Moving on up

Global TV's Washington correspondent Troy Reeb is stepping behind the camera and behind a big desk. He's just been appointed vice president of news operations, to be based in Toronto. Announced Steve Wyatt, senior v.p. of news, in a memo to staff today:

In this new role, Troy will be responsible for coordinating our efforts at the local and national level. He will provide strategic direction to our news directors and the Global National team to enable us to make the best and most efficient use of our resources across the network on a daily basis.  He will be based in Toronto.  Troy will report to me and I will now be able to devote more of my time on the strategic growth of news programming in broadcast and beyond in concert with the Broadcast Leadership Team.

But what's this? (Boldface is mine):

Peter Kent will continue to report to me as Deputy Editor-in-Chief with primary responsibility for current affairs and documentary development. Also, he will continue to be our point person in enhancing our relationship with our print partners.  Peter will continue to play a key role in the introduction of new digital technologies. 

Peter Kent? Considering his run as a Conservative in the Toronto riding of St. Paul's during the last federal election, I would think he would be sticking to his responsibilities as executive in charge of equipment. But no.

One of those things that make me go, hmmmm.

Head Set

Filling in for Tod Maffin, Dan Misener reports that Carol Off is the new host of CBC Radio's As It Happens, replacing Mary Lou Finlay who retired last year. It seems as if CBC has been rotating people through that job on a temporary basis for ever. Finally, they made up their minds. Off is best known for her hard-hitting foreign affairs documentaries on The National and for her stint as host of the now-defunct (and much-missed) counterSpin on Newsworld.

In other CBC Radio personality news, Avril Benoit, whose resume has been careening like a pinball lately, takes over the hosting mic at Ontario Morning. Her most recent duties included the production of international documentaries for CBC Radio's The Current.

Where's a head of garlic and a silver cross when you need them?

Judith Miller just can't help herself, and neither can the right-wing corporate media who love her.

The first of a two-part opinion piece by former New York Times reporter Judith Miller for the Wall Street Journal appeared Tuesday. The subject is not Iraq weapons of mass destruction, but those belonging to Libya, North Korea and Iran.

The first part of the lengthy piece, also posted online, is titled: "How Gadhafi Lost His Groove: The complex surrender of Libya's WMD." Miller gets a mention in the teaser at the top of Page One, and her essay fills the page next to the newspaper's editorials.

Part II will appear Wednesday.

Wonder who her sources are? Do you suppose her phone calls are being monitored for government leakage?

Nah.

News ace

Being a betting broad -- I still hold the all time record for a poker win in the Star newroom group -- I'd put my money on Tom Haberstroh as the eventual successor to CTV News president Robert Hurst. That's because the CTV News VP has just been appointed Vice-President and General Manager for CTV British Columbia, a position that Hurst once held.

"I think it is a tremendous opportunity in a burgeoning market, especially with the upcoming 2010 Olympic Winter Games," said Haberstroh. "Over the next few years I expect it will prove to be one of the most exciting jobs in Canadian Television. And, of course, it will be great to move back home."

In his 23 years with CTV, Haberstroh has been Executive Producer, CTV News Specials, Field Producing for the Ottawa Bureau, Executive Producer, Canada AM and Executive Producer, CTV Newsnet.

Even though it's a move back to his native B.C., it's still a major appointment for Haberstroh. But I suspect he can handle it. As I recall, during a poker game at Hurst's house, he whupped me.

Blacked out

Last week, media blogger Bill Doskoch marked the 10th anniversary of the massacre at the Regina Leader-Post. Not surprisingly, the mass firing came in the wake of Conrad Black's Hollinger Inc. taking over the paper.

I've always been a reasonably attentive observer of my industry, and from what I could see, wherever Hollinger acquired, layoffs were sure to follow. Black's chief henchman, David Radler, has said he could always find 12 per cent fat in a Southam paper and four per cent in a Thomson one. By that, he usually doesn't mean overspending on paper clips.

However, the 'L' word didn't appear in any of the glowing L-P coverage about the sale, which mentioned things like the "opportunities" that could be available to employees by being part of a larger organization.

Personally, I put a lockdown on any discretionary spending.

At least two co-workers in the newsroom bought homes in this period, working on the theory that what will happen, will happen and life will go on.

