Quote:

Reeling from a drop in advertising revenue, Postmedia Network Inc. will axe dozens of newsroom jobs across the country and stop the publication of Sunday papers in several of its largest markets.

It’s the second time this month the company has announced layoffs, after cutting 25 out of 58 jobs in its Postmedia News division. It made the decision to close the wire service and go with Canadian Press content for “commodity news” that can be produced by a wire service instead of staff reporters.

The company told employees Monday afternoon that Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton would lose their Sunday papers and that the National Post would stop printing on Mondays through the summer for the fourth year in a row. The chain will also stop publishing on holidays such as Victoria Day and Canada Day.

I was at the Herald when they commenced publishing the Sunday magazine – they gave me my first break as a freelancer, in fact – and at the Citizen when the Sunday edition started up. So I find this all very sad.

You don’t have to be an economist to know where this is all headed: the end of broadsheets. It all seems like this inexorable downward spiral, which started when media organization themselves started to give away content online, and in commuter tabloids and so on. If you act like your stuff doesn’t have any value, nobody else will think it does, either.

They’re now fighting a rearguard action, and it’s too late. They can’t put the genie back in the bottle.

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We get letters. Lately, we’ve been getting letters from New Democrats – all coincidentally anonymous, all suspiciously-similar, most helpfully originating from the National Capital – who profess to be profoundly, deeply hurt/angry/disappointed that Warren has been critical of Thomas Mulcair, their latest anointed saviour.

Here’s a summary of their talking points (which all read like talking points, naturally):

• Warren, I thought you were a progressive. So sad to see you talking like a conservative. So very, very sad. Sad!
• Warren, the Liberals are never coming back. You’re lashing out because you’re desperate. Ha, ha, ha, ha.
• Warren, the NDP is leading in the polls and that’s proof your attacks aren’t working. You are a [insert epithet here].

And so on.

As you are perhaps aware, I have occasionally critiqued Conservatives over the years. I’m known for that (I even have a book coming out about that). Most of the time, most Conservatives react to my stuff with humour and a shrug. Sometimes, they even want to hear what I have to say (as Sun News Network did, and does, and they pay me well for it).

Dippers, I have found, are different. Dippers are pious, condescending, humourless windbags. They regard any criticism – even, say, about how incredibly funny it is that a self-professed environmentalist like Angry Tom would have multiple garages for multiple vehicles – as treason. They go apeshit whenever you have the temerity to poke fun at them. (They’re like Paul Wells, in effect, except there’s a whole party of them.)

I’m a bit surprised that I even have to say this, but here goes.

Here’s the deal, Dipper kiddies: I’m a Liberal. Your idiot leader turned his back, categorically, on a partnership with Liberals. He said he didn’t want peace, when a few of us were suing for it. He said no.

So, Dipper folk, we are therefore enemies. As with Conservatives, I will do my level best to step on your throat. I will hit you, over and over. I will rip your face off, if you give me half a chance.

You are the enemy, and that’s a role you chose for yourselves.

Now, quit sending your whiny letters, because they’re fucking boring, and so are you.

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Your first task: explain why your boss, an erstwhile environmentalist, has a four car garage!

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…show him a picture of his FOUR CAR GARAGE.

UPDATE: My great friend McGregor, for what it’s worth, says the Google image they used is distorted. I look forward to them making the appropriate clarification, which I will then re-post here.

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His Royal Highness The Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Prince and Great Steward of Scotland, Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Royal Knight Companion of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Member of the Order of Merit, Knight of the Order of Australia, Companion of the Queen’s Service Order, Member of Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council and Aide-de-Camp to Her Majesty, gave a small diplomatic smile.

For a guy with that many titles, and as many official duties as the official heir to the throne apparently has, Prince Charles — as he is more often known — isn’t unused to awkward introductions.

It’s a Tuesday morning in the Distillery District in Toronto. Perched on a smallish stage beside his wife, Camilla Parker Bowles (the Duchess of Cornwall), and Dalton McGuinty (the premier of Ontario), Charles looks like he wants to burst out laughing, but keeps his cool. A local TV host — with big hair and a bigger personality — was speaking, overly long, and telling jokes that were falling flat. Charles remained the picture of restraint and politeness.

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It’s a hot topic. At the G20 in Toronto, and now with the ongoing demos in Montreal.

My question: it’s clearly detention, as defined by the SCC. So why don’t the kettled demand immediate access to legal counsel?

If they don’t get it, bring the mother of all class actions.

Am I missing something?

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I’m a former cops and courts reporter, and I usually read crime stories more than I read politics stories.  As such, I’ve been transfixed by the terrible and tragic Etan Patz story.  I’m not convinced that they now have the right guy – over the decades, there have plenty of others who confessed to, or who were implicated in Etan’s disappearance.  But I am convinced that this story is simply outstanding journalism.  I know that street in SoHo well, and when I read this piece, it made me feel like I was right there – which is what all great journalism should do.

God bless him and his long-suffering parents.  I hope their ordeal finally reaches some conclusion.

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Folks at the Sun News Network have been asked not to go after each other off-air, and we generally observe that. It looks bad.  So I was a bit surprised to read this post by Brian Lilley on his blog, stating that I “spew insults,” that I have engaged in slander, and that I was wrong to opine that Glenn Beck indulges in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.  I haven’t seen anyone else take me task, yet, with the exception of a notorious white supremacist, and the Jewish Defence League, which has itself made alliances with white supremacy and homophobia.

