The Globe and Mail's Mark MacKinnon on his undercover tour of duty in Zimbabwe:

Mohammed Elmasry, president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, had a commentary published on June 25 in the Record on the Canadian Human Rights Commission's ruling in the Maclean's case.

From the Globe and Mail editorial:

Offence won a valuable victory last week. The Canadian Human Rights Commission rightly concluded that certain words “obviously calculated to excite and even offend certain readers” were not hate speech.

(updated)

While I was off in pursuit of bass, the Supreme Court issued a major media law ruling affecting the defence of 'fair comment' in defamation suits.

The case involves Rafe Mair, a high-profile radio host in B.C. in 1999, and Kari Simpson, who sued Mair after he hammered her during a commentary (Simpson is opposed to any positive depictions of the gay lifestyle).

I remember this little ditty from the November-December 1989 issue of content magazine:

Media mini-baron Conrad Black talks about journalists in a recent interview in the Financial Times of London:

Mr. Black accepts that journalists cannot be treated as just another unit of production and that even terribly unproductive journalists can be extremely valuable to readers.

"Some of them are temperamental, tiresome and nauseatingly eccentric and simply obnoxious but that really has nothing to do with it. They simply cannot be measured by that criterion," says Conrad Black.

I had numerous issues with a June 22 column by the Toronto Star's Haroon Siddiqui on the issues raised by the CIC-vs-Maclean's case.

Let's go through them:

From a Maclean's news release issued June 26:

Maclean's magazine is pleased that the Canadian Human Rights Commission has dismissed the complaint brought against it by the Canadian Islamic Congress. The decision is in keeping with our long-standing position that the article in question, "The Future Belongs to Islam," an excerpt from Mark Steyn's best-selling book America Alone, was a worthy piece of commentary on important geopolitical issues, entirely within the bounds of normal journalistic practice.

Though gratified by the decision, Maclean's continues to assert that no human rights commission, whether at the federal or provincial level, has the mandate or the expertise to monitor, inquire into, or assess the editorial decisions of the nation's media. And we continue to have grave concerns about a system of complaint and adjudication that allows a media outlet to be pursued in multiple jurisdictions on the same complaint, brought by the same complainants, subjecting it to costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars, to say nothing of the inconvenience. We enthusiastically support those parliamentarians who are calling for legislative review of the commissions with regard to speech issues.

Sandra Buckler is stepping down as Prime Minister Stephen Harper's director of communications. Does this mean Tory MPs will be able to give more than their name, rank and serial number in the future?

From Businessweek.com:

An Indian company will take over copy editing duties for some stories published in The Orange County Register and will handle page layout for a community newspaper at the company that owns the Pulitzer Prize-winning daily, the newspaper confirmed Tuesday.

Orange County Register Communications Inc. will begin a one-month trial with Mindworks Global Media at the end of June, said John Fabris, a deputy editor at the Register.

Mindworks' Web site says the company is based outside New Delhi and provides "high-quality editorial and design services to global media firms ... using top-end journalistic and design talent in India."

Editors at Mindworks will work five shifts a week for one month, performing layout for the community paper and editing some stories in the flagship Register, Fabris said. Staffing at the company will not be affected, he said.

Fabris did not specify which community newspaper would be laid out by Indian designers.

"This is a small-scale test, which will not touch our local reporting or decision-making. Our own editors will oversee this work," Fabris said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "In a time of rapid change at newspapers, we are exploring many ways to work efficiently while maintaining quality and improving local coverage."

(Thanks, Mungo -- I think)

You're gonna be there a while.

A three-member panel from the U.S. Court of Appeal's Seventh Circuit upheld all four of Conrad Black's convictions stemming from his too-clever-by-half scheme to pay himself and his cronies non-compete fees.

Here's the CTV.ca story, and here's the Globe and Mail Update story. Here's the court's opinion.

Eric Sussman, who led the prosecution team, told CTV Newsnet that he thinks Conrad's legal options are now quite limited.

Hmm. Would Dubya pardon him as his presidency ends? That would appear to be Conrad's last great hope (he's previously said he wasn't seeking a pardon, but the ground has ... shifted).

Otherwise, see you in late 2013, Conrad.

Germany scored a late goal to cook Turkey 3-2 in the first Euro 2008 semi-final (tomorrow, Spain vs. Russia).

I picked Germany to win the tourney, so imagine my surprise when it turns out Germany will actually be playing in the final.

Anyway, the BBC game report.

The Globe and Mail's Stephen Brunt wrote this morning that the Turks would need a miracle, then outlined the litany of suspensions and injuries that would hobble Turkey. But the Turks had a history of miracle finishes in this tournament.

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting your sentimental favourite - though the truth is, as feel-good nations go, Turkey is really a minor power in underdog's clothing. It reached the World Cup semi-finals in 2002 and is the home of two powerful club sides, Fenerbahce and Galatasaray, both of which have had their moments in the big European competitions.

Terim understands the feeling. "Anyone and everyone in the world today - people who are fans of football and people who are not interested in football - are all talking about Turkey", he said (perhaps overstating matters just a touch). But as for his side somehow being touched by the gods, he would prefer to remain in the rational realm, understanding that no fourth bolt of lightning is likely to get the team past Germany.

Funny Brunt should mention lightning. There was a thunderstorm, and lightning took out the television feed for about 25 minutes. From William Houston's column:

(TSN's Vic) Rauter and analysts Dick Howard and Craig Forrest were clearly frustrated and perhaps a little irritated by the lost signal. Rauter noted the Swiss are famous for their efficiency.

"This is not like the Swiss, considering how good their chocolate is," he said.

I called for Spain to advance after tomorrow's game. Let's see if my jinx continues to be jinxed.