From early January through to the end of Febuary 1996, we saw a steady stream of hard-looking men in dark, corporate suits carrying big, rectangular lawyers' briefcases, walking through our newsroom. They never looked at us or smiled. We didn't exist to them. But then again, to what extent do beef cattle exist to slaughterhouse operators?

"Apparently they're asking a lot of questions like, 'why doesn't this make more profit?'" said one middle manager at the time (he's still there), putting a snarling, chilly inflection on the p-word.

Eventually, the hard men finished their due diligence. At about 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 29, 1996,  an index-card-sized note was put on company bulletin boards around the plant, saying the sale of the company to Hollinger had been closed.

Doskoch's tale is a gripping take on a terrible time in Canadian journalism.

I remember when he, along with scores of his colleagues, got axed. I had interviewed him several times in the preceding years, because of his work with Project Censored and the Canadian Association of Journalists. At the time, he called me to tell me what had happened and also to ask me for leads on jobs.

He writes now that he was targeted for termination because he was an unmarried male, the assumption being that he'd have a better chance of finding a new gig. Indeed, all the fired reporters were single men.

But I have a sneaking suspicion that Doskoch would have been hit no matter what: He was the L-P's environment columnist. A troublemaker then - and still.

Taking the Hill

CP (Canadian Press) has added some major muscle to its Ottawa reporting squad, the one that led the news pack during the federal election campaign of 2005-6.

Climbing on board are freelancer Joan Bryden, a former prizewinner for Southam, who scooped everybody on the Liberal's health policy, and CBC-TV's Jennifer Ditchburn, who has good lines into the Conservatives. Can her departure signal the long-awaited, much discussed nuking of the Corp's Ottawa bureau? 

Heather's

For all you fans of Heather Mallick, late of the Globe and Mail, this just in:

CBC.ca welcomes columnist Heather Mallick who joins the ranks of Canada’s finest journalists with the introduction of her column, Stand on Guard.  Heather’s column launches today on CBC.ca, and will run every second week thereafter at www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint.

“Canada's finest journalists work at the CBC and I am thrilled to have been asked to write for the best website in the country.  It's a medal I'm wearing with great pride,” Mallick says.

She created the title Stand on Guard, as it represents her taking a stance on topics such as social justice, feminism and politics while adding to what she calls “the gaiety of the nation”.  Mallick will share her insights and opinions on a variety of issues using her signature style, wit and sense of humour.

“Heather is smart, funny and provocative and I'm delighted she's joining CBC.ca,” says Sue Gardner, Senior Director, CBC.ca. “She'll be a great addition to our strong journalistic offering, and I'm sure Canadians will enjoy her work.”

Mallick has worked as a reporter, copy editor and book review editor at various Toronto newspapers, and most recently wrote a column called As If for The Globe and Mail.  She has won National Newspaper Awards for both Critical Writing and Feature Writing. Mallick also writes a political column for the New York Times Syndication Service that runs internationally.

Well, Mallick and CBC are a good fit politically. I am still hearing rumours that she will also be columnizing as the token lefty for the National Post. Pretty funny for a woman who once said it was among the many things she ''despises." Unfortunately, while I can find that column in the Dow-Jones data base, I can't find it online.

 

CBS's John Roberts -- J.D. to his long-ago Canadian pals -- is jumping networks to CNN, it was announced this morning.

Chief White House correspondent John Roberts will join CNN as senior national correspondent later this month, CNN/U.S. president Jon Klein announced this morning.

"Roberts will report on a broad range of pressing stories developing in the nation's capital. He will contribute as a correspondent to programs throughout the network," the press release said.

It seems pretty obvious from this interview that Roberts was not going to  preside over the much-coveted CBS Evening News anchor desk, recently vacated by Dan Rather and currently kept warm by Bob Schieffer.

When did you begin mulling a job change and/or a network change?

I began mulling a change when it became clear that my options at CBS were narrowing. Change can often be the best thing in a person's life, and I'm looking forward to working with the great folks at CNN.

Smart money has it that NBC's Katie Couric will sign a megabillion-dollar contract and move over.

Head of the Living Dead

Well, here's some good news out of CBC where they're not exactly walking on sunshine lately: After five months without an official head of programming, the network finally appointed one. Industry veteran Kirstine Layfield replaces Slawko Klymkiw who quit last year to run the Canadian Film Centre.

