New Yorker writer faked Bob Dylan quotes in bestseller

A staff writer for The New Yorker has resigned and his bestselling book has been halted after he acknowledged inventing quotes by Bob Dylan.

Jonah Lehrer released a statement Monday through his publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, saying that some Dylan quotes appearing in Imagine: How Creativity Works did “not exist.” Others were “unintentional misquotations, or represented improper combinations of previously existing quotes.”

Lehrer said he acknowledged his actions after being contacted by Michael Moynihan of the online publication Tablet Magazine, which earlier Monday released an in-depth story on the Dylan passages in Imagine.

“I told Mr. Moynihan that (the quotes in question) were from archival interview footage provided to me by Dylan’s representatives. This was a lie spoken in a moment of panic. When Mr. Moynihan followed up, I continued to lie, and say things I should not have said,” Lehrer wrote in his statement.

“The lies are over now. I understand the gravity of my position. I want to apologize to everyone I have let down, especially my editors and readers.”

Rogers races to capture multicultural viewers for Olympics

The Olympics provide a solid boost in prestige for Rogers multi-cultural channel OMNI, but they are not likely to be a big money maker in the short term. The network partially depends on advertising from popular prime-time programming for its survival, and will need to move hit shows off its airwaves to make room for the Games.
And while being a member of Canada’s Olympic Consortium is a high-profile boost, the network only receives a small percentage of the ad revenue the Canadian Olympic Consortium and its members generate. But OMNI has a longer-term goal in mind.
“As a station this is more of a prestige play,” said Madeline Ziniak, OMNI’s national vice-president. “We’re not garnering any revenue. In fact, you could say we are going the other way.”
The Globe and Mail story

Tory minister's complaint against lawyer's comments about Conrad Black case dismissed by Law Society

I
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s office pursued a formal complaint against a Toronto lawyer who suggested publicly that the Conservative politician played a role in the decision to let former media baron Conrad Black return to Canada.
This spring, a staffer in Mr. Kenney’s office filed a grievance against Guidy Mamann with the Law Society of Upper Canada, proposing he be investigated for violating its code of conduct.
The veteran immigration lawyer offered commentary to media outlets, including The Globe and Mail, following news in late April that Mr. Black had engineered his return to Canada, a country whose citizenship he renounced in pursuit of a British peerage.
The law society answered the complaint in July by saying it found insufficient evidence to warrant an investigation into Mr. Mamann. It closed the file.
The Globe and Mail story

William French, long-time Globe and Mail literary critic, dead at 84

William French, literary editor and journalist at The Globe and Mail for 42 years, died  last Tuesday.
French shaped Canada's literary landscape from 1960 to 1990 as the most influential book columnist of his time, recognized by two National Newspaper Awards (1977 and 1978). For 28 years he taught editorial and critical writing at Ryerson University's School of Journalism and did much work for the Canada Council and CBC.
Link to paid obit.

The power and glory of sportswriting

Nice sports writing memoir piece in te New York Times:

"I spent four and half years as a young reporter at Sports Illustrated, in the company of many fine writers and editors. All of them knew that the world considered sports to be of modest significance. And yet they also observed how much time and emotion people invested in sports and saw that sports mattered in ways that transcended the games. They took some credit for this. When I left to write books, the first one about sports, I continued to think about my privileged apprenticeship — about what sportswriters do to make the unimportant feel absolutely urgent."

The full New York Times story