Margin Notes: Signs, Holmes, Indians

Yet another very strange advertisement was found on Front Street in Toronto, Ontario on 25-July-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I've said before on this blog many times that one never knows what one will see on the streets of Toronto, and the sign above is another classic example. Found near the west end of Front Street at Bathurst, it actually advertises a sommelier service, so there's no need to check out the link.

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A new bar for private events was observed on the mezzanine at the John Street Roundhouse in Toronto, Ontario on 25-July-2010

Of course, many of us that spend time in Roundhouse Park here in Toronto think that Jesus just might drink beer if he were here, not wine. After all, Steam Whistle Brewing offers free samples to visitors from their home in stalls 1 through 14 of the John Street Roundhouse. If in the area, I strongly advise stopping by to check out their pilsner brew.

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Roundhouse Park was inside the G20 security zone last month, and the aftermath of that event has been decidedly low-key in Canadian public opinion. In his Spacing magazine column last week, John Lorinc presented a case for why Canadians aren't worked up about the G20, but are talking about long census forms, a nice complement to some of this blog's recent writings about Canadian character.

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From the alternate media to the mainstream, I have to admit that Ian Hanomansing's stint on CBC Television's The National last week sometimes confused me. Hanomansing's voice is so much like that of Hari Sreenivasan of the PBS NewsHour that I sometimes wasn't sure which program I was listening to--newscasters of Indian origin are making a strong impact at both networks.

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When listening to public radio, I sometimes learn things that I'm pretty certain I never really needed to know. On last week's To The Best of Our Knowledge from Wisconsin Public Radio, one hour was an excellent show on autism, but I'm not sure I needed to hear Sherlock Holmes described as autistic. First public radio tells me that Holmes may have been gay, now it tells me he was autistic. What are they going to come up with next?

Media: Looking Back on Changes

TORONTO, ONTARIO - In 2009, the (arguably) most intellectual evening newscasts in Canada and the United States, CBC's The National and The PBS NewsHour (formerly the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer) went through major re-formatting. Now, after some months in which the broadcasts have stabilized, I would contend that neither re-format has proven to be especially profound and both broadcasts remain the worthwhile presentations that they have been for years.

The National made its changes first, in late October, and the first day was not well-received on this blog. Visual changes aside, the story selection and emphasis on man-on-the-street interviews was disturbing--the amount of hard news and "real" (perhaps "traditional" would be a better term) journalism had clearly declined, and I wasn't the only blogger complaining about the changes.

A survey of the last week of programming reveals a different story. The "streeters" are basically gone, except when the story is actually about public opinion (e.g. on a change in political polls) and thus have journalistic relevance. Originally touted as a weekly feature, the "Analysis with Wendy Mesley" pieces have proven to be less frequent, bumped at times by real news like Haiti, and have tended to be more relevant, particularly in the political sphere, such as exploring the accountability of the prime minister. The puff pieces like whether NASA should be funded (hardly a burning issue for Canadians) seem to have quietly disappeared.

In fact, I daresay that if one compared a National program from August with a recent program from January, the only significant difference that would be seen would be the visual appearance changes. I don't find Peter Mansbridge walking the set to be distracting (or enticing, for that matter), or the new color scheme incorporating blue to be that significant. Guests--if not reporters introducing a story--are now allowed to sit down again (Rick Hillier was especially awkward standing up). Differences of style rather than substance don't really bother me. Ratings are apparently still down (though a MacLeans article points out this may have as much or even more to do with new monitoring devices to determine ratings than with the broadcast), so this story may not yet be over.

The PBS NewsHour made its changes officially on 7 December, but as has often been the case on this show, many of the changes were gradually introduced, including the placement of the news summary after the top story of the day, something that prompted a margin note from this blog last August. The major changes in December were a mild (compared with the CBC's) visual makeover and the re-introduction of two anchors each evening, just like the program had prior to Robert MacNeil's retirement in 1995. The second anchor besides Jim Lehrer rotates amongst the program's senior staff. Hari Sreenivasan now reads the news summary instead of one of the anchors.

I never detected any serious change in editorial selections or tone as a result of the re-formatting, or any change in the journalistic value of the newscast. What has changed significantly has been the on-line integration of the broadcast. Whereas the podcast had been spotty in delivering the complete program (and, in fact, the program as presented on-air was not available on-line, just most segments), the On-Line NewsHour, as it is called, is now if anything more valuable than the broadcast itself, with additional coverage of some stories and often extra interviews with analysts. The full broadcast is readily available. As someone who was traveling for most of the early weeks after the change, I really appreciated the improved on-line NewsHour.

So, a few months into the changes, I rate the CBC changes as a long-term wash after short-term negatives, and the PBS changes as a clear improvement.