1. Tunnel mystery no more, but no matter.
Elton McDonald, the twenty-something behind the tunnel in the woods that at once struck fear and captured a city’s imagination, came out of the shadows Wednesday to tell his side of the story, showing up at the Toronto Sun’s offices to offer an “exclusive” to Joe Warmington on the whys and wherefores of his dig. What did we learn? Nothing much that we didn’t already know, except that McDonald barbecued in the tunnel and was planning to add rooms. That’s right, his own private hideout. Props for imagination, right? As for the rosary and poppy found by cops in the bunker, MacDonald says it was nailed to the wall to ward off evil spirits. Apparently he’d experienced a collapse or two while fixing his hole. All the city’s dailies picked up the Sun’s story, without the least bit irony, to capitalize on whatever residual fascination there might be left. Mission accomplished, sort of. The story proved the most popular on their websites for a couple of hours at least, even more important than anything else going on across the country, like the fact we just recorded the second largest trade deficit on record, to name one example. Meanwhile, over at the CBC, which broke the original tunnel story – and launched the terror scare that followed with news national security forces were investigating – reports were that McDonald was attempting a little capitalizing of his own, shopping his story for cash to pay off the $800 he’d been fined for damage to the forest caused during the tunnel’s construction.
2. John Tory takes over the Toronto Sun’s Twitter account and ends up getting photo bombed by Sunshine Girl.
The Sun held an #AskJohnTory chat with Mayor John Tory Thursday, the Twitter version. And changed the avatar on its Twitter account with a photo of the mayor to mark the occasion. Readers were invited to ask the mayor anything, although it appears there was a bit of a selection process on what questions Tory would answer. The mayor’s office has already gained a rep for being selective about which queries from news organizations it will answer, but that’s another story. Maybe Tory is just a slow tweeter, but there were only a handful of weightier questions among those about Wrestlemania coming back to town, whether Tory preferred House of Cards or Game of Thrones (the former), and the last beer the mayor drank (a month ago, Muskoka IPA). Ever the media whore, Sam Sotiropoulos, who can’t get over the fact he’s no longer a trustee, asked whose idea it was for Tory to colour his hair? Crazy rumour, responded Tory. But the real fireworks occurred when older Su tweets with links to stories of the tabloid’s racier content started showing up on its Twitter feed with Tory’s smiling face still gracing the Sun avatar. The paper’s tweet directing readers to its photo shoot with Charmaine “who loves to get active in winter,” was particularly memorable.
3. Rabble.ca pulls a page out of HarperCons’ fundraising playbook.
It’s not as bad as the fear mongering HarperCons are known for in fundraising letters. But if trying to scare the fuck out supporters to raise a little coin is good enough for the far-right, then it’s good enough for the left, it seems. Seems news that former Sun News Network mouthpiece Ezra Levant has landed on his feet and started a website from which to spew his venom – this time far from prying eyes of broadcast regulators – had the good folks at the lefty online news source rabble.ca raising alarm in an email to subscribers that Levant “wants to continue his attacks on Canadian progressives… and has raised thousands of dollars from Conservatives to support his online news website.” Horrors. “Are we going to let Ezra Levant’s Conservatives raise more money than rabble.ca‘s progressives?” asked the email. We are in the midst of a cultural war, after all.
4. Parliamentary press gallery messes with rules of engagement.
Speaking of taking a page out of the HarperCons’ playbook, new harassment rules being considered by the press gallery’s executive committee, at least as of last week, have been likened to Gestapo tactics by some members of the Ottawa press corp. The proposed rules could lead to the suspension or expulsion of any member who is found to have harassed or threatened another member of the gallery. The rules changes were reportedly inspired (if that’s the right word) by a recent confrontation between two reporters in which one reporter threatened to rip another reporter’s head off. Reportedly, the two don’t like each other and haven’t for some time. “Intimidation” and “personal harassment” can also get you tossed. The really big problem: MPs and government employees will also be allowed to lodge complaints with the gallery’s executive against members of the press, which opens up dangers legal territory for scribes, critics point out, who may get under the skin of MPs or government bureaucrats simply for doing their job. The folks who cover Ottawa may have just handed the HarperCons more ammo to undermine their work.
5. Star’s star continues to fall.
On the heels of its Gardasil HPV vaccine embarrassment, the Toronto Star’s parent company Torstar reported a 26.9 per cent drop in fourth quarter ad revenue at its flagship paper this week. Early indications are that the financial malaise gripping the Star and the newspaper industry in general will continue in 2015. Meanwhile, no one wants to pay for the Star’s online content. The paper plans to lift the paywall it established last year and that has reportedly shown little revenue. Instead, it will offer a tablet app in the coming weeks in an attempt to grow online readership. But not all industry analysts are buying that it will bolster the Star’s online power. Seems efforts to offer more tabloid content at the country’s largest circulation daily is failing to attract more eyeballs.
enzom@nowtoronto.com | @enzodimatteo
