Speakers speaking in code
Alright, so I think it’s worth mentioning that The Coast has been doing some really good work lately. It started with Stephen Kimber’s articles on Rodney MacDonald’s war chest and Douglas Sparks side of the story in the HRM School Board sissy fit and it’s continued with Bruce Wark’s columns at the beginning each week.
More often then not, they’re profiling work in journalism, or the failings of that work. Naturally, it’s caught my eye and although, I want to write further about this at some other time (whenever I get time), I thought that highlighting this story is relevant:
This Bruce Wark column talks about the Daily News. Basically, the newspaper is cutting legit journalists in favour of a more entertainment skewed tabloid-esque format. I believe he calls it “vapid weeklies that are little more than vehicles for advertising.” and “soft as mashed bananas.”
Right, so it’s not like I respected the Daily News before, but that’s just pathetic.
Now to add to this, today on Entertainment Tonight Canada (I was watching because there was a story on Ellen Page, who I worked with on Wilby Wonderful), there was a mention about a guy being upset about the Junos featuring International artists more prominently then Canadian artists. The thought is that the Junos are a recognition and a forum for Canadian music, and so high profile performances by Coldplay and the Black Eyed Peas don’t really fill this mandate. In fact, they take the spotlight (literally and figuratively) away from Canadian artists and Canadian music. Now they even noted in this little news vignette that CTV probably won’t air this point of view because they’re the ones who own the TV rights to the show and are more concerned with putting butts in seats and in front of television sets across Canada, then recognizing Canadian music.
So to tie this back together, the Daily News is currently running a campaign to convince the Black Eyed Peas to stay and put on a show in Halifax. It’s really cute, there’s teenage girls writing in and saying how much they love BEP’s peppy rock, so on and so forth. But it would be a much better story if they pushed the angle brought up on Global, about promoting Canadian music and filling what the Junos are supposed to represent.
Sure get the chick with the ass to shake what she’s got at the Metro Centre, but don’t do it during a celebration of Canadian music.
“(I was watching because there was a story on Ellen Page, who I worked with on Wilby Wonderful)”
With all the ‘work’ that being a stand-in entails, of course.
Comment by Anonymous — 22.3.2006 @ 1:39
I can’t lie, it wasn’t the hardest job I ever had, but that’s really beside the point.
Comment by forbes — 22.3.2006 @ 7:40
I wish I had have posted that awesome stand-in comment.
about the juno. Here’s the thing….who is nominated for most of the juno’s? Nickelback, Canadian idol flops and well the same 6 bands/song writers that are nominated every year. If Canadian popular music didn’t suck balls then the organizers wouldn’t have to bring in international talent to sell the show. And what exactly are the juno’s supposed to represent these days anyway? Winning awards and not writing your own songs…or winning awards for writing the same song 20 times (a la nickelback). I support Canadian music to no end, but I do not support anything that goes on in the 2hrs of the juno’s. I really can’t blame them for bringing in international talent, especially to Halifax.
My philosophy is most of the people in Halifax wouldn’t give a shit about this show if coldplay wasn’t there and the chance that Neil Young might be there simply because we are lucky (?) enough to see all the nominee’s live because touring canadian bands normally come here. In the end Canadian popular music is crap and therefore the juno’s become crap so they need something to sell it. You can only run with nickelback and our lady peace so long.
Comment by Murf — 22.3.2006 @ 16:38