What exactly happened between Percy Paris and Keith Colwell outside the MLAs' washroom in Province House last Thursday night? Was it a "scuffle" (CBC, Global), an "alleged scuffle" (Metro, Globe and Mail), an "altercation" (Chronicle-Herald), an "incident" (CTV, Yarmouth Vanguard), a "bizarre incident" (CBC), a "fight" (Yahoo), a "kerfuffle" (also Yahoo), or even a "brawl" (SunNews). "Brawl" seems way over the top, and to my ear, a term tinged with racism in this context. "Scuffle" and "altercation" seem about right. "I guess there would be some physical contact," said Inverness Conservative MLA Allan MacMaster, the one uninvolved eye-witness who has spoken...

11 May, 2013

Peter Barss thinks newscasters overuse puns. In a letter to CTV, he wrote: Like many news stations (radio and television) you seem inclined to use as many puns as you can fit into a story. The question I'd like to suggest that you ask yourselves is, "Why?" Does a pun help to elucidate a story? I don't think so. In fact, the use--overuse actually--of puns acts as a distraction from the news. Instead of helping to clarify a story, puns draw attention to the "cleverness" of the speaker. It's like "Hey, look at me. I just found another pun." Just because a...

10 February, 2012

Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada,offers useful perspective on Colvin's allegation in an interview with CTV....

18 November, 2009

[UPDATES appended at end] Contrarian reader SL shares our ink-stained correspondent's distaste for the Saint John Telegraph-Journal's malodorous apology to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. She wonders why departing Harper Communications Director Kory Teneycke included the precise timing of his decision to resign so prominently in his resignation talking points. The second paragraph of the CBC story reads: Teneycke said he told Harper just after Canada Day and before the G8 meeting in Italy earlier this month that he was going to step down. That would be, uh, just before the Prime Minister did or did not consume the sacramental Host at Romeo LeBlanc's...

30 July, 2009
ATV's CTV Atlantic's domination of supper hour television reflects an unerring ear for Maritime sensibilities. Host Steve Murphy is affable, respectful, and moderate, and these qualities draw viewers in droves. They were not on display, however, on October 9, 2008, when CTV officials chose to break an earlier undertaking and air three false starts of a mid-campaign interview with then-Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, who stumbled repeatedly in response to an awkwardly worded question from Murphy. (The National Post's Colby Cosh wittily dissected the grammatical minefield underlying the Francophone Dion's incomprehension of Anglophone Murphy's question.) CTV Atlantic News Director Jay Witherbee gamely defends the network decision, contending that politicians cannot expect mulligans in election campaigns. Contrarian is more inclined to the view of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council panel that reproached the network this week.
28 May, 2009