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Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Press Review
From today's edition of NORMAN'S SPECTATOR
In France , the papers again lead with the hostage crisis, after the government was given a one-day extension. In the UK , the papers are a hodgepodge, depending on their ideological orientation. US papers are wall-to-wall Republican convention.
The New York Times’ editorial board presses the parties to reform campaign finance. The Washington Post’s editorial board weighs in on last week’s poverty and health data. The Los Angeles Times’ editorial board says the Republicans are two-faced.
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board says “Americans want a party that will give them more control over their finances and pensions, their health care, and especially their time,” and that if voters want the status quo they can vote Democrat. “Republicans have to stake their claim to govern on individual empowerment and the reform of our unsustainable, New Deal public-sector monopolies.”
At home, most papers front the Republican convention. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister “formally” appointed two Supreme Court Justices and Premier Dalton McGuinty is trying to give him a hand with another campaign pledge that’s turned out to be a bit more complicated than expected—the televised first ministers’ conference on health care.
The Globe and Mail stuffs the Supremes, fronts McGuinty and red-faced weather forecasters, but leads with Allan Freeman from New York and a huge photo of George W. Bush on the campaign trail.
The Toronto Star and National Post also front their men at the Republican convention, but Tim Harper is as far below the fold as you can get, and sans photo. The Post leads with Sheldon Alberts (here’s his lead), together with a photo of the Bush "girls"--half of whom are older than the Post's editor.
Both the Post and the Globe have the poop on the Alberta banker who went missing with millions and there are cars and sex involved and, well, you know the story.
Inside the Globe, John Ibbitson previews next month’s health conference, as well as what won't be discussed. From New York this week, Jeff Simpson says George Bush is no Winston Churchill when it comes to their command of English; hasn't it been said that the Brits and the Yanks are two peoples divided by a common language? The editorial board wants a ban on pit bulls, and says it’s time for action on Darfur.
The Toronto Star editorial board, most of whose members boldly declare themselves today to be dog-owners, says the bad breed--and crosses to boot--should be banned in cities; you’d think they’d have given some thought to police enforcement of the proposed pooch law. Another editorialist pans the PQ’s “march of folly.” (Here’s Bernard Descoteaux’s take in Le Devoir.)
The paper fronts the soon-to-be condemned canines--including the Attorney-General's e-mail address for those who'd like to comment--but leads with a former municipal pooh-bah who’s stepped in a pile of…trouble. Inside, Tom Walkom says Ottawa can afford a national Pharmacare program.
Both the Post and Ottawa Citizen front good news for liberal arts grads and bad news for MBAs, a degree that’s declining in value. The Citizen reports that athletes are about to get more money while the Post reports that Liberal Parliamentary Secretaries want their share.
Inside the Post, Don Martin says we can afford to buy Olympic medals and don’t need Jacques Rogge to meddle. The editorial board endorses the Kirby/Keon prescription for health care. (Here’s my take a few weeks ago.)
Inside the Citizen, Charles Gordon backs Carolyn Parrish for PM—she’s shown leadership on missile defence, which can’t be said of the incumbent or most of the caucus. The editorial board says the Northern Ireland peace process must continue, and that demonstrators in New York are “unhinged” and will have to decide how fully to show it.
Elsewhere in CanWest land, the Montréal Gazette fronts a new gene (here’s the Toronto Star report on breast cancer), and news that bouncers are keeping Blacks out of strip clubs. The editorial board is proud of our Olympic performance. The Gaz wins the race for today’s best correction: “A caption on the front page, and a story inside of the Inside Athens section yesterday incorrectly referred to the clothes worn by the man who disrupted the marathon as being traditional Greek dress. They were not.”
The Calgary Herald fronts the kinky Alberta ex-banker, along with a celebrity Stampede bull that has passed away. The editorial board endorses the Kirby/Keon report—though they dissent on its affirmation of a single-tier system--and warns France that concessions are not the way to fight terror.
The Vancouver Sun stuffs the banker and fronts Paul Martin’s Olympian orders to Stephen Owen along with a bike courier who was the victim of road rage and has been awarded $22K by the BC Supreme Court. Barbara Yaffe interviews Senator Colin Kenny, who explains why missile defence is in Canada ’s national interest and urges Stephen Harper to speak out. The editorial board says Athens proved that the Olympics are worth it; I’m not sure Greek taxpayers will agree when they—and we, after 2010-- deal with the hangover.
In the Toronto Sun, Peter Worthington pans shari’a law, and the Globe and Mail. In Calgary , Paul Jackson predicts Paul Martin “will go down as the biggest bungler and bonehead of all” our Prime Ministers. In Ottawa , Val Sears has been to his garden party. In Winnipeg , Charles Adler is down on Romanow but gives thumbs up to Keon and Kirby—has he read the endorsement of single-tier health care?
TOP STORY
Top CRTC official's contract renewed
The Montréal Gazette’s MIKE DE SOUZA begins with a weak lead, but reports on the way Ottawa really works:
“The official responsible for broadcasting at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is getting a contract extension.
Andree Wylie's mandate as vice-chairperson for broadcasting was supposed to expire today, but she was offered a one-year extension at the end of last week.
Heritage Minister Liza Frulla's office dismissed rumours that it was searching for a replacement in recent weeks following the CRTC's controversial decisions over the summer to revoke the licence of Quebec City radio station CHOI-FM, and to block Italian television channel RAI International.
"I haven't heard those rumours," Frulla's spokesperson, Donald Boulanger, said. "All I know is that she was renewed for a year."
Posted by Norman Spector on August 31, 2004 | Permalink
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