LATENIGHT - HALIFAX

Monday, February 11, 2008

No more Snooze Button

There's big news in the local publishing markey today. The Halifax Daily News (referred to as the Daily Snooze by some, and one of my past workplaces back in the nineties) is no more. The paper had been stumbling for years and had run through a number of owners from David Bentley to Harry Steele, on to Conrad Black and Southam, then to the Aspers and Global, until finally Tanscontinental. Workers were notified this morning. Over 92 employees will be laid off.

The remainder will remain in place to launch a brand new newspaper on Thursday when Halifax gets its own edition of Metro, the freely distributed broadsheet that is already running in several markets across Canada including Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Their new publisher, Greg Lutes, who had recently taken over the job at the Daily News, was the premier publisher for Metro Toronto. (They're not wasting any time, that last link to hfxnews.ca already is rebranded for Metro, having long been the Daily News site.)

The move makes a great deal of sense. I'd always suspected that SunMedia might buy them out and give us a Halifax Sun. The formats were so very similar. As it is, knowing the new publisher's background it's more apparent. The appearance of a free daily will mix up the local newspaper market more than another simple sale would have. The enormity of this format change might be what it takes to allow this new paper to survive. It might even shake the Halifax Chroncicle Herald's grip on the city.

It's so exciting it almost makes we want to reconsider my decision to leave.

Laid off employees will receive severance packages and/or help finding other jobs with other Transcontinental papers in the province. Though it's a bit like checking the obituaries for loved ones, it seems I know at least one or two that have survived the transition and will still be working when Metro launches on Thursday.

[Update: Thanks for the link, Fagstein, who considered this post as somewhat optimistic. I don't much like the idea of so many people thrown from their jobs but some perspective has to be considered; within two to three years of me leaving in October of 2000 (I was a ad rep back then), the paper had already experienced a 99% turnover in employees. The person I mentioned who is still working there had left and apparently returned. This is has been a slow bleed for a long, long time.]

[Update 2: My memory is shabby. Seems Metro publishes in the tabloid format; I could've sworn the one I picked up in T.O. last time was bigger. At any rate, Metro Halifax is out now and is defitinitely a tab.]

Labels: Halifax, media

Friday, January 26, 2007

The life and death of newspapers

Snowy graves at Holy Cross Cemetery.

Since I work in the publishing industry, I keep a close eye on what the competition is up to although lately, I had quietly placed a couple of Nova Scotia newspapers on a deathwatch. Mostly due to poor management and business structure, I figured that both the Valley Today and the Halifax Daily News could be gone at a moment's notice.

So far now, I'm half right. The Valley Today ceased publishing this week, after less than four months out of the gate. The official story is that financiers could no longer fund the paper, after slow growth in circulation and advertising revenue. There are now 31 people out of work.

The fact is, I was actually wrong about this one when it gets down to the reason why. I figured they had a bad strategy from the get go but even I assumed they'd have enough operating capital to make it through at least the first six months regardless of performance. Else wise, why even bother trying? I assumed that the problems would have stemmed primarily from their printing side.

The Valley Today never really understood what they would be or who their competition was. As a paper that served Nova Scotians in the farmlands of the Valley, they felt they were going head to head against the local community weeklies that were already established in that market. They couldn't have been further from the truth. There are people that read dailies, and people that read weeklies. They're largely different readers. The Valley Today sought to be a daily newspaper for rural readers and therefore its competition was The Chronicle Herald, naturally. Nonetheless, they didn't seem to figure that out and in a huge mistake from the onset, they contracted the Herald as their printer.

Now I've seen this happen in New Brunswick. The little guy awards their printing contract to their competitor, often because they can't find or afford their own press, and then that competitor slowly ratchets up the printing price until it becomes unaffordable and the paper folds. That's a very basic dirty trick in publishing but one that even neophytes should know to avoid.

The Valley Today also had major circulation issues. You could hardly find it outside of the Annapolis Valley. Here in Halifax, only one location I knew of carried the paper, and that was Atlantic News.

Another poor planning problem was that in order to be a bit unique, they decided to be an evening paper. Hardly anybody reads the paper in the evenings anymore. They read it in the mornings, avoiding work, before sinking into their routine for the day, or they read it to educate themselves on current events for the day's conversations around the water cooler. By evening, the news is already stale - which led to Frank Magazine nicknaming them "The Valley Yesterday".

