Excellent CBC web piece on journalists during the fall of Saigon: Mike Duffy, Peter Kent mentioned.

The fall of Saigon in April 1975 marked the final chapter of the United States' involvement in Vietnam, and the Canadian news teams covering it say they'll never forget the danger and confusion as the Americans evacuated.
The full story on the CBC web page

Star reporter's Ghomeshi book to be published in June

A book on disgraced former radio star Jian Ghomeshi, written by Toronto Star investigative reporter Kevin Donovan, is slated for release in late June. Kobo and ECW Press say they’ve come to an “unprecedented agreement” to co-publish Jian Ghomeshi — Secret Life. Kobo says the book will reveal details and background about Ghomeshi and explore how he became fired from his post as host of CBC Radio’s Q.
The full CP story

Michael Ondaatje, Francine Prose withdraw from gala to protest honour for Charlie Hebdo

Canada’s Michael Ondaatje as well as American Francine Prose and at least four other writers have withdrawn from next month’s PEN American Center gala, citing objections to the literary and human rights organization’s honouring the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. the Associated Press reports.
PEN announced Sunday that the writers were upset by Charlie Hebdo’s portrayals of Muslims and “the disenfranchised generally.” The Paris-based magazine, where 12 people were killed in a January attack at its offices, is to receive a Freedom of Expression Courage Award at the May 5 event in Manhattan. Much of the literary community rallied behind Charlie Hebdo after the shootings, but some have expressed unhappiness with its scathing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad and Muslims more generally.
Full story

NBC finds Brian Williams embellished at least 11 times

A months-long internal investigation of Brian Williams by NBC News has turned up 11 instances in which the anchorman publicly embellished details of his reporting exploits, according to a person familiar with details of the probe, the Washington Post reports.
NBC undertook the examination of Williams’ statements after he apologized in early February for saying on NBC Nightly News that a military helicopter in which he was travelling at the start of the Iraq War had been damaged by rocket fire.
His account was challenged by soldiers who were on the flight, leading to a furor that prompted NBC to suspend Williams for six months without pay and to investigate other statements he’s made.
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Court bid against Toronto Life fails to stop publication

Businessman Michael Elder took the magazine to court to stop a critical profile and lost; now he's suing for $100M.
the Star story

Rogers blames CRTC decisions as profit drops 17%

Rogers Communications Inc. says profits dropped 17 per cent in the first quarter as the company blamed two recent CRTC decisions for some of its financial setbacks, CP reports. Rogers reported net income fell to $255 million from $307 million in the same period a year ago.
On an adjusted basis, the earnings were equal to 53 cents per share, falling 10 cents short of analyst estimates, according to Thomson Reuters.
Operating revenue rose to $3.18 billion from $3.02 billion.
Rogers says part of the profit decline was caused by the defection of some customers to competitors after a CRTC rule change under which customers are no longer required to give telecom companies 30 days' notice before they cancel their services.
Rogers says that left a $3-million dent in cable revenue for the quarter and contributed an estimated loss of 40,000 subscribers to its overall decline in customers.
The company also says a separate CRTC rule change which has shortened the span of wireless contracts to two years caused operating expenses to rise 32 per cent, as it worked to retain customers with subsidized smartphone upgrades.

 

Hillary Clinton’s YouTube launch may hold lesson for Canada: Susan Delacourt

The Star's Susan Delacourt writes:
"Politicians and the media need each other, especially during an election campaign — or so the conventional wisdom goes.
"But the launch of Hillary Clinton’s bid for the U.S. presidency this week shows the ways in which that symbiotic relationship is unravelling — in what could be also be a sneak preview for media-political dealings in the coming federal election in Canada.
"Clinton, entering the race officially last weekend, tossed away all the traditional tools of campaign launches — no podium, no speech, no press conference. "Instead, she announced her candidacy with a carefully staged video featuring the would-be president with everyday Americans. On Sunday afternoon, U.S. political reporters were cooling their heels, waiting for the video release through social media."
The whole column

Photographer Dan Farrell who captured JFK's funeral salute, dead at 84

Dan Farrell, whose photograph of a young John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting during the 1963 funeral ceremonies for his slain father became one of the most memorable images surrounding the Kennedy assassination, died April 13 at a hospital in Rockville Centre, N.Y. He was 84.
The moment was captured on newswreel film and by at least one other photographer, Stan Stearns of United Press International, who died in 2012.  Farrell’s photograph, sometimes cropped to show only John Kennedy Jr., was sent out on the Associated Press wire service and became an enduring symbol of one of the most solemn days in the country’s history.

