ha ha! your medium is dying!

As a print reporter, it’s depressing reading the web some (most?) days.

you are reading this now

For the first time in a long time, I tuned into CNN yesterday. They were showing a Mitt Romney press conference. The word “LIVE” was prominently displayed in the upper left-hand side of the screen. Can anyone explain why they felt the need to supplement this with the words “Happening Now” along the bottom of [...]

lost (and found?) in translation

It’s amazing to me that after so many years of co-existing in Quebec, anglos and francos are still involved in a “dialogue de sourds” when it comes to language issues. At least, it’s that way in much of the news coverage and political discourse. Overall in day-to-day life (I think) most people get along quite [...]

franco comme moi

I had a piece in today’s paper about my personal undercover language investigation. I was initially going to write it as a blog item but it turned into a feature for the paper.
Here’s the top of it:
Speaking French in anglo ‘hoods
‘Francophone’ goes on shopping spree
ANDY RIGA, The Gazette
In Quebec’s long, tumultuous history of language squabbles, [...]

blogging about not blogging at la presse

A labour dispute has caused a couple of La Presse bloggers – columnists Sophie Cousineau and Marie-Claude Lortie – to temporarily (?) suspend their blogging activities today.
Cousineau explains here and Lortie here. Both say they were asked to stop blogging by their union.
“La rémunération des collaborateurs de cyberpresse.ca se trouve au cœur du litige entre [...]

halal dogs and goat burgers

On the off chance someone from Le Journal de Montréal is reading this, I’m passing on a story idea. The Journal helped alert Quebec to the “reasonable accommodations” crisis with a series of articles, including one about a cabane à sucre that was serving soupe aux pois and fèves au lard without the pork, to [...]

I quit; goodbye cruel facebook

Top 12 reasons why I am about to deactivate my Facebook account, just 35 days after enthusiastically embracing the service:
12) I’m too old.
11) It’s too much like being on a reality-TV show.
10) Once it starts making the front page of paper-based content aggregators, it has lost its cachet.
9) I have a sneaking suspicion all those [...]

the scud stud does afghanistan

Eight more Canadian soldiers died in Afghanistan this week.
If you want news coverage that goes beyond what Canadian newspapers and TV networks are producing, check out a new project by Arthur Kent, the Scud Stud of the first Gulf War.
Kent, who has reported from Afghanistan on and off for 27 years, launched SkyReporter.com last month.
On [...]

quebec election 2007: (another) blog

Just to confuse things, I’ve started a new blog about the 2007 Quebec election on The Gazette’s website.  Click here to visit.

the internet’s marginal effect on elections

The news media love stories about the Internet and its impact on election campaigns. But how much influence do YouTube, blogs and other sites actually have on political outcomes?
Very little, according to Stuart Soroka, a McGill University professor I interviewed yesterday. The story was partly about how Quebec’s Director General of Elections plans to keep [...]

never a dull moment in quebec politics

Two anglophones born in Ontario – union activist Arthur Sandborn (Québec Solidaire) and Robin Philpot (Parti Québécois) – are running for sovereignist parties.
And Radio-Canada’s Quebec City bureau chief, Bernard Drainville, says he’s running for the Parti Québécois– a week after a long interview (under Audio et Vidéo) with his new boss. André Boisclair must have [...]

lagacé vs. falardeau: an online feud

vs.
There’s an amusing online feud going on between La Presse blogger Patrick Lagacé and colourful local filmmaker Pierre Falardeau. It seems they met on the street on the Plateau a few weeks ago and exchanged words. Lagacé blogged about it; Falardeau blew his top and used all kinds of language your high school [...]