Other things stand out now that I see they've folded. Advertising is always a concern, but thirty-one people is quite a lot of employees for such a tiny paper to have if you're not even running your own press. The paper simply wasn't all that big. It looked more like a community weekly than a soon-to-be esteemed daily. It was slim and laid out as a mini-tab. I'd venture that for what the final product was, you could get by with little more than half the staff they had. That wouldn't give you the New York Times, but this was far from the New York Times. The publishers should have been more careful with their money and from the sounds of it, the money of a number of others as well.

On the other side of the province, the Halifax Daily News, like a yo yo, seems to be back into a growth period. Having passed through numerous owners over the past few years, it tends to be greeted with huge investment, followed by huge cuts and layoffs until a new buyer repeats the cycle. It started when Harry Steele sold it to Southam. They sold it to Global and it then passed to Transcontinental.

All the while, staff turnover has been utterly insane and each round of cuts seems to leave them with fewer and fewer of the tried and tested. I worked there before going overseas and out of all my former coworkers, I only know of two people that are still there from my days at the paper.

Not long ago, a little birdie told me that it was up for sale once again, as of September. The problem is that they've pretty much run out of credible buyers. Basically, there just aren't that many people left in the market for failing dailies.

Selling is now further complicated because Transcontinental has taken over the web press and set it up in a separate building with their other contract printing equipment and operations. Since it's in a facility with other presses, one would have to tear it down and move it were it part of a sale package, which is a major undertaking.

No buyers stepped up and the same source told me that they had been on the verge of officially folding on January 1st of this year.

But they didn't. They hired a new editor, Jack Romanelli, whom I hear once worked at the Montreal Gazette. They've also created a new mascot for the paper. I guess it's supposed to be a rolled-up newspaper with legs but the cylindrical white body with a tassel at the top makes it look like a giant, walking, feminine hygiene product.

Now this week, we were treated to some huge news that implies that Transcontinental is confirming they're into the Daily News for the long haul. They've announced that they're joining with Alexander Keith's brewery to be "Founding" sponsors for the Halifax 2014 Commonwealth Games bid. The pricetag of that commitment is what first appears to be a staggering half-million dollars.

Now, a large portion of that could be contra advertising agreements, possibly spread throughout Transcontinental's more profitable regional papers, and much more will be made back in printing contracts for Transcontinental, related to the games whether they be signage, brochures, programs, etc. You could also consider from the perspective that $500,000 is small potatoes for a newspaper that consistently loses more money than that each and every quarter, from what I hear.

But 2014 is a long way off, so to make a deal like that we can assume that Transcontinental is planning to hold the Daily News reins for at least another seven years.

Labels: 2014 Commonwealth Games, Annapolis Valley, Halifax, media, Nova Scotia, publishing

Friday, November 24, 2006

Who's fuming now?

Interior of Gatsby's bar on Spring Garden

Smoke 'em if you got 'em. This is the start of the last weekend that you'll be able to light up in bars. By next Friday, you'll have to leave the premises of any bar you happen to still visit if you intend to light up. After all, we can't have all those health nuts being exposed to second-hand smoke while they poison their livers. That'd just be dumb.

Also up in smoke today was the crown's case against New Brunswick blogger Charles LeBlanc, who was acquitted of charges of obstruction, etc. after the events at the Atlantica conference over the summer. In his decision, the judge cleared the way for bloggers to do their thing, which includes taking photos of events as they happen. He was more gracious to the police in the end however. He pointed out that the protestors who sought to storm the conference could have created quite a dangerous and uncontrolled situation and he praised the cops for keeping it reigned it.

A noticeable absence from the trial's coverage was with the Irving papers of the province as commented on over at Charles' blog. The Irving stranglehold over media in the province is often a subject of discussion there, and they are frequently accused of burying stories or exhibiting a common editorial bias amongst their papers to support the causes of the corporation. After only a brief article earlier in the week (rehashed from the CBC story no less) it seems that the point has been proven. No reporters from Irving-owned papers were present to follow the case, one which has wide-ranging ramifications for journalists and private citizens everywhere. I don't have a link, but comments there indicate that even the New York Times picked up on the case, and Charles has mentioned that he's had several communications from people researching press freedom.

The best part of the trial must be the police claiming that they didn't recognize him as a journalist, yet knowing Charles and his site well enough to go to it when they sought information and intelligence on the planned demonstration. By only running positive pieces on Atlantica, I guess the Saint John cops must have found the Irving newspapers as useless as most other folks do.

