by Mulcair’s silly, and thus far unexplained, spat with CBC Radio’s English service. Mulcair boycotted English CBC Radio throughout the campaign and in the days since. He refuses to explain the boycott, or even own up to it, but his rejection of interview requests is too consistent to be happenstance. If anyone else knows what stuck in his craw, I haven’t heard the explanation.
Perhaps Mulcair has been impressed at how successfully Harper buffaloed the national press corps by treating it with contempt. On CBC Radio’s Sunday Edition, Francine Pelletier lamented the gallery’s failure even to protest Harper’s continuing refusal to hold news conferences.
I don’t like having a prime minister who bullies the press. I don’t like press gallery reporters who respond like whipped spaniels. And I won’t take warmly to an NDP leader who is tempted to follow the same recipe.
False equivalence in the Robocall scandal – rebuttal
The Citizen’s Glen McGregor sends three points of rebuttal to my post this morning about his story (co-written with Stephen Maher) on rule-breaking election-eve Liberal robocalls in the Guelph riding that has been the eye of the storm over Conservative vote suppression efforts in May’s federal election:
- The Valeriote calls did give the Conservatives a new line of defence and did further muddy the water, as evidenced in any Hansard from this week. We didn’t pass on judgment on whether the defence was valid.
- We never equated the Valeriote calls with the faux Elections Canada calls. Both were parts of the narrative of key events leading up to election day that we catalogued in the story. Readers can draw their own conclusions about equivalence or lack of.
- Ottawa Citizen Managing Editor Andrew Potter has been entirely supportive of our continued reporting on this story and has not once tried to influence it in the way you suggest. Your speculation that details about the mechanics of the scandal were “perhaps” relegated to a lower position in the story to reflect his “predilections” is misinformed. Potter didn’t even handle this copy, which was filed on a Sunday (he was off duty). The editor who did made no structural changes to the story.
More false equivalence in the Robocalls scandal
Steve Maher and Glen McGregor, the two Ottawa reporters who broke the Robocall scandal, have a long story in yesterday’s Ottawa Citizen that warrants a close read.
The story leads with an account of Liberal robocalls in the Guelph riding on the eve of the May 2, 2011, federal election—calls that expressed dismay at CPC candidate Marty Burke’s opposition to abortion “in all circumstances.”
In a glaring escalation of false equivalence, Maher and McGregor say “revelations” about the automated calls “are giving the Conservatives a new line of defence against allegations of vote suppression and further muddying the events leading up to the federal election in Guelph.”
The Liberal calls did break an Elections Canada rule by failing to identify the candidate whose campaign team produced them. Many people, myself included, dislike receiving automated phone pitches from politicians or anyone else, but such calls are a legal and widespread feature of recent elections. I received some from my friend Ian McNeil’s campaign in the last Nova Scotia election, and for the last two weeks, I’ve been inundated with robocalls from NDP leadership candidates.
Some may criticize as negative calls that attack a rival candidate’s position on abortion, but there is nothing illegal or unusual about highlighting aspects of an opponent’s platform that another candidate thinks may prove unpopular with voters. On the contrary, doing so is a common feature of political campaigns.
To equate this with a concerted campaign to prevent supporters of opposing candidates from voting, by impersonating Elections Canada officials and misdirecting them to bogus, faraway polling stations, is risible. Yes, I realize, Maher and McGregor stop a half-step from asserting that equivalence themselves, but in its tone and copious detail, the piece takes a “Liberals did it too” approach. The headline (for which reporters are not responsible) reads: “Robocalls: Liberals, Tories used hardball tactics in Guelph, Ontario.”
This follows the widespread fasle equation of the Robocalls scandal with the Vikileaks revelations. As if revealing a cabinet minister’s hypocrisy (something the press gallery failed to do) is equivalent to organized efforts to deprive citizens of their vote.
Buried deep in the Maher-McGregor story — really deep, starting at the 21st paragraph — is some impressive reporting on the mechanics of the Robocall scam, based apparently on telephone records. In my view, this stuff should have been the story’s lead.
That it was not perhaps reflects the predilections of the Citizen’s managing editor, Andrew Potter, who, in an extraordinary breach of traditional newspaper church-state separation, took to the Citizen’s op-ed page yesterday to dismiss “hand-wringing” about the robocall flap as so much “hysterias of the pundits.” After all, writes Potter, things are even worse in Russia.
Isn’t that a great standard by which to judge Canadian election fairness, or editorial policy for that matter? (Potter’s dismissal of the latest Harper scandal is cloaked in much solemn chin-stroking about why good people sometimes do bad things.)
One other nugget in the Maher-McGregor story caught my eye. Not surprisingly, officials of Burke’s campaign were upset when calls attacking his extreme anti-abortion views began three days before the vote. As the Citizen story reports:
Later that afternoon, Burke’s deputy campaign manager, Andrew Prescott, took to Twitter to denounce what he said was a “vote suppression” effort aimed at his candidate.
“Anti-#CPC voter suppression phone calls currently underway in Guelph, suspecting #LPC” — the Liberal Party of Canada — he tweeted at 5:22 p.m.
The Liberal calls may or may not be objectionable, and they did break Elections Canada rules, but they are not in any sense voter suppression calls. So why did that phrase spring to the fingertips of a senior Conservative Party campaign official? Is it just possible the Conservative camp had voter suppression phone calls on its mind?
For the record, Prescott has has consistently denied playing any role in the illegal robocalls being investigated by Elections Canada. He declined to speak with Maher and McGregor about the tweets he sent on the Saturday before the election.
Just hours after Prescott’s tweets, as Maher and MacGregor detail in their story, the first of several calls from a pre-paid Virgin Mobile phone somewhere in Guelph, to an Edmonton-based automated calling company, laid the groundwork for the illegal robocalls that targeted Liberal and NDP supporters on election day. Calls that really were designed to fraudulently suppress non-Conservative votes.
