"The Twins" - Jonathan Hobin via Toronto Star
The Star features a piece on artist Jonathan Hobin whose new photographic series called In The Playroom recreates the heaviest most controversial events of the last decade and a half in the context of a child’s playroom. Themes include 9/11, the death of princess Diana, and the boxing day Tsunami.
Not surprisingly, the series has sparked controversy, but Hobin says there is logic in his expression: (more…)
I originally wrote this for one of my classes with the intent of pitching it to some magazines, but I have decided against it since the topic has been shot out of the limelight.
I did decide, however, to resurrect it and republish it on my blog because I was just reading an article in the Star about dogs that are sniffing out G20 delegates’ hotel rooms for bed bugs. If the city of Toronto is trying to avoid housing delegates in a bed-bug infested hotel room, perhaps they should take that persistence and apply it to the residents of this city who have been spending thousands of dollars out of their own pockets to rid themselves, often unsuccessfully, of infestations.
Alright, here’s the piece I wrote:
I vant to suck your blood
Here’s the story behind the poll from the last post:
I was on Perez Hilton (I’m not even going to try and defend myself here.), and I noticed there was a post regarding the criticisms faced by Dancing With The Stars contestant and journalist Erin Andrews. Who was featured as the main critic? The Toronto Star‘s very own Rosie DiManno.
If you read The Star you’ll know how DiManno writes. The woman once wrote a piece about kicking someone in the balls at a McDonalds. Needless to say, she has very strong opinions, most of which I do not agree with. The fact that she holds these opinions doesn’t bother me (to an extent), because every single person is entitled to their opinions. She isn’t being a bigot, she’s just really, really enjoys complaining. It’s part of her shtick. (more…)
Dear Diary,
Finally got around to reading a recap of Sunday’s Town Hall meeting between TTC riders, management, and union leader Bob Kinnear.
I’m glad this is happening, sad it took them this long.
The productivity of the meeting seemed low, but some attendees appreciated the effort of organizers. Others, however, seemed irked by the lack of topics covered.
It seems like Kinnear at least made an honest effort to speak truthfully about the abuses to customer service, but as stated in the Star article, he should not be the one speaking. It’s better to hear concerns right from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. TTC management, and employees should be accountable, not the ringleader. (more…)
Over a month and a half ago, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake ravaged the impoverished nation of Haiti. Over 200,000 were killed, over 300,000 were injured, and over one million were left homeless. You would think that a tragedy of that scale would be hard to forget, right?
Unfortunately for the recovering country, Canadians caught the Olympic fever and have been distracted from the original humanitarian focus ever since. This is not to say that the people of this country have not been extremely generous in giving to relief, they have. In fact, $113 million was donated to the healing country, which was then matched by the Canadian government (more…)
In light of this Star article exposing the amount of money police officers get paid to moonlight / chaperone for different events and goings-on in the city, I figured journalists can be put to work to do similar thoughtless tasks while getting paid double their salaries. Here are some suggestions as to what we can do for a bit of extra cash:
Extras in a movie – you always see scrums with a hoard of journalists in films and on TV. Why not just hire real journalists? We would probably accept less money than extras anyways. (more…)
Sometimes it’s cool to be the rebel but in Canada’s case, it ain’t such a hot idea.
I now understand why Stephen Harper was so resistant in to go to the climate summit in Copenhagen, no one wants him there.
This is the first paragraph of a Globe and Mail article. Sums it up pretty nicely.
The country “is the dirty old man of the climate world,” according to a recent Guardian article. Another prominent article published ahead of the Copenhagen climate-change summit called it a “corrupt petro-state.” Various diplomats and scientists have rallied for its expulsion from international organizations.
Well that sucks. Good ‘ole polite Canada isn’t so appealing anymore. And guess what? Alberta’s oil sands isn’t the only point of attack. We have one of the highest levels of per-person greenhouse gas emissions. We could blame it on our volatile climate but that isn’t a good enough excuse. (more…)
Just wrote this as a paper, but it’s something we can talk about here as well. Where do you stand in terms of media blackouts?
When CBC journalist Melissa Fung was kidnapped in Afghanistan in 2008, news publications in Canada did not publish information about her abduction to ensure her safety. Four weeks after she was captured, she was released. In that same year another Canadian journalist was abducted. Robert Fowler was taken hostage in Niger for 130 days, but in this case, media chose to report on his situation. Fowler believed that the intense media coverage had a serious impact on the length of his time in captivity.
Most news organizations see media blackouts as a slippery slope. If we ban the coverage of journalist kidnappings, isn’t it only fair to ban coverage of non-journalist abductions? What are the limits of public access to sensitive information? Let’s look at both sides of the coin.
Romi
adildhalla