More Good News

Episode 42 of This Is Toronto is now available!

This latest edition revisits Good News Toronto, a not-for-profit newspaper that features inspirational stories and celebrates everyday heroes.

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

NEXT EPISODE: Jan. 14, 2010

...and we're back!

New URL, same content, picking up where we left off!

Transit, Ages, the City and the Future - A Happy Ending

Sometimes, the song lyrics are proven wrong in a happy way: you not only get what you want, but it's also exactly what you need.



Case in point? This morning at Ottawa City Hall.

The age limit on qualifying for student-rate bus passes is dead. To the last man and woman on city council, they repealed that ill-considered age limit of 27 in the name of economics and equity.

Last week, the Ottawa Transit Committee took the recommendation of the Pedestrian and Transit Committee to drop that age limit into the dumpster and ran with it. Unanimously. Given how the eight members of that committee tend to get on as a rule, you can guess how deeply the responses from the public at that committee hearing got to them.



At the full-council hearing, the Transit Committee's recommendation was put forth by committee chair Alex Cullen. There was some brief debate and comments by several councillors about assorted aspects of the topic before "ayes and nays" were called for.



In the end, council was as unanimous as the transit committee. Cullen had warned the people in the gallery last week that they had eight on the council in hand, and needed ten more to get the rule overturned. I suspect the students and their allies took that advice to heart.

Happy ending.

CBC Cuts go Deep, But Radio 3 Lives On

Steve Pratt has a Radio 3 site outlining the changes coming to CBC Radio 3 but the important part is that it will go on.

Live recordings will be less, the budget will be lower and there may be staff reductions (they won't know until May) but the important part is that Radio 3 will remain. Thanks to everyone who chimed in, emailed the CBC, joined up on Facebook, signed the petition, posted to your blogs and did whatever else you did to help make this happen.

From Steve's post (do read the whole thing for details on the changes):

"This is a bad day for CBC Radio 3. There is no doubt about it.  However, it could have been much worse and for that I think we are all thankful.  We are moving forward with a very strong radio station, a brand new version of the website coming within a couple months, and a powerful, passionate community of artists and music fans.  Despite today’s bad news, I’m personally very confident that Radio 3 will continue to grow and prosper in the future and that impact of the cuts to our budget has been minimized at best as humanly possible.

I would personally like to thank each and every one of you who raised awareness online about the risks to Radio 3 since the infamous ‘unload Radio 3’ quote was seen in the media.  Your support and the visibility of that support was heard loudly inside the company and I hope was a factor in making today’s news considerably less than it might have been otherwise."

The rest of the CBC is also sharing the pain. Cuts are coming to news, radio, sports, drama and regional programming. A full list of the damage is available at http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/03/26/cbc-layoffs.html?ref=rss.

NxEW.ca

Fox News Commentator Cancels Edmonton Visit

I'm sure you've all seen the lovely video from Fox by now. After 8 years and 116 (to date) deaths in Afghanistan facing armed insurgents, booby traps, ambush's and suicide bombers the brave people at Fox news decided to ridicule Canadian Soldiers for 'taking a break.' The reality is we're not taking a break, we're leaving - Canada's mission in Afghanistan will soon be over.



Fox News has now apologized for the comments and one of the commentators, Doung Benson, has cancelled an April 2-5 appearance at the Comic Strip in Edmonton. Apparently he needed a break.

Edmonton, by the way, happens to be where Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry is based.

New Feeds

I have a long list of stuff to look at, but for now these are the newest feeds added. More will be coming soon and, as always, suggestions are welcome.

Music Business

Down By the Point Records

Endearing Records

Grumpy Cloud Records

Out of Touch Records

Band Blogs

Cam Malcolm and the Owls

News

April Reign

BigCityLib Strikes Back

GrannyRantsOn

Progressive Economics Forum

Thwap's Schoolyard

CBC News Wants Suggestsions? Maybe? Sortof?

In what appears to be a post directed only to CBC employees they are asking for ideas to improve CBC news as part of the 'CBC News renewal process'. My first thought is that if this is meant only for employees it shouldn't be on Inside the CBC - which is available to everyone (inside and out.) The link for more details leads to IO, which is the internal portal for CBC employees. My second thought is that as the nation's public broadcaster they should be asking the question outside the organization as well. So, although you can't get 'more details' please feel free to send your suggestions to newsrenewal[at]cbc.ca.

