Category Archives: Newspapers

CBC kills story about Human Rights complaint by wheelchair-bound journalist

“Aren’t we supposed to be the good guys? A fight breaks out in the CBC newsroom when reporters discover CBC management has hidden a human rights story for two years.

CBC Donna Allen CBC kills story about Human Rights complaint by wheelchair bound journalist photo

CBC News Producer Donna Allen named in Human Rights Complaint – dodging the bullet (CBC photo)

“Wayne Thibodeau and Donna Allen have won journalist Stephen Pate’s human rights complaint against CBC and Transcontinental,” court reporter Brian Higgins gleefully told the May 1st 2013 meeting.

Cheers and laughter broke out in the CBC Newsroom on University Avenue in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

Higgins waved in the air a copy of the Supreme Court application for a judicial review that had just been served on the PEI Human Rights Commission.

Thibodeau, political reporter for the Charlottetown Guardian, and Allen, the Executive Producer of CBC News on Prince Edward Island asked the court to “overturn the decision by Anne Nicholson” PEI Human Rights Commission chairperson.  Continue reading →

Will paywalls save the newspaper business

Faced with sharply declining advertising revenue for both print and online newspapers, papers are trying to entice free readers to pay up for the news. It works partially: old people will pay anything to keep their news habit but young readers have already left the barn.

Guardian digital Will paywalls save the newspaper business photo

Charlottetown Guardian erects paywall for digital readers – will it be enough (Guardian photo)

From Rupert Murdoch to the 25 local newspapers in the Quebec based Transcontinental chain, newspapers are struggling to survive the double whammy of the digital world and young readers who don’t give a flying fig about reading a paper.

Paywalls, charging for online access, is a temporary fix for the huge decline in newspaper subscription and advertising revenue.

The long-term survival of newspapers is in doubt.  Continue reading →

I Should Have Been A Weatherperson

My career would have taken off if I had been a weatherman in a wheelchair like Lieutenant Governor David Onley

davidonley I Should Have Been A Weatherperson photo

David Onley digital journalist at CITY TV (photo digitaljournal.com)

David Onley was a weatherman with a polio disability for City TV who used a scooter on camera.

Prime Minister Harper liked Onley so much he made him Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.

Looking back I can see my career mistake was being a regular news journalist instead of a weatherman in a wheelchair.

The PEI Press Gallery hung me out to dry and the Prime Minister never calls me, even on a sunny day. See Media wrong in Pate-gate

Other than that, David Onley and I are pretty much alike – 60ish, male, polio survivors, journalists, and disability advocates. Continue reading →

NY Times Windows 8 app the pleasure of great journalism

Daily free stories on the New York Times Windows 8 app make it one of Windows 8 best apps

NY Times app NY Times Windows 8 app the pleasure of great journalism photo

Windows 8 New York Times app is the best journalism and partly free every day

The full subscription to the New York Times costs between $15 and $20 a month. Approximately 12 stories a day are free without subscription.

On a Windows 8 computer, tablet or phone with touch, that means 30 minutes of swiping and reading some of the best journalism in the English-speaking world.
Continue reading →

Globe and Mail not ready for Windows 8

Canada’s premiere news site is using still Adobe Flash videos and not HTML 5 compliant

Globe 400 Globe and Mail not ready for Windows 8 photo

Globe and Mail, still using out-of-date Flash videos

I am using Windows 8 full-time now to see what problems still exist.

Imagine my surprise to find the Globe and Mail, the CBC and other news sites are still using Adobe Flash for videos and not compatible with Windows 8 Metro

Sites that serve Flash videos are becoming the museum of modern computer archaeology by clinging to Flash. The IE 10 Guidelines for Building Touch-friendly Sitesis fairly short. What seems to be the problem?

Does your local newspaper or TV station website still use Flash?

Continue reading →

Journalist stuck in the back row filming Mumford and Sons at White House

They say print journalism is a dying business but has it come to fan videos on the front page?

All the hot entertainment acts get to play The White House. It’s the equivalent of a Royal Command Performance.

Telegraph.co.uk video of Mumford and Sons at The White House

So when British Prime Minister Cameron showed up for a tent show on March 14th, President Obama invited the hottest British act – Mumford and Sons.
Continue reading →

Do not let the facts interfere with good story

CBC and Toronto Star exaggerate facts to spin so-called scandal about Disability Tax Credit

CBC Star DTC 6801 640x341 Do not let the facts interfere with good story photo

CBC and The Star falsify tax costs for 'the story' - click for larger graph

In the rush to get a headline, both CBC and The Star have resorted to distorting the facts about companies who help Canadians with disabilities.

When the basic facts in a story are wrong, how can we rely on the rest of the story for balanced reporting?

The truth behind the Disability Tax Credit is the real scandal. Continue reading →