The percentage of Americans saying they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in newspapers has been generally trending downward since 1979, when it reached a high of 51%.
Newspapers rank near the bottom on a list of 16 societal institutions Gallup measured in a June 1-4 survey. Television news is tied with newspapers on the list, with 23% of Americans also expressing confidence in it. That is up slightly from the all-time low of 21% found last year. The only institutions television news and newspapers beat out this year are big business, organized labor, Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), and Congress.
Americans' confidence in television news was highest, at 46%, in 1993, when Gallup first asked about it. The question does not indicate the specific type of television news, meaning respondents could be thinking about anything ranging from cable news channels to local news when answering the survey.
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Former Ford spokesman George Christopoulos joins builders' group
George Christopoulos, who resigned as Mayor Ford’s spokesman in the wake of the ongoing video scandal, has been hired by the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) in the newly created position of vice-president of communications and media relations.
“Before joining the mayor’s office, he was an integral part of the Toronto Police Service’s communications team for nearly a decade,” BILD, which has more than 1,400 members, said of Christopoulos. He starts July 2. Previously, Christopoulos was a Toronto Sun reporter.
Mayor Ford using security to keep press at bay: David Nickle
"Media told where it stands at city hall these days," writes David Nickle, veteran City Hall reporter and current president of the Press Gallery.
Excerpt:
"Absent his press secretary and communications staff, Mayor Ford has taken to seconding city hall security staff to escort him between his parking garage and office doors. Security has meanwhile made a space to the rear of the mayor’s office, inside the councillors’ secure area, inaccessible to news media who are accredited to enter the space. There’s nothing illegal in doing this — indeed, the press gallery (and full disclosure — I’m serving as president of the gallery) had lost a battle in negotiating new council-approved security access rules, requiring reporters not to linger in the councillors’ common office area. "
Full story in the Scarborough Mirror
Excerpt:
"Absent his press secretary and communications staff, Mayor Ford has taken to seconding city hall security staff to escort him between his parking garage and office doors. Security has meanwhile made a space to the rear of the mayor’s office, inside the councillors’ secure area, inaccessible to news media who are accredited to enter the space. There’s nothing illegal in doing this — indeed, the press gallery (and full disclosure — I’m serving as president of the gallery) had lost a battle in negotiating new council-approved security access rules, requiring reporters not to linger in the councillors’ common office area. "
Full story in the Scarborough Mirror
Monday, June 17, 2013
Atlanta radio hosts fired for mocking former Saints safety Steve Gleason, who has Lou Gehrig's disease
Three Atlanta sports radio hosts were fired over an on-air sketch that made fun of former NFL player Steve Gleason and his plight with Lou Gehrig's disease.
ESPN affiliate 790 The Zone gave the cast of "Mayhem in the AM" the boot hours after they mocked Gleason in an "interview" using a fake, robotic voice in place of the ex-New Orleans Saints safety. Gleason, who is confined to a wheelchair, lost the use of his voice due to ALS and speaks through a computerized speech device.
The tasteless bit was broadcast following Gleason's special appearence on Sports Illustrated's Monday Morning Quarterback. Using a machine that tracks his eye movement to type, the 36-year old Gleason wrote a 4,500-word column touching on everything from his debilitating disease to his taste in music, even a possible link between ALS and pro football.
"Mayhem in the AM's" Steak Shapiro and Chris Dimino responded by taking a call from "Steve Gleason," who was played by co-host Nick Cellini. The cringeworthy segment included knock-knock jokes by a voice that at one point asked Shapiro and Dimino to "smother me, do me a favor."
The voice also said "I blame Gregg Williams," the former Saints defensive coordinator who was suspended all of last season for his role in the Bountygate scandal.
ESPN affiliate 790 The Zone gave the cast of "Mayhem in the AM" the boot hours after they mocked Gleason in an "interview" using a fake, robotic voice in place of the ex-New Orleans Saints safety. Gleason, who is confined to a wheelchair, lost the use of his voice due to ALS and speaks through a computerized speech device.
The tasteless bit was broadcast following Gleason's special appearence on Sports Illustrated's Monday Morning Quarterback. Using a machine that tracks his eye movement to type, the 36-year old Gleason wrote a 4,500-word column touching on everything from his debilitating disease to his taste in music, even a possible link between ALS and pro football.
"Mayhem in the AM's" Steak Shapiro and Chris Dimino responded by taking a call from "Steve Gleason," who was played by co-host Nick Cellini. The cringeworthy segment included knock-knock jokes by a voice that at one point asked Shapiro and Dimino to "smother me, do me a favor."
The voice also said "I blame Gregg Williams," the former Saints defensive coordinator who was suspended all of last season for his role in the Bountygate scandal.
Why the CBC has outlived its usefulness: Colby Cosh in Maclean's
Colby Cosh writes:
"The CBC was created, as both monopolistic broadcaster and regulator, because what preceded it was all so untidy, unhealthy, unpredictable . . . unpalatable. And politically threatening to the establishment, as the radio-driven rise of Social Credit in Alberta would soon prove.
"No one thinks we would be better off now with total state control of broadcasting; Canadians manage to survive exposure to religious cranks, phony health advice, and even NBC. So when the CBC’s regulatory function was taken away in the ’50s, the broadcasting part of the corporation became an oasis of noncommercial values. You were no longer to be forced to watch or listen, but CBC was still there to amuse kids without sneaking in some hidden sales pitch for cereal. It was there for remote communities in need of news and economic information; there to cultivate the artistic pastimes of the elite in a pan-Canadian accent.
"In 2013, it hardly needs saying that the CBC has abandoned or grown incompetent at some of these functions, and that there is not much point to the others in a world of infinite bandwidth. (Let’s be honest: It’s not even all that left-wing anymore!) The frozen North is on a near-enough-equal footing with downtown Toronto when it comes to digital access, and children are no longer plunked down thoughtlessly in front of a cathode-ray tube for hours at a stretch. In this environment, the CBC is not proving to be much good at specifying exactly why it is needed. . . "
The whole column
"The CBC was created, as both monopolistic broadcaster and regulator, because what preceded it was all so untidy, unhealthy, unpredictable . . . unpalatable. And politically threatening to the establishment, as the radio-driven rise of Social Credit in Alberta would soon prove.
"No one thinks we would be better off now with total state control of broadcasting; Canadians manage to survive exposure to religious cranks, phony health advice, and even NBC. So when the CBC’s regulatory function was taken away in the ’50s, the broadcasting part of the corporation became an oasis of noncommercial values. You were no longer to be forced to watch or listen, but CBC was still there to amuse kids without sneaking in some hidden sales pitch for cereal. It was there for remote communities in need of news and economic information; there to cultivate the artistic pastimes of the elite in a pan-Canadian accent.
"In 2013, it hardly needs saying that the CBC has abandoned or grown incompetent at some of these functions, and that there is not much point to the others in a world of infinite bandwidth. (Let’s be honest: It’s not even all that left-wing anymore!) The frozen North is on a near-enough-equal footing with downtown Toronto when it comes to digital access, and children are no longer plunked down thoughtlessly in front of a cathode-ray tube for hours at a stretch. In this environment, the CBC is not proving to be much good at specifying exactly why it is needed. . . "
The whole column
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