At this exact same time of day a decade ago, I can remember what I was doing: Having a beer with my suddenly ex-colleagues about 5½ hours after one of the biggest downsizings in Canadian newspaper history.

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Stephen Colbert and Ariana Huffington, of the Huffington Post fame, sparred over blogging and other topics Wednesday night on the Colbert Report.

It's worth checking out: Two very bright, very witty people having a great time engaging in verbal jujitsu!

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Warren Kinsella, who recently started writing for the National Post as a media columnist, wrote this on his blog today:

The Toronto Star's anti-CanWest ICBM, Zerb, continues to spread disinformation about the Post to boost sagging morale at One Yonge. She shouldn't. It's not fair, and it's not accurate. I was at one of the information sessions on Don Mills Road yesterday, and here's what I heard: THE NATIONAL POST IS HIRING PEOPLE. Editorial, advertising, you name it. HIRING PEOPLE. That, to me, is not the behaviour of an organization that is in trouble; it's the behaviour of an organization that is growing. Meanwhile, Ed Greenspon this week told the Wall Street Journal that his newspaper is heading towards a "cliff," quote unquote. Why doesn't she write about that? Maybe I will.

Here is some of what Antonia Zerbisias wrote in a posting Wednesday about the N-P:

On the upside: The first half of this fiscal year has been good and the hope is to break even by 2008. There is a new ad strategy ready to go. The online side will get overhauled. There has been some hiring and there will be more hiring in editorial. There be a renewed focus on Toronto.

Downside: No more home delivery in the Maritimes where apparently there are only some 2,000 subscribers. Toronto will be targeted for growth.

That doesn't seem to be particularly unfair to me (Note: I toil in the BellGlobemedia empire). Kinsella didn't link to the post that offended him so. Was that what he had in mind?

As for the Greenspon quote, here it is, taken from the Feb. 27 Wall Street Journal story:

Mr. Greenspon says he doesn't know what kinds of change will result from the staff-driven makeover. But he says he realizes his paper's relative success may not be good enough in the long run. "Newspapers are falling off the cliff," he says. "But we're at the back."

It seems to me that what Greenspon actually said is wildly different from what Kinsella implied he said. That's not accurate.

For background, the WSJ story proclaims the Globe to be the winner of the great Toronto newspaper war, noting its circulation rose five per cent for the six-month period ending Sept. 30, while average daily newspaper circulation in the U.S. fell by 2.6 per cent in that period.

Kinsella didn't mention that. That's not fair.

So who's playing the disinformation game?

Update:

Zerbisias replied at her own blog.

Some prominent Muslim intellectuals, including novelist Salman Rushdie and Canada's Irshad Manji, have issued a public statement warning about totalitarian Islamism.

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The crime of the three, employed by the East African Standard, is quite heinous: They said Mwai Kibaki, the president of Kenya, had a secret meeting with a sacked cabinet minister.

But fear not: Kenya is drafting a new media law as we speak to help protect innocent politicians against such vicious uses of media power.

More at the BBC story.

Update:

Here's more detail from an AP story on globeandmail.com this morning:

Masked gunmen who identified themselves as police shut down Kenya's second largest media group Thursday, two days after three Kenyan journalists were detained without charge for a story about the country's president, the company's editorial director said.

The closings targeted the country's oldest newspaper, The Standard, and the Kenya Television Network. It appeared to be the first time in recent history that a Kenyan government has shut down the operations of a major media company.

Dozens of masked men in unmarked vehicles raided the editorial offices and the Standard's printing plant, taking computers and transmission equipment, damaging the presses and setting fire to Thursday's editions, said an Associated Press photographer who witnessed the raids.

“We believe this is a direct and blatant attempt to undermine the freedom of the press in this country that is guaranteed by the constitution. It is also intended to paralyze our business,” said Tom Mshindi, the chief executive officer of the Standard Group.

Mr. Mshindi said he hoped to have the television station back on the air by Thursday afternoon and the presses repaired in time for a Friday edition.

The Minister of Information, Mutuhi Kagwe, told journalists Thursday morning that he did not order the raid and knew nothing about it. A government spokesman said a press conference would be held later in the day.