Doug Ford government launches ‘Ontario News Now’ while limiting questions from reporters

Premier Doug Ford‘s government has launched a new social media account to promote its agenda.

The Twitter account @ontarionewsnow was created on July 12, and its first content was published on Monday night. A minute-long video, captioned “Premier Ford takes a look back at his first month in office,” features a montage of Ford in various situations including a visit to Woodbine Racetrack, meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and participating in the First Ministers meeting.

Lyndsey Vanstone, a former broadcaster and Ford campaign staffer, is the on-air presenter in the video. In a voice-over, Vanstone said, “Premier Ford attended dozens of events in 30 days and he managed to keep a few campaign promises, too.”
Full Global News story

Jazz.FM workers say the CEO harassed them. Now, they’re accused of plotting a coup

The Star's Donovan Vincent writes about the upheavals at 91.1 JazzFM

White House bans CNN correspondent from news conference

A CNN correspondent was barred from attending an open press event at the White House on Wednesday because of questions she asked President Donald Trump earlier in the day.
Kaitlan Collins and her employer, CNN, say the White House denied Collins access to Trump’s Rose Garden event with the European Commission president because officials found her earlier questions “inappropriate.”
Collins had served as a representative of the television networks during an earlier pool spray in the Oval Office. She and a handful of other reporters peppered the president with questions, including many focused on his former lawyer, Michael Cohen.
The White House Correspondents’ Association also issued a harshly worded statement condemning “the White House’s misguided and inappropriate decision today to bar one of our members from an open press event after she asked questions they did not like.”
And Fox News President Jay Wallace said, “We stand in strong solidarity with CNN for the right to full access for our journalists as part of a free and unfettered press.”
 (AP)

New York Daily News cuts half of its newsroom staff

The New York Daily News has cut half of its newsroom staff, including Jim Rich, the paper’s editor-in-chief.
The paper was sold to tronc Inc, the owner of the Chicago Tribune, last year for $1 along with all liabilities and debt.  
In an email sent to staff on Monday, tronc said the remaining staff – estimated by reports at around 40 journalists – would focus on breaking news involving “crime, civil justice and public responsibility”.
The newspaper has been a key fixture in New York for the last century. It has won 11 Pulitzer prizes, including last year for its work with ProPublica on the abuse of eviction rules in New York City.
There had been reports that the cuts were coming, and an early-morning tweet from Rich hinted at what was to come. (Guardian)
                
             

Military radio host Adrian Cronauer, who inspired "Good Morning, Vietnam," has died

Adrian Cronauer, the man whose military radio antics inspired a character played by Robin Williams in the film Good Morning, Vietnam, has died. He was 79.
During his service as a U.S. air force sergeant in Vietnam in 1965 and 1966, Cronauer opened his Armed Forces Radio show with the phrase, “Goooooood morning, Vietnam!”

Williams made the refrain famous in the 1987 film, loosely based on Cronauer’s time in Saigon.
The film was a departure from other Vietnam War movies that focused on bloody realism, such as the Academy Award-winning Platoon. Instead, it was about irreverent youth in the 1960s fighting the military establishment.

“We were the only game in town and you had to play by our rules,” Cronauer told The Associated Press in 1987. “But I wanted to serve the listeners.”

AP obit in the Toronto Star

Cogeco CEO suggests time could be right for cable company to enter wireless market

The Globe and Mail's Christine Dobby writes that the chief executive officer of Cogeco Communications Inc. says public anger over high wireless prices means the time could be right for the company to launch a mobile service.

The Montreal-based cable company has long stated it would like to offer mobile services to its TV and internet subscribers in Ontario and Quebec, but two recent purchases of licences for cellular airwaves totalling slightly more than $30-million fuelled speculation that Cogeco is more actively pursuing wireless.

CEO Louis Audet outlined the state of the company’s plans on Thursday, telling financial analysts that new trends could “help us enter the business on financially attractive terms” but still insisting Cogeco won’t rush into spending heavily on it.

Cogeco’s cautious moves to get into the still-growing wireless market come as its traditional cable television business is under pressure, with subscribers increasingly cutting the cord in favour of online streaming. The company believes it could win mobile customers from the established national carriers, BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp., amid government efforts to support new competition in the industry, including reserving more than 40 per cent of airwaves in a coming spectrum auction for small players.

Myanmar formally charges two Reuters journalists

A court in Myanmar on Monday formally charged two Reuters journalists accused of illegally possessing official information, allowing their case to go to a full trial.

The case of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo went through several months of hearings to determine if there was enough evidence to support the charge, which the reporters denied.

The two reporters were charged with violating the Official Secrets Act, a law dating from British colonial times, and if convicted, could get up to 14 years in prison. They were arrested in December and have been detained since then because the court denied their request to be released on bail.

They apparently were targeted by the authorities because their work concerned the brutal crackdown by security forces against minority Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. About 700,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since the crackdown began last August. (Reuters)

CTV serves statement of defence to Patrick Brown in defamation lawsuit

Lawyers for CTV News say the network did nothing wrong in reporting allegations of sexual misconduct against the former leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative party.
In a statement of defence served to Patrick Brown, CTV denies allegations laid out in a defamation lawsuit the former Tory leader launched in April. The statement was first published by Canadaland.
In his statement of claim, Brown alleges the network and several journalists involved in the story acted maliciously and irresponsibly in publishing what he characterizes as false accusations brought forward by two women.
Lawyers for CTV deny those allegations and say Brown is not entitled to the $8 million in damages he is seeking.
The legal battle comes months after CTV News aired its initial report about the alleged misconduct, which prompted Brown to step down from his post as head of the provincial Tories.

Park named after Lloyd Robertson officially opens

A park honouring former CTV chief anchor and special correspondent Lloyd Robertson was opened on Saturday in Markham, Ont.
“This is a great piece of legacy because it’s so different,” Robertson said. “It’s tangible. You can reach out and touch it, you can come and sit here, your kids can play in the park. It’s fabulous.”
The park is located at 319 Country Glen Road in Markham, a city just north of Toronto.

Mayor Frank Scarpitti called it “a place to reflect.”

"Spending time here is a chance to gain some perspective and build on our strong sense of community," Scarpitti said. "Let's honour the boy from Stratford who grew up to be the most trusted voice in Canada."
Robertson began his broadcasting career in 1952 at a radio station in his hometown of Stratford, Ont., before working in Guelph, Windsor, Winnipeg and Ottawa.
He joined CTV in 1976 and was promoted to chief anchor in 1983, a position that he held until 2011.
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Christie Blatchford: Mainstream media is starving — but certainly not the CBC

Excerpt from Blatchford's column:
"Into the building we went and, there before us, like a damp nostalgic dream come to life, was a newsroom the likes of which virtually all Canadian newspapers haven’t seen in more than a decade.
"Most of our newsrooms now are funereal, with skeletal staffs and row upon row of empty desks, even in the new, pared down offices to which so many papers have relocated.
"I could hardly believe it. This place was buzzing. Every desk was filled. Reporters were busy. Phones were ringing.
"It was bedlam, like every newsroom in the world used to be."
Full column