Being unemployed and on social assistance, he runs his blog on a free hosting site, from public access terminals, and takes photos with a camera that was donated to him by a reader. Nonetheless he provides some of the best online coverage in the province, any clear bias on his part notwithstanding. Not even the habitually 9-5/Monday-Friday CBC website updates with the frequency he does. Online Irving papers are subscription-based so they provide nothing to the ordinary common man. It would certainly be something if Charles managed to file a wrongful arrest suit, win a bunch of cash and use it to actually fund his self-appointed role of political watchdog. It really would be "justice" on a lot of different levels.

UPDATE: According to Charles' blog, with still no coverage in Irving papers of a case important to individual rights in the province, Charles has just had an interview with the New York Times (who do feel it's important and not just to New Brunswick.) The story should be in Monday's Business section.

Labels: blogging, media, New Brunswick, vice

Monday, November 20, 2006

Charles the Champion

The court case of Charles Leblanc, New Brunswick blogger extraordinaire resumed today. It's an important trial for independent media rights. To summarize the story, Charles attended a summit in Saint John, held on the subject of Atlantica, which was the target of a large protest. Along with some of the protestors present, Charles was grabbed by the local police and tossed into jail, even though he identified himself as a blogger rather than a protestor. He was there just to follow the event and take pictures for his blog.

In the trial today, the police admitted that he identified himself as a blogger. They also admit to deleting one photograph from his camera. Charles alleges that there were closer to 200 pictures actually deleted by the police. One glance at Charles' blog tends to make me side more toward there having been 200 photos on the camera, rather than only one. Even 200 might be a bit of a conservative estimate. Charles is quite famous for his long pageloading times, even though he mostly thumbnails his pictures these days.

Charles is being charged with obstruction of justice and could face jail time. Though unemployed and on social assistance, he was denied a lawyer by legal aid (his current lawyer offered to represent him pro bono.) He also alleges that police paraded him for 30 feet in front of the audience before throwing him to the ground and roughing him up, in addition to deleting his photos. He suspects that he may also have been especially targeted due to his well known and often unrestrained political criticisms on his blog, often suplemented by photos. Several of his photos had been in the mainstream news, just prior to the Atlantica conference, when they were deemed to show instances of racially-based police brutality against protestors perpetrated by police officers Fredericton.

At the heart of this trial is whether independent journalists have the right to cover local news. Should Charles be arrested, it would be a green light for police to seize anyone's camera or equipment, whenever they wanted to. Does freedom of the press only apply to mainstream agents of the media? What constitues mainstream? Charles' blog is a bit hard to follow at times (and his writing reflects that English is his second language), and he does betray his own bias in many posts, however that's not any different than any editorial opinion writer's work. If it's about money, then I guess he isn't part of the media. If it's about readership, he most certainly is. His blog averages over 400 hits a day and it just recently topped the 150,000 mark.

It's also of note, that besides the CBC New Brunswick, there is virtually no other English-language media in New Brunswick that is not owned by the Irving family. The Irvings own all three English-language dailies, plus all of the community weeklies (except for one that I can think of in St. Stephen.) As issues such as the Irving LNG pipeline in Saint John, for example, come to the forefront, there are next to no voices in New Brunswick left to tell competing sides of the story.

Keep your eyes on the CBC for coverage. This is going to be a far-reaching trial.

Labels: blogging, media, New Brunswick

Just APEC on the cheek

HMCS Halifax (FFH-330)
There have got to hoards of better pundits than me out there who have been better able to wrap their heads around the events of this past weekend's APEC summit in Vietnam and all of the other associated southeast Asian whistle stops that coincided with it. I'm not entirely ignorant of politics, but I just can't keep up with the implied changes in global alliances that are sparking around the world. I've been accused of still being stuck in a Cold War mindset a few times, but I'm thinking that if I stay patient, things will work their way back into the Old World Order and the implied comfort level it gives me. After the recent spy incident, maybe we're only a couple press conferences away from being matched against the Russians again. Like corduroy, these kinds of international relations always seem to come back into style.

Most of my confusion is U.S./George Bush-related though. In one speech he said that they're wonderful friends now, but in nearly the same breath announced that the lesson America learned from the war in Vietnam was, basically, that one should never pull out until the job was done. I didn't quite catch the Vietnamese government's response but I can easily guess what it might have been.

