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Lay of the land
By RYAN CLEARY
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Saturday, May 17, 2008
I used to have a regular column of the above name in The Newfoundland Herald, but it didn’t last. Geoff Stirling had another sort of lay of the land in mind for his weekly entertainment mag, and it wasn’t the view from here.
He wanted harder pecks than points, more abs than adjectives.
But he had my respect, even after I was fired. That’s not quite accurate either: my contract wasn’t renewed. Not that I was all that serious either. A hard news man doesn’t pluck the head from Justin Timberlake’s body and replace it with Leo Puddister’s sideburned skull. Which I did with a 2004 picture of Timberlake freeing Janet Jackson’s breast from its cloth captor. It was wicked fun, and in good taste: Janet’s nipple was covered with a star, stamped “NAPE member.”
The picture was printed alongside a column about the impending NAPE strike of 2004 and Puddister’s war with Danny. I was out on my arse in jig time. That was the straw that broke the advertising back and an immediate blackout ended any future lays of the land.
Sitting on a couch in Scott Stirling’s plush-carpeted office, I can honestly say I was shocked when he delivered his father’s bad news, although I shouldn’t have been.
I had too often questioned The Herald’s winning formula. Geoff wanted Hollywood puff and fluff, sweetened with a little Newfoundlandia. I wanted more Newfoundland and Labrador meat and panache.
In the end, it was Geoff’s ship and he was Captain Newfoundland — still is to this day. He had built a media empire on The Herald’s deck and it was his to sail where he wanted.
Geoff succeeded where Joey Smallwood himself had failed. He bought his first press in 1946 from Joey, who had tried his hand at his own paper, The St. John’s Sunday Herald, but couldn’t make a go of it. In the mother of all publicity stunts, he had the Herald air-dropped onto the ice floes for sealers to read. Geoff went on to pioneer TV in Newfoundland and FM rock across Canada. He still has goals — reincarnation among them. (Thanks again Geoff for the copy of Crop Circles … wicked pictures.)
The last tycoon of our time can be as oddball as he wants. He’s earned it. The Newfoundland Herald is still going today, an NTV/OZ-FM billboard on most store counters in the land.
Geoff owns the largest multi-media company in Canada, and NTV is his cash cow. The NTV Evening Newshour — the station’s flagship show — is absolutely cornering the market. CBC couldn’t be more dominated if OZ-FM wings suddenly sprouted from the double-decker Hummer and Toni Marie flew it, kamikaze style, into Jonathan Crowe’s anchor desk.
The ratings were released recently and NTV news is wiping the floor with CBC’s Here and Now. NTV has 167,000 of us glued to the TV for the first half of the supperhour news, and 154,000 for the second.
Brace yourself: Here and Now has 39,000 people tuning in for the first half hour of its show, dropping to 38,000 in the second half. It’s not all bad news; CBC’s managing editor says the corporation is up 5,000 from last count. Whoopee!
CBC is trying to catch up, to return to its days of total media domination in Newfoundland and Labrador, but it’s not working. It’s failing miserably. CBC has some solid reporters, its anchors are true heavyweights, but its master formula isn’t working.
CBC would be a starving media cousin if it didn’t have uncle Ottawa to pay its bills. Must be nice. And still it has the better-than-thou attitude, with as many reporters at a budget lockup as can jam in the room.
CBC is doing more live hits from the field, its young reporters are as hip as the scarves around their necks, but the station still isn’t capturing the attention of the populace. NTV is kicking butt and taking names. CBC even hired a consulting firm, Frank Magid and Associates (pronounced maggot) to turn the news around. (I thought that’s what a good news editor was for?)
For all that, I like CBC news. While I flick between stations, I linger longer with Debbie and crew. CBC has some changes in the works. It plans to replace Arrested Development, the half-hour sitcom that plays immediately before the news (the funniest show on television that no one watches — except me) with Wheel of Fortune. That should be a real boost to the preservation of Canadian culture, which is what the CBC is all about.
I write today not to bury the media, but to praise it. Journalism has never been stronger in these parts. Who needs an opposition or a House of Assembly when we’ve got Glen Carter, David Cochrane and Ivan Morgan on the trail?
Danny isn’t happy with the media, but then it’s not our job to please him. So many politicians don’t get that. The media have a point about the premier staying out of the business of the Cameron Inquiry — you’re damn right we do — but there’s another side as well.
How far is too far? In the end people die of cancer — a tragic fact of life. Dig far enough into the medical system and you’ll find fault and failure … until a cure is found.
There has to be a balance between getting to the truth of what happened and maintaining faith — notice I didn’t write blind faith — in the medical system. The media must be careful not to undermine the entire system, driving doctors away from our shores, sending us back to medieval times.
