J-Links: Quebecor’s ‘inconsistency’; Who’s censoring Ezra Levant?; High-profile Chinese journalist resigns

 

In Canadian media:

Opposing Bell-Astral deal shows Quebecor’s inconsistency

 

In Canadian media:

Opposing Bell-Astral deal shows Quebecor’s inconsistency

Quebecor has long been the face of media consolidation in Quebec and has had no problem asserting its market dominance in the province, making its opposition to the Bell-Astral deal “inconsistent,” argues André Pratte in La Presse today. If the Bell-Astral deal is approved, Bell and Quebecor would control roughly the same share of the market in Quebec.

Ezra Levant segment on Roma people pulled by Sun News Network

Ezra Levant lambasted the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council as a censor earlier this summer when it ruled he had to apologize for a segment in which he swore at a Chiquita Banana executive in Spanish. So what does it mean when his own network removes a controversial segment from the Internet entirely? As David Climenhaga (one of the complainants in the Chiquita Banana CBSC case) writes for rabble.ca, a Levant segment that Climenhaga says may have “came very close to the legal definition of hate speech as defined by Section 319 for the Canadian Criminal Code” has been removed from the Sun News Network site. 

 

In international media:

The ‘conscience of China’ resigns from the Oriental Daily, quits journalism

Jian Guangzhou recently announced he had quit the Oriental Daily and reporting entirely. The journalist, who broke the scandal on China’s baby formula pollution, was perceived by many to be the “conscience of China,” The Atlantic reports. He is the third investigative journalist in China to resign in the past year, which The Atlantic says “[reflects] the huge pressure facing investigative journalists,” under China’s censors.

 

Today’s read:

David Carr: grampypants or avatar?

In this Q&A with The Globe and Mail senior media writer Simon Houpt, The New York Times’ media columnist and culture reporter talks old-media (grampypants) vs. new media (avatar), the future of journalism, and why he likes Canadian indie musician Kathleen Edwards so much.