As someone who has sent a myriad of suggestions to the CBC over the years I'm somewhat skeptical of any request for suggestions (from the inside or the outside.) It has seemed to me for the last few years that those who make the decisions inside CBC have behaved like a cheating spouse. The audience they have isn't the audience they want. Having found an audience for something they continually want a younger, sexier audience with a better job and a nicer car.

Although I personally prefer the new Radio 2 to the old one, they certainly made the old Radio 2 audience feel like they simply weren't audience enough. The same goes for the cancellation of JPod and Intelligence despite public protests. They cancelled Zed, but Al Gore is bringing it back (sort of) and making into a 24/7 network. They decided against bringing Canadian indie music to television but others are going to in the form, again, of 24/7 networks (more on that later).

So, it is a little difficult to believe that any ideas received by them, no matter how good, will be put to use. It is a bit of a catch 22 - if you are a dedicated viewer with ideas on how to make things better that probably means that you are not part of the audience they want and therefore your ideas are not likely to be of interest but I'd encourage you to send them anyway. If, as Sarah Hepola suggests at Salon.com the age of the tabloid is over (thanks to Bill Doskotch for the link), then they may be at a complete loss as to how to proceed.

CBC's Best of User Generated Content

The CBC, like most news networks, have opened a door for people to send in 'newsworthy' pics and videos. This is, for news networks, a tremendous source of free content. Most people who submit 'user generated content' are unaware that some of the truly 'newsworthy' videos and pictures are actually worth money..be aware.

Anyway, someone at the CBC put together a 'best of' montage of some of the really good stuff sent in to them over the last year - newsworthy or otherwise.

Henry Champ Retires

Yesterday was the last day on the job for CBC (and former NBC) correspondent Henry Champ this is different from the situation affecting Don Murray and Patrick Brown. Henry is simply retiring. It is still sad to see him go.

For a long time broadcasters took their news rooms very seriously. They saw the news as a public service, something they gave back in exchange for the use of the public airwaves. Journalism during this era was sober, well researched, unbiased and informative. Journalists worked very hard, and at times put themselves at considerable risk, to bring the public the information they needed to make informed decisions.

Recently it appears that this approach is being abandoned. Diligence, insight and public service are increasingly being replaced by a love of scandal, a 'if it bleeds it leads' editorial approach and a desire to generate ratings using the least expensive content available. Mr. Champ is one of the finest examples of the older generation and approach and he will be sorely missed not only for his reporting, but for the example he set.

Help Un-Fire CBC Journalists

As has been mentioned before in an effort to save a few bucks the CBC has fired two of it's best foreign correspondents. (Their contracts have not been renewed, that's how you fire a journalist at the CBC.) Since then a letter has been written to CBC President Hubert Lacroix by many of the CBC's top journalists including Adrienne Arsenault, Nahlah Ayed, Peter Armstrong, Keith Boag, Susan Bonner, Michael Colton, David Common, Michel Cormier, Margaret Evans, Celine Galipeau, Guy Gendron, Anthony Germaine, David Halton, Jean-Francois Lepine, Neil MacDonald, Rick MacInnes Rae, Peter Mansbridge, David McGuffin, Terry Milewski, Joyce Napier, Raymond Saint Pierre, Joe Schlesinger, Alison Smith, Brian Stewart, Connie Watson and Jennifer Westaway.

You can read the full text of the letter at http://teamakers.blogspot.com/2008/10/letter-to-cbc-president-requesting.html. In the comments section of the link above someone asked if there was a petition they could sign in support. There wasn't, but now there is!

The petition is at http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/SaveCBCNews and the Facebook group is at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=35534133644.

As far as I'm concerned the top 3 news organizations in the world at the moment are BBC News, CBC News, and (bias aside) Al Jazeera International - Personally I'd like to keep the CBC on that list.

Breaking Links: Oct. 23, 2008

36 Hours until I move so not much time for blogging, but a few headlines for you all. First I should mention that I run alot of groups on facebook. Check them out and see if there are any of interest that you don't know about at http://www.publicbroadcasting.ca/justin/groups.html

Now, check these out.

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The declining looney and the need to save money in the declining U.S. has the phones ringing again for Canada's film industry. Note to Mr. Harper, Even in a bad economy the arts and culture sector keeps going.