And that’s today’s lay of the land.
ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca
He wanted harder pecks than points, more abs than adjectives.
But he had my respect, even after I was fired. That’s not quite accurate either: my contract wasn’t renewed. Not that I was all that serious either. A hard news man doesn’t pluck the head from Justin Timberlake’s body and replace it with Leo Puddister’s sideburned skull. Which I did with a 2004 picture of Timberlake freeing Janet Jackson’s breast from its cloth captor. It was wicked fun, and in good taste: Janet’s nipple was covered with a star, stamped “NAPE member.”
The picture was printed alongside a column about the impending NAPE strike of 2004 and Puddister’s war with Danny. I was out on my arse in jig time. That was the straw that broke the advertising back and an immediate blackout ended any future lays of the land.
Sitting on a couch in Scott Stirling’s plush-carpeted office, I can honestly say I was shocked when he delivered his father’s bad news, although I shouldn’t have been.
I had too often questioned The Herald’s winning formula. Geoff wanted Hollywood puff and fluff, sweetened with a little Newfoundlandia. I wanted more Newfoundland and Labrador meat and panache.
In the end, it was Geoff’s ship and he was Captain Newfoundland — still is to this day. He had built a media empire on The Herald’s deck and it was his to sail where he wanted.
Geoff succeeded where Joey Smallwood himself had failed. He bought his first press in 1946 from Joey, who had tried his hand at his own paper, The St. John’s Sunday Herald, but couldn’t make a go of it. In the mother of all publicity stunts, he had the Herald air-dropped onto the ice floes for sealers to read. Geoff went on to pioneer TV in Newfoundland and FM rock across Canada. He still has goals — reincarnation among them. (Thanks again Geoff for the copy of Crop Circles … wicked pictures.)
The last tycoon of our time can be as oddball as he wants. He’s earned it. The Newfoundland Herald is still going today, an NTV/OZ-FM billboard on most store counters in the land.
Geoff owns the largest multi-media company in Canada, and NTV is his cash cow. The NTV Evening Newshour — the station’s flagship show — is absolutely cornering the market. CBC couldn’t be more dominated if OZ-FM wings suddenly sprouted from the double-decker Hummer and Toni Marie flew it, kamikaze style, into Jonathan Crowe’s anchor desk.
The ratings were released recently and NTV news is wiping the floor with CBC’s Here and Now. NTV has 167,000 of us glued to the TV for the first half of the supperhour news, and 154,000 for the second.
Brace yourself: Here and Now has 39,000 people tuning in for the first half hour of its show, dropping to 38,000 in the second half. It’s not all bad news; CBC’s managing editor says the corporation is up 5,000 from last count. Whoopee!
CBC is trying to catch up, to return to its days of total media domination in Newfoundland and Labrador, but it’s not working. It’s failing miserably. CBC has some solid reporters, its anchors are true heavyweights, but its master formula isn’t working.
CBC would be a starving media cousin if it didn’t have uncle Ottawa to pay its bills. Must be nice. And still it has the better-than-thou attitude, with as many reporters at a budget lockup as can jam in the room.
CBC is doing more live hits from the field, its young reporters are as hip as the scarves around their necks, but the station still isn’t capturing the attention of the populace. NTV is kicking butt and taking names. CBC even hired a consulting firm, Frank Magid and Associates (pronounced maggot) to turn the news around. (I thought that’s what a good news editor was for?)
For all that, I like CBC news. While I flick between stations, I linger longer with Debbie and crew. CBC has some changes in the works. It plans to replace Arrested Development, the half-hour sitcom that plays immediately before the news (the funniest show on television that no one watches — except me) with Wheel of Fortune. That should be a real boost to the preservation of Canadian culture, which is what the CBC is all about.
I write today not to bury the media, but to praise it. Journalism has never been stronger in these parts. Who needs an opposition or a House of Assembly when we’ve got Glen Carter, David Cochrane and Ivan Morgan on the trail?
Danny isn’t happy with the media, but then it’s not our job to please him. So many politicians don’t get that. The media have a point about the premier staying out of the business of the Cameron Inquiry — you’re damn right we do — but there’s another side as well.
How far is too far? In the end people die of cancer — a tragic fact of life. Dig far enough into the medical system and you’ll find fault and failure … until a cure is found.
There has to be a balance between getting to the truth of what happened and maintaining faith — notice I didn’t write blind faith — in the medical system. The media must be careful not to undermine the entire system, driving doctors away from our shores, sending us back to medieval times.
And that’s today’s lay of the land.
ryan.cleary@theindependent.ca
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