And then, after refusing Tony Blair's mindblowing request for Iranian and Syrian help in Iraq, Bush was set to look for help from the world's major non-arab Muslim state, Indonesia. Yeah, right. I hope he wasn't expecting them to offer peacekeepers. I didn't quite catch the Australian or East Timorese governments' responses but I can easily guess what they might have been.

Some of the most noteworthy events of APEC for Canadians revolved around a surprising show of backbone by Prime Minister Harper. No one seems certain about exactly how it went down, but it seems Chinese President Hu Jintao's people advanced the idea of meeting with Prime Minister Harper who in turn said, "Sure, I've got some great ideas to discuss on human rights." That set off the red lights in Beijing and the meeting was off. Some scrambling and face-saving pleas on Canada's part got the meeting reestablished, but it was a limited one that lasted only fifteen minutes prior to an official dinner. Nonetheless, Harper scored the points he needed. He put human rights ahead of economic matters.

That's why it's odd that he poured cold water on the idea of joining in the naval blockade of North Korea, a nation which may be one of the world's most heinous regimes, and who make the Chinese look like Care Bears. He's saying he was never asked (no matter what the damn media say.). I'm guessing it's based on a shortage of resources but he didn't admit that. The navy already said that such an action would require the transfer of RCN ships from current duties in the Persian Gulf.

Getting more press however, was that although Harper has found a new cause in Human Rights, he's still not so keen on Freedom of the Press. Canadian news outlets actually found out about the meeting first from Communist Chinese sources, before hearing about it from tight-lipped Tory flacks. Similarily, Canada's sending of a senior diplomat to North Korea wasn't known until that diplomat had been in Pyongyang for three days already, when South Korean sources broke the news.

Certainly, the navy doesn't seem to be doing so well. One thing I've noticed is that the stock footage being used on television lately, whenever this subject comes up, has been showing coastal defence vessels more than destroyers and frigates. Is this some veiled message, that the only naval assets we could commit are Naval Reserve ships? Frighteningly, our ships might not even be combat-ready should the government send its policies full speed astern and send them. Scuttlebutt around the docks (well, the Ottawa Citizen actually) says that our ships may be in danger of being stripped of their defensive systems, to send them to support ground troops in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, some Sea King helicopters have been stripped of anti-submarine systems and outfitted with seats suitable for transporting combat troops in what many expect is preparation for their deployment.

Labels: Afghanistan, Canada, China, Indonesia, media, military, United States, war

Friday, November 17, 2006

Week's end

Papa Mario's
I've been hearing contests on the radio to win free pizzas from Papa Mario's for the last couple of days so I figured I'd drop this photo tonight. It was board game night around the ol' homestead and there's not much else to report.

This weekend marks the Parade of Lights around the city. Tomorrow is Halifax's, I believe, and Sunday is Bedford's. I'm hoping to take in one or both and if I do, I'll come back with a few photos to post.

Labels: media, personal

Thursday, November 16, 2006

More on Hard Knocks.

Firehall at University and Robie
I was reading the Coast today, online, and I see that they have quite a large collection of submissions from the public on the subject of violence in Halifax's city core. With concern over the problem reaching unheard of levels, it would serve as a good primer on public opinion for those people reading this blog from away, especially. The situation must be dealt with. Hardly anybody is suggesting that it's just a few bad apples. Most people seem to be seeing it as a de-evolution of society itself. There are quite a few well-informed and interesting statements there.

Labels: crime, Halifax, media

Isolating the story

I thought I was going to have one of those moments which would vindicate my ramblings. I posted a couple of months ago that I was predicting a return to isolationism in the U.S. and 'lo and behold, Bush himself was denying that very same thing in the news this morning. Of course, if he denies anything then there is a good chance that it'll soon be in the cards, or at least a topic of consideration. The problem is, that the story link no longer points there and I can't find it on CNN. The link's been replaced with his recent strong words against North Korea. I took a screenshot of my email notification though. The story was there. Honest!

Labels: media, United States

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Just got in

University Club at Dalhousie.
Just got home from a meeting downtown. I don't have a lot of energy to blog right now. Here's the short version of what's on my mind and what's happening.

Power outages. We've been having hiccups of electrical problems throughout the city. There were two last night and another one at suppertime tonight. Power company is blaming salt on the lines. Sounds like they're spinning their excuses too early. Salt from what? The ocean? Salt on the roads? There's no snow yet so no road salt and what makes the salt on the breeze any more concentrated now than before?

