A CP story about what some of the wags are saying on Parliament Hill about the apparently coming election.

There was late word, first broken by CP, that PM PM is looking to meet with NDP Leader Jack Layton to discuss issues of common interest.

Globe political columnist John Ibbitson takes a look at the current life and times of Paul Martin, and wonders why this man who started with such high expectations is fighting to keep his job as prime minister.

It's been pointed out on other blogs that while the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail's editorial boards appeared mildly supportive of Martin's appeal for delaying an election, their columnists did not.

I think the columnists wrote the better arguments this time.

The Toronto Star's Antonia Zerbisias explains why the 7:45 p.m. EDT broadcast turned into a 7:02 p.m. EDT broadcast.

The Salon blurb: A witch hunt against a Columbia professor, and the New York Times' disgraceful support for it, represent the gravest threat to academic freedom in decades.

Salon's blurb: The "Fox News of the Arab world" plans to take on Rupert Murdoch and friends with a new English-language service -- unless the Bush administration succeeds in squashing it.

Former Liberal backroom insider Benoit Corbeil has made some startling new allegations, and Gomery testimony has linked the federal Finance Dept.  to a profitable little contract boost for a Montreal ad firm owned by a friend of Martin's....   more »

NDP Leader Jack Layton tried to throw PM PM a too-short lifeline: He's offered to prop up the federal Libs' minority government if the Grits cancel some corporate tax cuts.

And PM PM is guaranteeing us an election within 30 days of Justice John Gomery reporting, likely in November or December.

Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie gave a speech Tuesday at the University of Kentucky. It's very much worth a read.

According to this Washington Post story (seen first at Jim Romanesko's Poynter blog), Karl Rove played media critic earlier this week.

A reporter got tossed at the L.A. Times because the paper's editors had major problems with a story about a fraternity hazing death.

But the reporter, Eric Slater, is blaming editing errors for some of the problems with the story, although he took responsibility for others.

As some of you may have noticed, I hit the 1,000 post mark earlier this week.

One of my regular visitors, Sarah Marchildon (who has a very amusing blog of her own), offered to treat me to an ice cream cone!

Al Gore, the guy who's shutting down Newsworld International, is looking CBC's very cool show ZeD as an inspiration for his new cable network, Current TV, which is set to open this summer.

The Village Voice's Sydney Schanberg thinks it's time for American reporters to fight back against the media manipulations of the Bush White House.

Paul Martin is going to make a prime-time speech to Canadians on Thursday.

On his blog, Warren Kinsella said: "Wow. They're going prorogue. Amazing. I wonder when the radio and television stations are going be seized, and the Opposition parties imprisoned? Amazing. This means a Conservative majority. Count on it."

But that might be wishful thinking on Mr. Kinsella's part. :)

Conrad Black and David Radler have resigned as officers and directors of Ravelston, which is Conrad's private holding company.

Saw  this first at David Akin's blog: NBC is considering having their anchors and stars blog as a way to build relations with audiences (come for the blog, stay for the broadcast! :) ).

Tory MP Jason Kenney reportedly told CBC Newsworld that no decision has been taken by his party on a spring election.

Ann Coulter, one of the more toxic conservative voices in American punditry, is a cover girl for Time magaine. Salon's Eric Bohlert offers his thoughts.

The Toronto Star's Chantal Hebert thinks the minority Liberals have doomed themselves to likely defeat in Parliament with their manipulation of opposition days.

But she also admits it might be a case of the Liberals wanting to choose on which sword they will fall.

Ravelston Corp., an entity privately held by Conrad Black, is going to court today to seek bankruptcy protection.

This NYT column by Maureen Dowd looks at some of the, er, out-of-the-box thinking being considered as people try to remake U.S. network television news.

So, if you watched question period on Tuesday, you'll know the opposition went nutso over Warren Kinsella's allegations about the Martinites and Earnscliffe. Me? I was hemming and hawing yesterday, wondering whether it would be that or Claude Boulay's testimony.

Writing in the NYT, David Frum argues one reason the sponsorship scandal happened is because the Liberal Party's historical role as a brokerage party is coming to an end.

(Ding! Ding! Ding! This is also my 1,000th post to this blog!)

If PM PM wants to keep his job, he needs to turn the sponsorship scandal to his advantage, says the Toronto Star's James Travers, who goes on to explain how.

From the Toronto Star, some grousing about the current construction activity in Little Italy.

Flowers have pushed up from under the soil and blossomed for more than a week now. There's splashes of colour livening up the cityscape!

And today, I noticed leaves are starting to unfurl from their buds.

The stories of the day for Monday clearly had to be Warren Kinsella's testimony before the Commons public accounts committee and the spat over opposition days.

This NYT story isn't about someone someone dissing their employer or fellow employees, it's about exercising what would seem to be freedom of expression -- which doesn't trump brand protection in the U.S.

The Beeb's Stephen Sackur is leaving the world of field reporting from foreign places. Here are a few of his observations.

When interpreting the results of the CBC/Environics poll on a CBC panel last Thursday, the Toronto Star's Chantal Hebert was struck by how close the Liberals and NDP were. In this column, she examines what that could mean.

Frank Gardner, a BBC reporter who was working in Saudi Arabia last year, was shot six times at point-blank range. While now in a wheelchair, he's lucky compared to colleague Simon Cumbers, who was killed.

I found this to be a very common-sense column by the Toronto Star's Carol Goar.

I've also linked to a few other do-we-need-an-election columns from the Sunday Star.

The Toronto Star's Tim Harper looks at some of those in Dubya's orbit who are on the move up -- and who would have likely been moved out the door in the vaunted private sector for their screw-ups.

This brief memoir in the NYT is by Loung Ung, whose idyllic boyhood in Phnom Penh, Cambodia came to an abrupt end when the Khmer Rouge came to town on April 17, 1975.

To the KRs, that date was the start of "Year Zero," when history would begin again. It was an experiment in revolutionary madness. But Loung Ung explains why it became his substitute birthday.

While the most important thing should be the health of Peter Jennings, the longtime anchor of ABC News' World News Tonight, the fact is that show does $100 million US per year for ABC.

Jennings was diagnosed with lung cancer about the time ABC president Dan Westin saw an opportunity to overtake the NBC Nightly News.

This In These Times article (posted to Alternet) claims the U.S. political blogosphere is bi-polar; the right is an extension of the Republican message machine, and the left is more a loose network of independents.

This Online Journalism Review article looks at how professional bloggers are compensated and whether the tying of payment to traffic growth blurs editorial/business lines.

If you follow my blog regularly, you'll know I'm a big fan of NYT public editor Daniel Okrent (it killed me I had to work on federal budget day instead of listening to him speak in Toronto at a Canadian Journalism Foundation event -- but adult life is like that. :) ).

The boulevardiers, the cafe set: My people! This NYT piece looks at those who enjoy the luxury of a lengthy, langorous, latte-and-bon-mot-fueled lunch.

This NYT article talks about all the very senior newscasting talent still on the air -- a lot -- after announcing they were going to step back a bit and smell the roses. It also explores why.

Toronto Star public editor Sharon Burnside on why Britney Spears was worthy of front-page picture treatment on April 14 after it became known a sperm and egg had united within the pop tartlet.

Al-Jazeera wants to start an Arab equivalent of CPAC to provide live, unedited coverage of conferences. The heretofore-profit-free station also has plans for other new services, including an English-language version.

And not only that, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission wants to get in on the act too.