Rogers Media president leaving to take helm of European golf tour

Keith Pelley, the Rogers Media president who played a central role in the company’s takeover of National Hockey League broadcasting in Canada, is leaving the company to be commissioner of a golf tour in Europe.

Rogers Communications Inc. announced Friday that Mr. Pelley, 51, will continue in his role until “this summer,” when he departs to take the helm of The European Tour, which oversees 48 golf events in 26 countries.
He joined Rogers in 2010, and has a lengthy résumé in sports media.
Before joining the company, he led the Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium that covered the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and spent four years as president and CEO of the Toronto Argonauts football team, leading it to a Grey Cup win in 2004.
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Jian Ghomeshi scandal leads to CBC ‘severing ties’ with ex-head of radio, HR director

The Star's Jacques Gallant reports:
"CBC said it had 'severed ties' with two senior executives Thursday as it released an independent report that said management 'condoned' inappropriate behaviour by former radio host Jian Ghomeshi. Former head of radio Chris Boyce and HR director Todd Spencer had been on leaves of absence since January.
“'Management knew or ought to have known of this behaviour and conduct and failed to take steps required of it in accordance with its own policies to ensure that the workplace was free from disrespectful and abusive conduct,' reads the report from employment lawyers Janice Rubin and Parisa Nikfarjam.
“'It is our conclusion that CBC management condoned this behaviour.'”
Link to Star story and full report

CBC rebrands Q as q

The Star's Jacques Gallant reports:
"Q, the CBC Radio show formerly hosted by Jian Ghomeshi, is re-launching next week with a new look, new host, and a sort-of new name. "The public broadcaster announced Wednesday that Q will be known as q. That’s right. The name of the popular arts and culture program has undergone the monumental shift from upper- to lower-case.
"Are lower case letters cooler? Is it somehow supposed to make listeners forget that the disgraced Ghomeshi ever hosted the show? After all, it still sounds the same."
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Canadians scrapping cable packages in larger numbers: report

The Star's Michael Lewis writes that a new report says the U.S-based on demand video streaming service Netflix, Inc., added 900,000 Canadian subscribers last year amid an accelerating shift away from traditional cable and satellite TV packages.
The Convergence Consulting Group on Monday said about 95,000 fewer households were paying for TV from cable, satellite and telecom providers at the end of 2014, while Canadians ditched 13,000 linear TV subscriptions in 2013.
The report forecast a further decline of 97,000 in 2015, contrasting the number with annual growth in 2011, when TV subscriber additions averaged 220,000. As of the end of 2014, the group estimates that 3.09 million Canadian households, or 21.6 per cent, did not have a traditional linear TV subscription, up from 2.85 million in 2013. MORE

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Global TV fires journalist who produced Koch brothers doc: CANADALAND

CANADALND reports:
"Veteran investigative reporter Bruce Livesey was fired by Global News shortly after talking to CANADALAND about the fact that management had pulled his documentary, The Koch Connection, from their broadcast schedule.
"As CANADALAND reported in February, Livesey's documentary about the billionaire Koch Brothers and their ties to Canada was set for broadcast on Global News' 16x9 investigative newsmagazine, only to be pulled from the broadcast schedule and scrubbed from Global's website shortly before it was set to air. "
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Global TV "consolidating" news production by moving it east

Global News’ parent company, Shaw Media, announced Thursday hat it will consolidate much of its production across Canada and change how the late-night and weekend newscasts are produced.     
“We’re actually rolling out a plan to shift the news organization in a bigger way to a story-centric production model and that means moving past some of the traditional ways we’ve produced television newscasts, to one where we touch the content once, make sure that it is best-catered for the audience and then deliver it,” Troy Reeb, the senior vice president of news and station operations said in an interview Thursday.
The production of the late-night and weekend newscasts east of Alberta, as well as Kelowna, will be moved to Toronto, where a single-anchor team will produce a local newscast for each market.
There have been some layoffs as a result of the changes with most of the reductions coming behind the camera.
Reeb said that it’s still unclear how many people will be out of a job as the company deals with seniority and union issues, but the total net reduction across the country will be less than 30.

