Picture 1Oh, how embarrassing! The New York Times, which many regard as the best newspaper in the world, had weeks of warning that Walter Cronkite was gravely ill. Like most large newspapers, the Times routinely prepares advance obits of famous subjects. In this case, it prepared both an obit and an Arts Section appraisal of the anchor's life's work. Two experienced writers and at least seven editors pored over the material. Two days before Cronkite's death, after CBS News discovered errors in the obituary material it had prepared in advance, Cronkite's son Chip emailed a senior Times editor to suggest a similar preemptive review of the paper's advance obit. Despite all this preparation, the Times's July 17, front-page obituary contained two errors, and the Arts Section appraisal fully seven. The result was this embarrassing correction:
02 August, 2009
CopyCon Ministers - cropped
Why is Canada's news media doing such a shoddy job covering the copyright consultations now taking place in select cities across part of Canada? At the heart of the consultations on planned changes Canada's copyright law lies a fundamental question: Should the law protect authors of creative work, or corporate intermediaries who traditionally profited from the massive effort formerly required to reproduce and distribute them? Thanks to digital technology, the cost of copying and distributing works is rapidly approaching zero. Naturally, those who once profited from copying and distributing creative works are frantically trying to stem the flow of creative works, advocating ever-lengthening copyright protection,  and mandatory enforcement of consumer-hostile technologies that prevent all copying, legal or otherwise. In many cases, they have co-opted creator organizations to their cause. Not surprisingly, news organizations tend to view this question through the lens of corporate intermediaries. With exceptions, they frame the debate in terms University of Ottawa law professor Jeremy De Beer describes as, "the caricature of toiling creators vs. freeloading pirates."
02 August, 2009
An ink-stained wretch (and contrarian reader) offers a few tart observations on the Telegraph-Journal's strangely unelaborated apology.
I find something stinking with the Telegraph-Journal's wafer story. They bent over backwards to apologize and apparently the editor and publisher paid the price. But I haven't seen any reporting that took this any further. Did the Catholic officials cited in the original stories who apparently were so mightily offended by Harper's alleged act change their tunes? Who got the quotes from the church people? What contact was there between the PMO and the TJ? Did higher ups in the church get involved? God (literally) knows.
29 July, 2009

[caption id="attachment_1356" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Malcolm Gladwell"][/caption] The New Yorker's Malcom Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Bink, takes on Wired editor Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail and Free, in today's edition. Free is essentially an extended elaboration of [occasional Cape Breton summer resident] Stewart Brand’s famous declaration that “information wants to be free.” The digital age, Anderson argues, is exerting an inexorable downward pressure on the prices of all things “made of ideas.” Anderson does not consider this a passing trend. Rather, he seems to think of it as an iron law: “In the digital realm you can try...

06 July, 2009

Here's how a really cool national postal service communicates. Hat tip: Bessy N....

02 July, 2009

Eleven Canadians living in the United States celebrate Canada Day by telling the New York Times what they miss about Canada. Moneyquote: We call our dollars loonies because the coin has an image of a loon in flight. Another old bird, the Queen of England, is on the other side of the coin. I remember singing “God Save the Queen” every morning in school. “Long live our noble Queen!” we belted, thousands of us tubby little obedient Canadians. I guess it worked. She’s still alive. (Rick Moranis) Unlike many of her generation, the late Cape Breton Post writer Eleanor Huntington, who died...

01 July, 2009
Not owning a TV, at least one connected to the outside world, contrarian is a little late with this, but it's worth reading. CTV Atlantic's Steve Murphy deftly navigates the border between politeness and persistence, while the Prime Minister Stephen H. squirms.
Q: You have been spending a good deal of time with Ignatieff lately working on this compromise that averted the election, and at same time your party is running ads that attacked Mr. Ignatieff. And frankly, we and other broadcasters have been getting complaints about those ads. How do those ads right now improve or dignifiy the political process?
30 June, 2009

After Newspaper Guild members narrowly rejected a voluntary pay cut to save the financially troubled Boston Globe, the New York Times Co., which owns the Globe, announced it would unilaterally cut salaries at the paper by 23 percent. So editorial cartoonist Dan Wasserman cut 23 percent of this morning's cartoon. ...

10 June, 2009

After decades in the wilderness, they emerged, victorious, on the mountaintop. They had vanquished the foe, dispatching the king and his courtiers to a life on the back benches—or worse. Victory, sweet victory, was theirs. They ruled! So they would party, right? Party was their last name. They would gather together in gay frivolity to savor the sweet fruits of victory 'til dawn. Or not. This was the scene at midnight in the ballroom of the Dartmouth Holiday Inn, where the socialist hordes gathered to celebrate. The merriment went on 'til, oh, 10:30 or so, before the troops, led by their newly minted MLAs,...

10 June, 2009
Show more
Loading...