Richard Stursberg, CBC's executive vice-president of English television, announced Wednesday that Layfield is the new executive director of network programming for CBC-TV.

"Ours is an increasingly competitive industry, and our audience's expectations of their public broadcaster continue to increase exponentially," Stursberg said in a statement.

"Kirstine's wealth of experience will help us make significant strides as we focus on providing our audiences with television programming that is entertaining, enlightening and informative."

(Just to recap: It is widely believed that Klymkiw left because he did not get the exec vice-president job that Stursberg landed. That said, Klymkiw, as popular as he was with CBCers, had a good run at the programming job, grappling with the schedule over a decade of fragmenting and fleeing audiences.)

Layfield's CBC-TV position involves overseeing the network’s entire schedule, commissioning series and working with the independent production sector. That's a lot of power in the Canadian TV frog pond.

Most recently Layfield was senior vice-president, lifestyle content at Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting where she was responsible for channels such as BBC Canada, National Geographic Canada and Home and Garden Television..

Prior to this, she was senior vice-president, programming at Hallmark Entertainment, where she oversaw the programming of 17 international cable and satellite broadcast channels distributed to over 50 million viewers around the globe.

Layfield’s move to CBC marks a return of sorts. That’s because, earlier in her career, she was general manager and vice-president of programming for the now defunct Trio/Newsworld International, a CBC/Power Corporation joint venture in the U.S.

She must like a challenge. CBC kicked itself in the Nielsen nuts when it locked out 5,500 workers last year. Its ratings have yet to recover. Furthermore, CTV has  cornered the CanCon market with such hits as Corner Gas and Canadian Idol.

I'm hearing that CBC had a hard time finding somebody to take on the job. Indeed, word is that somebody was in Stursberg's grasp last week and slipped away. Perhaps it was Layfield who held out for more money? As if anybody will admit to anything. But today's announcement is telling in that there's no word on when Layfield starts.

Meanwhile, the conservative vultures are circling, circling, circling ...

Matter of principle

Heather Mallick gave up her Saturday Focus column at the Globe and Mail today because of a dispute over last week's piece.

Note that, as the rumour mill will surely grind out, she did not quit over that mean-spirited Frank prank (sub. req'd) a few weeks ago that had her indiscreetly slagging co-worker Christie Blatchford. (And what's up with Frank pranking columnists when there are much bigger fish to fry, huh? Go after the pols, the Bay Street suits, the people with real power!)

As she emailed me this afternoon (I added the links for those who want to understand the full context of her resignation.):

My reason was that I had asked that a column be pulled last Friday and the Globe refused.

I had written a column on the Guardian's deplorable and grotesque libel of Noam Chomsky. The handling editor then said I had to repeat the libel. I said that it was libellous to repeat a libel, as any editor should know. I waited to see the final version (I had my editor's word that I always get to see a final version) and on Friday morning was horrified to find that the column had gone to the printer without my having seen it. I said pull it. The Globe refused.

My column runs Sundays on rabble.ca, a great website. I sent them my original version.

That's the dispute.

I am a great admirer of Prof. Chomsky. I think he is the modern Orwell and the moral point mattered a great deal to me, more than anything. Obviously.

In her column, Mallick excoriates Guardian writer Emma Brockes for her Valley Girl profile of Chomsky who had just been named the world's "Greatest Intellectual" in a U.K. magazine survey:

Ms. Brockes had not read Prof. Chomsky's work, clearly thought linguistics was a sex act, and knew nothing about the history of Cambodia on which she questioned him or even the journalistic sequence of events accompanying the Srebrenica massacre. She wrote a profile that manipulated his quotes in such a way that the libel must have glowed in red letters on the page for the editors, junior and senior, who let it through.

It's writing like that which I will miss on Saturday mornings.

If you want to know more about this messy Chomsky-Guardian business, Alexander Cockburn thoroughly frums Brockes here. The anti-Chomsky types are here and here, although the latter guy is mostly anti-Mallick. The original Chomsky profile is no longer on the Guardian's website. It's just too embarrassing.

You have to hand it to Mallick for standing on principle. I wonder if her critics would do the same.