Policing. With two more Pizza Corner swarmings on the weekend and another in Cole Harbour a day later, the police are back under the microscope for their inaction. A coworker went to a part on the weekend and spoke to a witness of one of the swarmings. He said the cops were there but just stood back. Both the Pizza Corner attacks were done by the same people too. You'd think the cops would catch on. The police chief was interviewed on the news yesterday and was proud that they had enacted a 24/7 foot patrol downtown but for some reason, the extra coverage doesn't apply to the heart of the trouble. The newest proposed solution are cameras over the area. They aren't expected until next month though.

CNN's grammar. It seems CNN is perfectly fine with using "till" to mean "until" rather than the proper contraction form of "'til". My jaw dropped when I read it on their website today. Did I miss the memo or something? Most people think "till" is fine (at least that goes for many of my writers *grumble*) and base that assumption on the fact that spell checkers don't pick it up. Of course, spellcheckers are thinking that you are refering to the drawer in a cash register, or you are ploughing a garden. They're not advanced enough to know you're incapable of forming proper contractions. I give up. The story is here and announces that Iran has awarded prizes for their holocaust cartoon contest.

Labels: media, Nova Scotia Power, personal, police

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Onions make me cry

I can already see these mini Blog This postings will be heavy on the "End of Civilization As We Know It" angle. Surfing CNN, I see that they are now officially getting content from the Onion, as opposed to just seeming like they are getting it from there. Up here in Canada, I can't wait to see if this may lead to Rick Mercer hosting The National.

LINK: CNN.com - Satire: Summer intern already forgotten - Sep 14, 2006

Labels: humour, media

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Selective media

CBC Building on Bell Road.

There is definitely something wrong with the media's priorities in this country. The recent split between Kate Hudson and Chris Robinson, after six years of marriage, is covered as one of the "Morning's Top News Stories" on Canada AM.

Premier of Nova Scotia, Rodney MacDonald, announces that he is separating from his wife of 12 years and there's no mention.

Now I don't think that media should waste its time on covering lovers' spats but if you're going to, perhaps a bit of perspective should be in order.

While the CBC covered the premier's break up, they're also just as guilty or more. This is especially the case with the proposed changing of the long-established timeslot for the National so that they could accomodate the American Idol clone, "The One" on ABC. Thankfully, ABC pulled the plug on the show and maybe thanks to them, the CBC might be able to recapture at least a smidgeon of diginity. Not likely the things have been going.

I am really getting tired of entertainment television news and having it infiltrate into my regular news is just unacceptable. As it stands, I just have basic cable. In other words, I don't get CNN, however I do get virtually 24 hours of Hollywood garbage split between only a modest handful of stations. Please tell me that this is just a fad and that it will end in another season or two. My biggest fear is that it's the continuation of the "dumbing down" of the media, where all that the networks want are up and coming pretty faces to cover fluff pieces about established and famous pretty faces.

Readers, where do you get your news?

Labels: Canada, media, Nova Scotia

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Fresh off the drawing board...

Buy my Book!

Last week we decided to merge a couple of issues and the result was that I scored an impromptu deadline-free week. I opted to use up some vacation days and spent the time working on a side project I had been considering for a while. Toon River: Political cartoons from Miramichi, N.B., 2003-2005 is my new collected works taken from editorial cartoons I had done for the Miramichi Leader. Out of the 180 or more cartoons I did for the paper, I've selected 120 to be placed in this full-colour, 64-page book. It's now available courtesy through Lulu.com. You can visit the product page for the book, or access it through my storefront. One casualty of this launching is my other, personal website where I had been hosting the cartoon gallery. Now that it's been pruned and published, I will be soon undertaking the task of redesigning the site.

So if any of you reading this have a couple of nickels to spare, I hope you'll consider picking up a copy. I'd really appreciate it, and dearly hope that you would too.

Labels: cartooning, media, Miramichi, New Brunswick, personal, publishing

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Tag 'em and Blog 'em

Noted New Brunswick blogger, Charles Leblanc, best known for his activism against Ritalin, his critiques of Irving Oil's stranglehold over New Brunswick media (and politicians, allegedly) and his vocalizing of the plights of the poor was arrested this past Friday, while attending a rally against the proposed Atlantica economic trade union. Charles has covered the ordeal in his blog. Also available is an interview he did with CBC, which you can listen to with Real Player.