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=901474

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Sign of things to come? Last week French President Sarkozy came out against Quebec Seperatism:

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=0367988f-81a9-49cb-84d1-7daea0372605

Today two ADQ members defected to Charest's Quebec Liberals

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2008/10/23/floor-crossing.html

If separatism is finally done a Bloc/Liberal merger could form majority governments for a long time to come.

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Before the election the CBC hired a private company to monitor it's election coverage and look for signs of bias. The report is in and no bias was found.

The J-source article is at http://www.j-source.ca/english_new/detail.php?id=2936

The full report on CBC coverage is at http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_cruickshank/pdf/ERIN_Interim_Report_Oct_22.pdf

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In an effort to shed their Big Brother image, Microsoft has patented real time voice censoring software.

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/10/20/microsoft_bleeps_undesired_words_censorship/

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Rabble Relaunches with new partners the Council of Canadians, United Steelworkers, and Douglas Coldwell Foundation:
http://beta.rabble.ca

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Champion of deregulation Allan Greenspan admits that industry cannot regulate itself. (Mr. Harper might want to read this one too.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/24/viewpoint-us-economy-shares

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Joel Plaskett is coming to a theater near you.
http://radio3.cbc.ca/blogs/2008/10/Joel-Plaskett-At-A-Theatre-Near-You

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For Those Who Like to Rank Things

Some recap/top/best of lists for 2007

From TV, eh? a recap of the Year in TV

From VoCA (View on Canadian Art) the Best of 2007

From Quill and Quire the Year in Quillblog

The Top 10 Albums as chosen by Young Galaxy.

The Top Albums Volcanoless in Canada.

The Best Music As chosen by Tegan.

From the CBC the Year in Books

From CBC Radio 3's R3-30 Podcast 2007's Top 10

From Chromewaves the Class of 2007

From Herohill the Top 10 LPs of 2007

From A Good Beer Blog the best of 2007

From Danielle Takacs the Top 10 News Stories of 2007.

Lord of the Flies

William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" is frequently interpreted as almost a horror novel by adults.

From Wikipedia:

The story begins with a large number of boys, ages 6 to 12, stranded on a tropical island with no tools to survive, except for a knife. They were being evacuated from a war and their plane had been shot down...

The thought of this group of children, left to run their own affairs can lead to nothing good in the eyes of most. This fear is certainly demonstrated in the reactions to the CBS reality show Kid Nation which debuted this year.

Personally I never watched that show because it sounded like a crap idea for a television program. That said, I frequently wonder, when reading the news if the idea of children running the show is really all that terrible - if we would really be any worse off.

For example, in the news this week a British woman was threatened with death because someone didn't like the name of her teddy bear and a group of Alberta adults got together and decided that a little girl couldn't play soccer with their children because they didn't like her hat.

Most children I know at least have a grasp on some basic rules like - no hitting, if you make a mess clean it up, share what you have and don't call people names - lessons, apparently, that many world leaders and key decision makers have yet to grasp.

I Wish I Was The Dog

In the words of Ron 'Farooq' Simmons: DAMN!

Helmsley's dog gets $12 million, but leaves 2 grandchildren zilch

CBC Throwback - The National

Here's one of the original openings to CBC's The National. This one dates back to the 1970's. It's short and to the point.

The Wrong Choice?

I was reading the National Post's coverage on Virgina Tech.

On page three (April 17), there was a collage of photographs from other school shootings. One particular photo was of a victim from École Polytechnique. She was sitting "slumped" in a chair, while an investigator gathers evidence. To be honest, I was very disturbed by the photo.

Not in the sense that I was looking at a dead body. Rather, I was disturbed in the sense that someone will look at the woman and recognize her, as either their daughter, relative, or close friend. They are going to have to relive the horror. Anyone who has ever had to identify a loved one in a morgue, will also have to relive the horror. That's a dreadful thing to experience and I feel the National Post made a bad decision by printing this photo.

I am fully aware that journalism is about providing all the necessary details. But sometimes, you have to break the rules if it's for a greater good. Everyone knows about the damage caused by these senseless acts. It doesn't need to be put out there bluntly. Out of respect for the woman's family, the National Post should not have printed this photo. They could have easily picked another photo that was less graphic, but still conveys the trauma.

This is just my opinion. However, I am interested in your take on the photo. Did the National Post make the wrong choice?