We heart Mike

CTV's Mike Duffy is alive and well in Ottawa, where he is recuperating after open heart surgery. (Yes, he has a ticker!)

Duffy, host of Mike Duffy Live on CTV Newsnet, underwent the procedure at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute last week.

Lillian Duffy, the newsman's mother, told the Charlottetown Guardian that he is expected to make a full recovery.

"His operation was successful and he's home," she said from her Charlottetown home. "We're all grateful he's making a good recovery."

Duffy, 60, suffered a minor heart attack 14 years ago.

I know he's doing okay because he emailed me a few minutes ago to ask me about something I blogged while he was out of commission. I don't think it made him happy. But hey, better a mad Mike than a dead Duffy.

Get well soon Mike!

Crossed out promotion

Here's just one reason media concentration is bad news: TV critics who work for papers affilitiated with networks don't write the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Consider today's column by the Globe and Mail's Andrew Ryan, who is backfilling for John Doyle.

Headed "ABC Suffers Nightmare after Nightmare," it's an account of the dismal summer season suffered by the Mickey Mouse network which has launched, if my count is correct, five reality shows this summer, including the ill-fated The One: Making of a Music Star.

Ryan not only once again catalogs the grisly details of The One, which was simulcast by CBC-TV, but he also dumps all over ABC's equally ill-fated One Ocean View, Buy It Now, Master of Champions, and How to Get the Guy.

This summer has been one long bad dream for ABC. The Disney-owned network was riding high in recent years, but ABC has been knocked down a peg this off-season with a string of tasteless TV mistakes. Each week, it just keeps getting worse for ABC -- and the summer isn't over.

Tonight, for example, should have yielded the third episode of ABC's One Ocean View, a summer reality series about New Yorkers who spend each weekend sleeping with each other in a Fire Island beach house. How could it miss? ABC canned the show last week, citing wretchedly low ratings. Starting tonight, ABC replaces One Ocean View with rebroadcasts of Supernanny.

At first it appeared ABC's summer campaign had simply gotten off to a bumpy start. The network tried something a little different with the reality-dating series How to Get the Guy, in which two relationship experts coached a gaggle of single women trying to find their Mr. Rights -- in San Francisco, where they say it's raining men. It lasted two weeks.

Now here's the thing: Nowhere does Ryan mention CTV which is owned by Bell Globemedia which also owns the Globe. And yet, CTV bought One Ocean View and How to Get the Guy -- something else Ryan neglected to mention.

Don't forget, the Globe went ape over CBC's simulcast of The One, making it front-page news.

So ask yourself this: If they're willing to obfuscate the little things, how will they handle the big ones?

Shut out

Is Bell Globemedia (which owns CTV and TSN) about to score Hockey Night in Canada? That's what sources tell the Globe and Mail. The company is reportedly going to offer $140 million a year for the rights, more than double what CBC is now paying.

On a good year, it's believed the CBC has been making $30-million and more in profit from the hockey telecasts. The network's current rights fee of $65-million a year, therefore, is viewed by the NHL as a bargain.

If CTV-TSN were to win the rights, CTV would carry the Saturday night doubleheaders during the regular season. TSN also would provide a full schedule of regular-season games.

For the postseason, the bulk of content would air on TSN and perhaps a secondary channel, TSN2, if it received regulatory approval. CTV would air some playoffs games, probably on Saturday afternoons and evenings, then carry the full slate of Stanley Cup final telecasts.

That could be a problem for Canadians...and CTV.

That's because it's highly unlikely CTV would pre-empt its lucrative U.S. simulcasts during play-off season, especially when the games coincide with all those season and series finales. So the games would have to move to TSN or other specialty channels, where many Canadians can't receive them.

Does BGM really want to force old people on fixed incomes to shell out more for cable?

On the other hand, maybe the strategy is for CTV to run the games, and BGM, assuming its wins approval for its takeover of CHUM, will park its simulcasts there.

Either way, it could be the end of CBC-TV.

Loss of face

CBC's loss is CTV's gain. Actually, the taxpayers' loss is Bell Globemedia's gain. Veteran CBC journalist Paul Workman is jumping ship, CTV News president Robert Hurst announced today.

Workman will join foreign correspondent Matt McClure in covering South Asia. The two will rotate between New Delhi and Kandahar and lead CTV News' expanded coverage in the region with a special emphasis on the ongoing efforts of the Canadian troops in Afghanistan.

"Paul is recognized as one of the world's best foreign correspondents. For years Canadians have admired his coverage of major international events across Europe, the Middle East and Asia," said Hurst. "CTV is already home to the best international news coverage in Canada and our roster of all-star foreign correspondents has just gotten even better."

"I am thrilled to be joining Canada's #1 news team," said Workman. "CTV News has distinguished itself for its commitment to journalistic excellence not only within our borders but on the international front as well. I look forward to joining Matt McClure in South Asia and being part of the network's ongoing coverage in Afghanistan."

With more than 30 years of experience in Canadian journalism, Workman has covered a multitude of national and international news events. Reporting from locations throughout Canada, Europe and Asia, Workman has covered notable news events including the political turmoil in Quebec, the revolutionary changes in Eastern Europe and the tragic death of Princess Diana. Most recently, Workman has reported extensively on the Middle East, specifically on the war in Iraq and the conflict in Afghanistan.

Workman has spent the past quarter century with CBC, a died-in-the-wool Corpser. But I can't say I am surprised, considering everything that transpired last fall between him and the network. A couple of months ago, it seemed that he got a brief reprieve.

But obviously it wasn't enough to keep him at CBC. Nobody can blame Workman for leaving. But as I type this, I'm on the phone with a CBC Newsie who is expressing profound regret -- but not surprise -- over the defection.

Incidentally, I am told that Workman, as well as most of the CBC journalists and producers who worked at the Jerusalem bureau, have appealed to management over the way cameraman Azur Mizrachi was cruelly dumped last month by managing editor George Hoff who flew over just to have the bureau locks changed. No notice, no bonus, no severance. (He was offered standard severance.) This is a guy who risked his life for two decades covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with three daughters. He claims he has no idea why he was dumped. He's contesting the dismissal but CBC has hired a high-priced Tel Aviv law firm to fight back.

Hoff, by the way, took a sidetrip to do the firing while on his way to a join the jury at TV festival in Monaco.

Your tax dollars at work.