Kevin Crull out as Bell Media president

Bell Media has announced that president Kevin Crull is leaving the company, effective today.
Bell Media's parent company BCE made the announcement in a press release after markets closed Thursday.
The sudden departure comes it became public last month after Crull tried to meddle in the editorial coverage of a CRTC  story involving Bell.  Bell owns the CTV network.
"The independence of Bell Media's news operations is of paramount importance to our company and to all Canadians," BCE president George Cope said in today in a news release.
"There can be no doubt that Bell will always uphold the journalistic standards that have made CTV the most trusted brand in Canadian news."
Crull has been replaced by Mary Ann Turcke, who was formerly group president of media sales for local TV and radio at the company. She is also a director of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment – the entity partially controlled by Bell that owns the Maple Leafs, Raptors and other properties.

Claire Martin, ex-CBC meteorologist, to run for Green Party nomination

Claire Martin

Former CBC meteorologist Claire Martin is set to announce plans to seek the Green Party nomination in a B.C. riding for the upcoming federal election, the CBC reports.
Martin will be joined by Green Party Leader Elizabeth May at a news conference on Thursday in North Vancouver, according to a press release by the party.
Martin is familiar to many Canadians during her time as CBC's senior meteorologist, appearing on The National from 2005 to 2014 and winning awards for her weather presenting. She left CBC last year to join a Vancouver production company.

Nearly 40 per cent of anglophone Canadians use Netflix: poll

Nearly 40 per cent of anglophone Canadians were using Netflix this past fall, according to a new report quoted by The Canadian Press.
The Media Technology Monitor surveyed 4,002 English-speaking consumers by phone between Oct. 8 and Dec. 12 and found 39 per cent said they were Netflix subscribers, up from 26 per cent when a similar poll was conducted in the fall of 2013.
A majority of the respondents polled this fall said they had been using Netflix for at least a year. About 38 per cent said they had been streaming content on Netflix for at least two years and 31 per cent said they had been subscribing for a year or two.
Full story

Rolling Stone retracts story on campus rape

Decision follows independent scrutiny of magazine's story by Columbia University
Rolling Stone magazine has apologized and officially retracted its discredited article about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia.
The magazine took the action Sunday night after receiving a report from the Columbia University graduate school of journalism on the editorial process that led to the article. (AP)
Full story

Hostages, families sue French TV over coverage of Paris terror attack

Families of the hostages of a radical gunman who killed four in a kosher supermarket are suing a French broadcaster over its live coverage of the attack, saying it endangered the hostages’ lives.
Paris prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre said Friday that a preliminary investigation has been opened into the coverage by BFM all-news television, on possible charges of “putting others’ lives in danger.”
She said it is too early to say what kind of fines or sentences the broadcaster might face. France’s broadcast watchdog reprimanded BFM and several other television and radio stations for their coverage of the market hostage-taking and attack on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January.
BFM and other broadcasters notably revealed in live reports that shoppers were hiding in the kosher market.
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Long-time CTV, CBC producer Don McQueen has died

Don McQueen, who had a lengthy career as producer with CBC and CTV, has died, his family announced. A memorial service has been scheduled for Friday, April 10 at 1 pm at the Humphrey Funeral Home 1403 Bayview Avenue (just below Davisville)
The service will be followed by a reception at Humphrey's; and afterwards, guests are invited to the McQueen home at 82 Lawrence Crescent (maps available at service) to continue the reception. McQueen was the husband of TV executive Trina McQueen who survives him.
DEATH NOTICE