From the June 23 International Herald Tribune:

A reporter accused of brutally murdering elderly women in cases he covered for his newspaper was found drowned in a bucket of water in a prison bathroom on Monday, police said.

Vlado Taneski, 56, died several hours after being placed in prison custody, police said. He had been charged with two murders and suspected in a third.

Police said a handwritten note was found in Taneski's prison cell, under the bed pillow, saying: "I did not commit these murders." ...

Taneski emerged as a suspect after reporting details of the murders in the national daily Utrinski Vesnik that had not been made public, police said. Taneski's DNA was then found on the bodies of two of the victims, police said. He was arrested in Kicevo on Friday.

A dating service coming to Canada will only cater to "beautiful" people -- and we're not talking inner beauty. :)

However, that's just an excuse to post an excerpt from a wonderfully-written NYT feature about the beautiful people scene of South Beach in Miami, circa 2000.

This week, the Love Guru took in a measly US$14 million, putting it in fourth place -- not that I think Get Smart, which grossed about $39 million, is the next Citizen Kane.

I would have said, based on the above facts, that the cinematic world is becoming a better, smarter place -- but then I checked, and You Don't Mess With The Zohan pulled in US$40 million two weeks ago.

But it then plunged to US$16.4 million two weekends ago, and pulled in the relative pocket change of $7.2 million this past weekend.

Crap will always sell, but whenever there's the tiniest bit of evidence that it's selling less, I feel more optimistic that human evolution process may not have stalled out or regressed.

In that case, even false positives are accepted.

There's one sequence in The Parallax View, which I mention below, where muckraking journalist Joe Frady (Warren Beatty) is trying to get a job with the shadowy Parallax Corporation. To do so, he fakes being a psychopath.

Watching this montage is part of the hiring process, and it's a stunning bit of filmmaking! Check it out:

The Parallax View is a 1974 film starring Warren Beatty as Joe Frady, a hard-living, truth-seeking reporter who discovers a whopper of a conspiracy and strives to unravel it (while it may seem like fiction, such reporters did exist in another era).

Here's one encounter between Frady and his editor Bill Rintels (Hume Cronyn):

The heavens were angry when I left work this afternoon.

At 3:07 p.m., I was moving from the RT level at Kennedy station to the bus level, with the subway level as my ultimate destination.

There's a huge flash and a simultaneous, artillery-like "CRACK!!" that made pretty much everyone jump. This tells me the lightning strike was extremely close to the station.

The subway, however, just sat there. Even the crews didn't know what was what. Finally, at 3:22 p.m., the TTC told us the Kennedy subways weren't going anywhere due to "signalling" problems.

I wanted to get home, so I zoomed upstairs and left the station to catch a cab to Warden station. At the Kennedy/Eglinton intersection, the traffic lights were out, so it wasn't just the TTC experiencing "signalling" problems.

The cab cost $9.25, but at 3:54 p.m., the TTC finally announced the subways were rolling again out of Kennedy. I was at Castle Frank when I heard that.

I hate rotting in subway stations.

George Carlin gave us insights like: "Have you ever noticed how anyone who drives slower than you is an idiot? And how anyone who drives faster is a MANIAC?!?!"

Unfortunately, no more of those.

Carlin died yesterday.

He will be forever known for his "seven words you can never say on television" routine. Here they are (don't be fooled by the South Park wrapping):

Consider this a mini-doc in which the maestro riffs on his bit:

And here's the one bit of Carlin CanCon that I could find:

"The weather was dominated by a large Canadian low, which is not to be confused with a Mexican high. Tonight's forecast ... dark, continued mostly dark tonight turning to widely scattered light in the morning."

From the NYT's Bits blog (June 20):

The Associated Press has punted on its commitment to clarify how much text it thinks bloggers and social news sites can reprint from its articles without violating The AP’s copyright. Indeed, the giant news organization appears to be insisting that bloggers cannot quote the headline of an A.P. story or its first paragraph. While the law is not settled, many lawyers suggest that such short excerpts are permitted under the “fair use” exception to the copyright laws.

The issue came up after The A.P. — a not for profit group of 1,500 newspapers, including The New York Times — demanded that the Drudge Retort remove 10 posts that quoted between 40 and 80 words of its articles. After a storm of protest, The A.P. backed down and said it had been too heavy-handed in its initial complaint. It added that it hoped to publish guidance for bloggers suggesting how they can use A.P. content.

On Thursday night, The A.P. published a statement saying that it had reached an accord with Rogers Cadenhead, the owner of the Drudge Retort (a parody of the better known Drudge Report): “Both parties consider the matter closed.” There was no word on any guidelines for other sites.

The full A.P. statement didn’t offer any relevant facts and was so convoluted that it’s hard to imagine anyone writing that way could get hired as a reporter at The A.P.

That's how much time U.S. networks have devoted to covering the Iraq War in the first six months of 2008. For context, they spent 1,157 minutes on war coverage in 2007.

I speak, of course, of Italy in Euro 2008.

When I got to Bathurst and College, overtime had just ended.

I got to my old haunts of College and Clinton in time to watch the shootout (the strip was swarming with fellow soccer tourists).

Unfortunately for Italy, the feet and legs of Spain's kickers were better than the reflexes and instincts of Italian goaltender Gianluigi Buffo.

Spain drove home four goals (with one complete miss) to Italy's two. Buffon only had one save. Iker Casillas, Spain's netminder, had two.

Here's the BBC game report.

The final four are Germany vs. Turkey and Russia vs. Spain.

I will go out on a limb and predict a Germany-Spain final in one week, with Germany taking the title.

Sorry, Germany.

PS

The cops were discretely ready for post-game rowdiness in Little Italy. They had the cavalry on standby a few blocks south of College on Ossington.