I have never met Charles personally, but I think that just about every media person or political pundit knows who he is. I've linked to his blog on my sidebar for some time now and regularly read his frequent posts. He has a history of being a very vocal, some say opinionated, and self-appointed watchdog, hovering over the heads of politicians in New Brunswick. He once was contented to mainly fill the airwaves of call-in radio talkshows and community access television programs. He also staged a number of visible protests on the steps and front yard of the Legislature. He's a one man army of truth.

Times and technology change. Call-in shows are screening their calls more thoroughly and not giving as many opportunities for viewers/listeners to call in New Brunswick anymore. The Irvings own just about all the English-language newspapers --except for a bi-weekly in the Saint John River Valley and a couple of door to door monthlies -- and they're not publishing his letters to the editor anymore.

In steps blogging, and Charles has embraced with a passion that embarasses some of us less dedicated fellows. When the media was all abuzz with the Drudge Report and other websites, which seemed to pop up overnight, were uncontrollable, and were scooping stories out from under traditional media faster than you could type "www", there was this mood that blogging would be the way of the future and that it would challenge the established authority and media monopolies. It wouldn't suffer the burdens of fact-checking but would be swift and decisive. If it came to influence public opinions, the facts would sort themselves out later.

Charles is what they were afraid of. The rest of us make lazy blog postings about two or three times a week, on subjects like our pets, what we bought at the supermarket, or why we hate American Idol and watch it anyway. Charles blogs numerous times a day, while running back and forth along the streets of Fredericton, to the Legislature and back with camera in hand. They won't let him inside anymore, it seems, but he still manages to be there dogging his photographic prey. It's really amazing, actually.

So, when the protest started at the conference, the police saw him coming. He was arrested along with others. He claims, apparently supported by video evidence, that he was no where near the crowd that rushed the door. Three cops tackled him anyway and seized his camera. They erased all of the photos he'd taken, and then sent him to the cooler for a few hours.

This is New Brunswick. Only a couple of weeks ago, cities across Canada made international news over a pro-immigrant rally held in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Fredericton. Guess what happened in Fredericton? It seems the Fredericton police, uncertain how to deal with more than a dozen foreign-looking individuals on city streets (Canadian citizenship notwithstanding) began arresting them too. Charles actually covered that one also, although the story has since appeared on CBC, ATV news and newspapers outside New Brunswick.

I'm a province away but I can hear the jackboots from here.

Labels: blogging, immigration, media, New Brunswick, police

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Amazing run

Scifi.com is reporting that Amazing Stories will no longer be publishing after more than 80 years. (Official news release.) Also gone is Undefeated magazine.

Subscribers can transfer their subscriptions to Dragon or Dungeon magazines, get a refund, or exchange them for credit on Paizo.com merchandise, website of the publisher.

I have to admit that I haven't seen Amazing Stories on the newstand in a while. When I go in with SF on my mind, I tend to pick up Analog. If a title is missing on a given month, you just assume it must have sold out. Buying these little digests is really all about discovering new writers-- to me, anyway-- so brand loyalty isn't a huge thing. All I care is that the stuff is fresh and reads well. Still, that's one less market for aspiring SF writers.

Labels: books, media, sci-fi

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

49-REALLY- Happy

As a bit of a Valentine's gift to Halifax, my old university radio station, CKDU, has turned a new leaf today. As of 7pm on Valentine's Day, the old 33-watt transmitter has been superceeded by a spanking hot 3200 watt transmitter of near Tesla-like proportions from Dalhousie University.

Station honchos say that while reception had been spotty across the peninsula, the new power will allow them to reach all of the Halifax Regional Municipality with ease. I think they are understating it though. Sure, I have to manual set my radio to catch their signal and tune in from Burnside, but once you're on the right spot, I've still be able to pick up the signal as far away as the Halifax International Airport. I suspect this new tower will let listeners enjoy the station almost to Truro. Next week, I'm taking a trip to New Brunswick and I will have to test it out to let you know how far the signal goes.

The other related change is that the old 97.5FM frequency is a thing of the past. To avoid interference with the other big dogs of Halifax radio, CKDU is changing to 88.1 which, putting a positive spin on what would otherwise be considered the radio boonies, is going to make them the first station on the FM dial. Of course, you can also catch them online via streaming audio. Just click on the appropriate bird at the top of your page.

Labels: Halifax, media

Sunday, February 05, 2006

What would Jesus draw?

