A cautionary tale on trusting reporters, particularly the nice ones

Paul Wells has a blog on the McCrystal affair, citing the Esquire author’s triumphant note that because he’s a freelancer, not a regular, he doesn’t have to worry about cultivating relationships with sources; he can just burn them down and move on to the next job (though why anyone else would ever want to talk to him after this is beyond me.) Anyway, a cautionary  tale: it’s usually the nicest reporters who are most manipulative, the ones who just say they want to tell the world your story. Keep your guard up at all times, and remember Joan Didion’s words: a writer will always sell you out.

MacLean’s, June 22 2010

Quebecor, CTV in CRTC tangle

Quebecor is trying to get the CRTC to whack CTV over its choice of programming (not Canadian enough) on the latter’s A channel affiliates, the ones that mainly show movies and satisfy CRTC Canadian content by loading up on local news. Not that it’s a bad thing, but CRTC is looking for more Canadian drama, comedy etc. than just news. More likely corporate posturing than anything else, but with TV ad revenue down significantly this year, all options are being explored to ram the enemy.

Sun media, July 12 2010