May 8, 2003 — 6 PM

From Blatch, With Love

All the signs of spontaneous implosion are there. The National Post’s Christie Blatchford wrote an open love letter in her weekend column, addressed to her recently-fired editors. Meanwhile, over at the newforum, M-J notes recent rumours that Blatchford and Paul Wells have or are about to resign in protest.

What Wells’s departure means, as M-J correctly notes, is that “one the biggest reasons to read the increasingly moribund paper is gone.” I have sung the praises of Wells before, who miraculously manages to turn a mundane, tedious topic (Ottawa politics) into amusing and revealing fodder. I also have no doubt that his talent will quickly find him a new employer (probably the Globe & Mail). Blatchford is unique but I never cared for her style, a product of the tabloid world, in which brutal crime reporting mixes with tactless comments about fashion and her own sex life. Nevertheless, she was another facet that made the Post a different sort of rag, a characteristic its owners, CanWest Global, seem hell-bent on erasing.

It’s hard to build a good newspaper, but so very easy to push the self-destruct button.

Previously: Page Curl

Subsequently: Clickety Clack

May 2003
the Archives
Home