Protests are spreading and revving up over the Arab world and further. The above photo, from England, was taken from Associated Press via CNN's coverage of the situation (check out their photo gallery). The warning of a European 3/11 is an especially disturbing date to mark on your calendar, with Muslims in Sudan pleading for Osama Bin Laden to retaliate for the perceived crime against Islam.

Some conciliation efforts have been put forward by Danish Imams who are no longer seeking an apology but rather want guarantees from Danish authorities that they will be able to practice their religion without suffering provocation or discrimation and that Islam will be treated there with respect (see the Brussels Joural which also has pulished copies of the cartoons online).

This comes after moderate Muslims have begun distancing themselves from radical elements and after, in response to the widespread protesting, the cartoons "have now appeared in papers in Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Norway and Poland. [Reuters]" in support of the original artists and Freedom of Expression on the whole. The more that the protests grew, the more papers began to reprint the cartoons in solidarity.

The Vatican has condemned the cartoons although if you read my other post, I'm not surprised. Maybe they were worried the Danes would go after them next.

For opinions by editorial cartoonists, check out Daryl Cagle's blog who is posting both about the Danish controversy but also keeps up to date on other cartooning issues including press freedom and layoffs. One thing that does come up on other cartooning websites I visit it, "Who thought that cartoonists would wield so much power?"

Part of the problem is that while most Westerners agree that the artists and newspaper had the right to do it, but that it lacked tact and not a lot actually thought the cartoons were all that great. Also, it's hard to champion Freedom of Expression for cartoonists when they are already under attack in the West from domestic sources. Danish media do have a distinction of being near the top of the world in press freedom ranking however.

If anything comes out of this cartoon crisis, at least I now know we have a Danish consulate in Halifax. Local protestors gathered peacefully there yesterday to condemn the publishing of the cartoons. I'll have to file the address away for the next time the Hans Island dispute comes up so I can go down with my own picket sign. Until then, maybe I'll just crack open a Carlsberg and doodle in my sketchpad.

Labels: cartooning, Denmark, Europe, Great Britain, Islam, media, religion, Vatican

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

The Conspiracy will be televised.

Sure they've got their own alternate logos and so forth, but isn't it obvious?

Major Mergers
Periodically I check various sci-fi websites to see if new shows are in development, or if anything else is going on in their fictional universes. It was on the Star Trek news website when I first saw the mention of some of the changes affecting Paramount. Viacom -- which owns Paramount and therefore Star Trek -- has split into Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. The latter will now be handling all of their television properties under the banner of CBS Paramount Television.

Now, no sooner has that happened but CBS Corp. strikes a deal with Time Warner Inc. to merge UPN and WB into a new network called CW.

What will this mean, if and when a new Star Trek series ever takes to the airwaves? Can we expect to see the Gilmore Girls on the Enterprise? Will Superman be able to save Smallville from the Klingons? It could be just the fresh infusion that the franchise needs...

Think of the crossover appeal...

Labels: conspiracy, humour, media, sci-fi

At least he's not Mulroney?

It's the morning after the election. The votes are in. Stephen Harper is en route to 24 Sussex Drive as the new prime minister of Canada. Martin will be taking the bus to Montreal.

I did manage to get out to vote-- a feat made much easier by the fortuitous placing of a polling station in my apartment building's lobby. A snowstorm blew in midday however, and it made for a tricky drive home. I was pretty tempted to spoil my ballot, but in the end I made my choice on two criteria. One was a platform (defence, actually) that the party had placed on their website which showed vision and realism, yet had mysteriously disappeared mid-campaign. I was willing to take it for granted that it was still in the party planks but just being obscured. The other criteria I chose was on the basis of which party had the only leader that I didn't want to see resign after this election.

We're now in another minority government situation which can best be described the same way we talk about Maritime weather: If you don't like it, wait five minutes and it will change. Harper will have to seek support from opposition parties to accomplish any significant changes, but unfortunately that means he'll likely cozy up to the Bloc and play solely off their ambitions. While their pacifism might prevent him from sending troops to the next Iraq (be it Iran, North Korea, Ukraine, etc.) their provincial powermongering will likely result in a decentralization of many things such as health care, which will open the door to private clinics and put more emphasis on provincial implementation. Instead of one moron in Ottawa screwing it up, you get 13 backwater idiots messing with it.