I won’t take shots at Brian personally, because I think it’s super boring when media people talk about other media people.  But I will respond to his main criticisms, which seem to be:

• I linked to “left-wing websites” to prove my point; and
• two rabbis Brian had lunch with, but whom he does not name, think Glenn Beck is swell.

I provided links in the post that offended Brian, and they were to an Irish columnist, The Daily Beast, a CNN host, The Jewish Journal, Media Matters, and The Washington Post.  I wasn’t aware all of those were “left-wing web sites,” so I came up with the ones below, which make the same criticism as me.

• “But critics say Beck’s track record of controversial statements makes him an inappropriate ally. Last month, he likened Norwegian youths gunned down at a political camp by an anti-Islamic extremist to “Hitler Youth.” Twice in the last year, Beck has been denounced by the Anti-Defamation League for “bigoted” and “horrific” comments on his show, one likening Reform Judaism to “radicalized Islam” and another in which he said Holocaust survivor and billionaire George Soros betrayed fellow Jews to Nazis.” – Buffalo News, Aug. 23, 2011
• “Announcing his event on the radio last month, Beck invoked “the words of Ezekiel” – a prophet associated with end times theology. He offered the apocalyptic prediction that “the force of darkness” would “attack the center of our faith.” He further predicted that, at his rally in Jerusalem, “the very gates of hell are going to open up against us.” Later, he said that Israel may be destroyed “by Labor Day weekend” and that his gathering “may be the last time you get to see the holy sights.” – Sacramento Bee, June 19, 2011
• “Beck, says Zaitchik, had to keep creating new, more intricate theories. Last November, in a two part special that indirectly invoked, he accused liberal Jewish financier George Soros of orchestrating the fall of foreign governments for financial gain. During the Egyptian revolution, Beck sided with Hosni Mubarak, alleging that his fall was “controlled by the socialist communists and the Muslim Brotherhood.” Beck is now warning viewers not to use Google, accusing the search-engine giant of “being deep in bed with the government.” In recent months, it seems, Beck’s theories became so outlandish that even conservatives – both viewers and media personalities – were having a hard time stomaching them. Now, each new idea appears to be costing Beck both eyeballs and credibility. “At some point,” says Boehlert, “it doesn’t add up any more.” – National Post, March 9, 2011
• “The comments that got Beck in trouble Tuesday came in the context of a wider discussion about a recent open letter, signed almost exclusively by non-Orthodox rabbis, criticizing him for repeatedly comparing his ideological foes to Nazis. “There are the Orthodox rabbis and there are the Reform rabbis,” Beck said on Tuesday. “Reformed rabbis are generally political in nature. It’s almost like radicalized Islam in a way where it is just—radicalized Islam is less about religion than it is about politics.” – Jewish Journal, February 25, 2011
• “Glenn Beck’s description of George Soros’ actions during the Holocaust is completely inappropriate, offensive and over the top.  For a political commentator or entertainer to have the audacity to say – inaccurately – that there’s a Jewish boy sending Jews to death camps, as part of a broader assault on Mr. Soros, that’s horrific.” – Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Brith, Jewish Journal, November 11, 2010
• “I don’t know how well Glenn Beck knows the organized Jewish community, but he definitely has a Jewish problem. This week he gratuitously slandered a prominent Jewish philanthropist in probably the worst way that you can slander a Holocaust survivor, and many Jewish leaders are justifiably outraged. The ADL and the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants have denounced Beck’s comments, which are presented in a negative light in every Jewish news source that has run the story.” – Mark Paredes, Jewish Journal, November 11, 2010

I am hopeful that The Jewish Journal, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Brith, The National Post, The Sacramento Bee, and The Buffalo News and so on are not also considered by Brian to be “left-wing web sites.”  But I could be wrong on that, who knows.  The National Post will possibly be interested to learn that they, too, may be a “left-wing web site.”  We’ll see what Brian’s response is, I guess.

Anyway. As to the two unnamed rabbis, I would like to speak to them, to get their views about Glenn Beck, which I will faithfully reproduce here.  I will then also reproduce the views of hundreds of Reform, Orthodox, Conservative and Reconstructionist rabbis who hold the same view as me about Glenn Beck’s fantasies.

In the meantime, however, I hope Brian will forgive me for persisting in my view that Glenn Beck is piece of garbage, and that he is a pedlar of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and that anyone in the Jewish community who promotes him should be ashamed of themselves.

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The video kind of blows, but the song is genius, and the album it comes from is 2012’s best, so far. These guys are now what Against Me stopped being, two albums back.

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…polls, and pollsters, get things wrong. The Angus Reid Group was one of the pollsters who got things dramatically wrong in Alberta, for instance.

That said, this puny online survey is unfortunately highly consistent with a bucket of other ones: the Liberal Party of Canada, led by Bob Rae, hasn’t moved out of third place. And now, seemingly, the Grits’ third-place position has gotten measurably worse.

The solution, with the greatest of respect, isn’t to simply shrug and continue with the status quo (and said status quo has been led by, and overseen by, one Bob Rae). The solution isn’t to demand the expulsion of those who dissent from the conventional Grit wisdom (such as happened to me yesterday, when I said on Sun News that, unlike Rae, I didn’t consider Omar Khadr, an al Qaeda enthusiast, to be an ideal citizen – and thereafter had various anonymous nobodies demanding online that I be kicked out of the LPC. Great way to get back the Jewish community, boys and girls!).

Big challenges call for big changes. Will Rae, and the crop of former Martin-era advisors around him, do what needs to be done?

Not a chance. Not on your life.

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