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Weekend reads: The American press gets its groove back
Weekend reads: The American press gets its groove back
U.S. media is ‘dragging itself back from the brink.’ Will Canada follow?
A story broke last weekend that I’ve been waiting a long time to see. In an interview with Ben Smith at Semafor, Joe Kahn, the executive editor of The New York Times, effectively announced the return of journalism to its pre-Trump era standards, stating that the role of the news media “is not to skew your coverage towards one candidate or the other.” Kahn pushed back on the activist ethos in newsrooms, blasted journalists that expect their work to be a reflection of personal politics, and acknowledged the Times went “too far” in 2020 and is now re-establishing norms in the wake of these “excesses.”
It was a stunning moment.
Speaking about the story on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Ben Smith described the Grey Lady as being “focused on dragging itself back from the brink.” He said that “what’s happening inside the New York Times is a sense that, during particularly the summer of 2020, they aligned themselves too much with particularly the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.” And that Khan considers it his job to pull the institution back.
The context for Kahn’s stance is ongoing tensions between the Times and the White House (in part because the President won’t grant the paper a sit-down interview), and comments from podcaster and former Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer in particular. The Pod Save America co-host recently complained in a Substack post that the Times is “often too worried about seeming balanced to truly articulate the danger of Trump.” And that journalists “do not see their job as saving democracy or stopping an authoritarian from taking power.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Weekend reads: Slowing down the news
Weekend reads: Slowing down the news
A Q&A with Jeremy Klaszus, founder of the Calgary outlet The Sprawl
At Lean Out, we often write about what’s not working in Canadian media — but we also want to highlight what is working, particularly when it comes to local news. As such, we have an ongoing series on independent outlets, featuring discussions with entrepreneurs that are dreaming up innovative solutions to our industry’s most pressing problems. We have profiled Village Media and kawarthaNOW, and interviewed the authors of What Works in Community News? on the podcast.
Today, we bring you a conversation with the founder of an online outlet in Calgary, The Sprawl. This hyperlocal site focuses on slowing down the news cycle, publishing one in-depth, reported podcast a month, along with a weekly newsletter. It’s a refreshing formula, and The Sprawl produces the kind of calm, thoughtful journalism that we most admire.
In this edited and condensed interview, editor-in-chief Jeremy Klaszus shares his thoughts on the current crises in media — from the fragmented information ecosphere and news fatigue, to lost trust and failing business models — and why thinking small might just be the solution.
TH: Jeremy, you and I met at a recent news forum in Ottawa. Since then, I’ve enjoyed exploring your work. You have been a journalist for close to 20 years. In 2017, you launched The Sprawl, a hyperlocal journalism site in Calgary, and then the Sprawlcast, a monthly podcast that does a deep-dive into civic affairs topics, such as housing. What made you decide to found an independent outlet?
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Virtue Hoarders
Virtue Hoarders
A conversation about the professional managerial class with professor and author Catherine Liu
As we all think through the class tensions that have surfaced in Canada, it’s a good time to take a closer look at an ethos held by many of those shaping the dialogue.
This group of decision-makers and opinion shapers, which includes the media, is often referred to in leftist circles as the professional managerial class. Catherine Liu, professor of film and media studies at the University of California, Irvine, has recently published a book on the PMC, titled Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class. It is a fierce and funny polemic, and one so sharp and insightful that I’ve gone back to read it several times now.
In our conversation today on the podcast, Liu touches on everything from mommy bloggers to land acknowledgements — and argues that we must insist on viewing society’s current struggles through an economic lens.
…click on link above to listen to podcast…
‘Bypassing the democratic process’
‘Bypassing the democratic process’
A Q&A on the Emergencies Act with Noa Mendelsohn Aviv of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association
It’s a moment unlike any I’ve experienced in my 20-year journalism career, or, indeed, my lifetime. In response to the ongoing trucker protests, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has invoked the Emergencies Act, which became law in 1988 and has never been used.
As the government prepares to take this to the House of Commons and Senate for a vote, a number of questions are being raised: Has the government met the legal standard for invoking this act? What does this move mean for our democracy? What does it mean for rights and freedoms? And: What precedent does this set?
To explore these questions — and this remarkable time in Canadian history — I reached out to the new executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Noa Mendelsohn Aviv.
For readers who may not be aware, what is the Emergencies Act, and what powers does it give the government?
The Emergencies Act is a piece of legislation replacing an earlier, similar law called the War Measures Act. It allows the government to make decisions and take action — essentially bypassing the democratic process — where there is an urgent and critical need to do so in the case of a national emergency. Imagine a war, or flooding, or an ice storm that wipes out infrastructure. It’s not possible to get a legislature together and do things in an ordinary, transparent, and accountable democratic way. But things have to be taken care of; people have to be evacuated. That’s what the Emergencies Act is about, and that’s more or less how it describes itself on its terms.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Speaking Freely
Speaking Freely
Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
For months now, I’ve been getting complaints about the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where I’ve worked as a TV and radio producer, and occasional on-air columnist, for much of the past decade.
People want to know why, for example, non-binary Filipinos concerned about a lack of LGBT terms in Tagalog is an editorial priority for the CBC, when local issues of broad concern go unreported. Or why our pop culture radio show’s coverage of the Dave Chappelle Netflix special failed to include any of the legions of fans, or comics, that did not find it offensive. Or why, exactly, taxpayers should be funding articles that scold Canadians for using words such as “brainstorm” and “lame.”
Everyone asks the same thing: What is going on at the CBC?
When I started at the national public broadcaster in 2013, the network produced some of the best journalism in the country. By the time I resigned last month, it embodied some of the worst trends in mainstream media. In a short period of time, the CBC went from being a trusted source of news to churning out clickbait that reads like a parody of the student press.
Those of us on the inside know just how swiftly — and how dramatically — the politics of the public broadcaster have shifted.
It used to be that I was the one furthest to the left in any newsroom, occasionally causing strain in story meetings with my views on issues like the housing crisis. I am now easily the most conservative, frequently sparking tension by questioning identity politics. This happened in the span of about 18 months. My own politics did not change.
To work at the CBC in the current climate is to embrace cognitive dissonance and to abandon journalistic integrity.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