Kyoto is probably toast. Anti-ballistic missiles might be in, provided they can throw Quebec a bone. Same sex marriage, although supported in Quebec, will probably by shot down once it goes to a free vote as most politicians on both sides, especially those from rural ridings, seem to be against it.

So now I'm wondering about the fate of the Maritimes after this election, and the future of some of our homegrown politicians. Peter MacKay is the biggest name Tory from the region but what if he's passed over for a prime cabinet post in an effort to reduce his potential to challenge Harper's leadership of the party. There aren't a lot of prime Tory MPs in Atlantic Canada, especially since the Conservatives only picked up an extra two seats here. The breakdown of seats remained surprisingly unchanged regardless of a slight rise in the popular vote toward the Conservatives. CTV's Craig Oliver had almost coughed up a lung moaning about the "power of incumbency" in the region, as did their Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife as he was reporting from Harper-Central in Calgary.

As a network, CTV had been perceivably pro-Harper from the day the writ was dropped. Voters who suggested they'd vote Tory got all the best coverage in interview segments. Polls that showed large Tory leads were quoted by numbers while less flattering ones were brushed off with dimuitive adjectives. CTV seemed to take the results as a personal slight last night. I was half surprised that they didn't have Ben Mulroney doing on-site interviews at one of the after-election parties. His dad was on, live from Florida, which did little for me except make me sentimental for John Turner.

[Aside: Maybe someone should pitch a show to the CBC, call it Daily E-Talk or Le Canadien Idol and get Justin Trudeau to host.]

All in all, it was an exciting night and the next few months are going to be something else. My other Maritime-centric question is to the fate of Frank McKenna. Now that Paul Martin is stepping down, the focus is even more spotlighted on his Liberal leadership ambitions. He shrugged it off again, but with a wait-and-see comment that made mention of the possibly that Harper might "fire" him from his post as the Canadian Ambassador to the United States.

Would he? What will Harper do? What does he feel is more urgent? Should he remove a Grit heavyweight from a prominent post with the U.S., when Harper is cleary focused on taking charge of cross-border relations himself? Should he still do it even if it means unlocking a strong Liberal leadership candidate that otherwise would be removed from the Ottawa scene for another three or four years?

We'll probably know more when other Liberal leadership hopefuls step up. Last night, Belinda Stronach seemed soon poised to do so. (I loved those pink election signs, by the way.) Brian Tobin, who sat in on the CTV coverage, was asked that question again-- and dodged it again-- prefering to wait until the smoke clears.

It's going to be a short government, and that will have to be taken into consideration. Harper's best plan would be to run things very moderately until it happens that his government falls (I say a year, tops). Then hope that the Liberals field someone who's a non-threat. I bet he's down at a gypsy fortune-teller right now, asking for the spell that will convince John Manley to take another stab at it.

Labels: Canada, federal election, media, politicians

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Soup or hot water?

While I'm on the topic of Chinese, I have another question (please no comments about how I'm craving more an hour later.) I hadn't posted a comment on this story yet as I am still drifting thematically into an equilibrium here, but now seems the time since a lot of other places are only getting to it as the New Year gets into gear.

Industry Minister, David Emerson served up an odd morsel on his blog when he labelled NDP leader Jack Layton as having a "boiled dog's head smile". Both Emerson and Layton have Chinese wives, and although my partner is Korean, I can assure you that a creole develops and the cultures are interchanged-- not to mention a few odd expressions.

Instantly, the media labels Emerson as culturally insensitive, as if it's a given. But seriously, who is more insensitive? The husband of a Hong Kong Chinese lady who shares her cultural expressions so much that they drop into his normal speech, or the media who wince at any idea of dog as a food item and think the suggestion of it is somehow racist? That's what it is, isn't it? He could quote Confucius or Sun Tzu and it'd be allowed to slide. What's really at issue is that such an expression makes the Western racist media squirm, who are themselves not culturally sensitive enough to realize that eating dog is common in China and other Asian countries-- common enough that God forbid, people have expressions surrounding it.

(I don't support it, would never eat it, but I also don't make a policy of attacking the practice.)

Some talk was given to the idea that using such an expression in China is a grave insult so terrible that no white boy could comprehend (reverse racism of which I am quite familiar with). So? I'm guessing it was actually meant to be an insult, in which case he used it correctly. If it was a really, really, really bad insult -- and truly so bad as to be impossibly understood outside of China -- more points to him.

Labels: Canada, China, media, politicians