Trump snubs — then trolls — White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Excerpt from the AP's story:

" . . .With President Donald Trump sending his regrets, the attention was no longer focused on an in-person roasting of the commander in chief and his humorous remarks about politics and the press. The red carpet that once featured Oscar winners, TV stars and a few major-league athletes barely turned heads.

"Instead, speakers at the dinner promoted press freedom and responsibility and challenged Trump’s accusations of dishonest reporting.

The stars of the night were Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein . . .Trump became the first president since Ronald Reagan in 1981 to skip the event — and Reagan was recovering from an assassination attempt."

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Heritage minister calls for overhaul of news business

Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly called for a “true redefinition” of the Canadian media industry Friday, as the Liberal government continues to study ways to support the beleaguered news business in the digital age, the Star's Alex Ballingal reports.

A range of options remains on the table, from tax changes to the creation of a fund for media projects, but Joly said it’s too early to say what Ottawa will do to help Canadian news outlets, which have seen huge drops in profits and also job cuts in recent years.

She said that government action must include players in the media industry as well as corporate titans such as Google and Facebook, which gobble up huge portions of digital ad spending, according to a prominent report published in January on the withering media sector.

Joly said she expects to present some of the government’s proposals for Canadian media later this year.

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Three local Shaw TV stations get the axe as Corus redirects funds to Global News

Three local Shaw TV stations will be shut down later this year as Corus Entertainment redirects funding towards Global News, J-source reports.

In a press release sent out April 26, Corus and Shaw Communications announced that about $10 million would be put towards Global News to boost community reporting, including establishing city hall bureaus and municipal affairs specialists. However, the Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton Shaw TV stations will close in August, affecting approximately 70 positions.

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iPoliticsLive, Facebook Canada announce partnership for Facebook Journalism Project

iPoliticsLive and Facebook Canada announced Thursday they are partnering to expand iPoliticsLive’s reach and help promote media literacy in Canada, as part of the Facebook Journalism Project.
Through the project, which launched in January, Facebook aims to establish stronger relationships with the news industry internationally in order to achieve a number of goals. Those objectives include supporting independent media, assisting in the development of new storytelling formats, advancing news literacy and combatting the spread of false news and hoaxes on Facebook, among others.
The new partnership between iPoliticsLive and Facebook Canada marks the social network’s most recent step to meet those goals and represents its most extensive collaboration with a Canadian media organization to date.
iPoliticsLive President Andrew Beattie called the partnership a “game-changer.”
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Canada drops four places to slip out of Top 20 in press freedom index

CP's Colin Perkel writes:

"Canada has slipped for the second straight year in an index ranking freedom of the media, in part because of police spying on journalists and demanding reporters turn over background materials.

"The four-place decline to the 22nd spot overall, on top of last year’s 10-spot fall, leaves Canada out of the top 20 countries in terms of media freedom, Reporters Without Borders — or RSF — said Tuesday.

In announcing its 2017 World Press Freedom Index, RSF said Canada went through a “series of scandals” last year that highlighted the importance — and fragility — of the confidentiality of journalists’ sources."

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