More than two dozen readers cancelled their subscriptions when The Washington Post published a photo of two men kissing on its front page last week alongside a story of the D.C. Superior Court beginning to accept license applications for same-sex marriages. Andrew Alexander, the Post's ombudsman, received a slew of complaints from readers. One ranted about the Post "promoting a faggot lifestyle." A 65-year-old reader, who cancelled a subscription she had held since the 1960s, had the more reasonable suggestion of running the photo inside the paper.

"I realize that the world is changing rapidly—much more rapidly than I would like it to," she wrote. "While I realize that the Post must report on these changes—even the ones with which I do not agree—I feel that the picture on Thursday morning was an affront to the majority of your readership. It is not something that I want coming into my home. I believe that even your editors know that it would have been better placed in the Metro section and that it would have mitigated its impact to do so."

Alexander's reply was admirable. "There was a time, after court-ordered integration, when readers complained about front-page photos of blacks mixing with whites," he wrote. "Today, photo images of same-sex couples capture the same reality of societal change."

Though readers enjoy an increasing amount of editorial influence through crowd-sourced and participatory journalism, I appreciate the Post's backbone. But would an online news community have reacted differently? Probably not.

The Harper government dealt a low blow to Canada's queer publications when it announced revisions to the aid-to-publishers budgets, part of the Canadian Periodical Fund, on Jan. 19th.

Small publications must have a total 5,000-copy annual paid circulation to be eligible for financial assistance, and publications like Fab Magazine don't make the cut.

Queer mags were formerly exempt from minimum subscription requirements, but now only aboriginal, ethno-cultural and official language minority publications have a requirement of 2,500 paid copies.

Xtra reported on Jan. 26th that according to a Canadian Heritage spokesperson these titles are exempt because of their small size and business model obstacles: "On the other hand, GLBT titles serve a large group across Canada, and have demonstrated that they can reach large groups of readers."

Broad readership or not, magazines like Fab are largely distribute for free (they sell less than five percent of their copies), and cuts to funding will make it difficult to stay that way.

Brett Taylor, publishing editor of Canadian queer mag, Outlooks, which barely makes the 5,000-copy limit, finds it ironic that magazines that need the support don't have the revenue. And without that support, many queer magazines may not survive the purge.

It's been just over a week since Team Canada's heroic gold-medal victory against their U.S. counterparts in the men's hockey finals of the Olympics. That night all of Canada seemed to rejoice: horns honked until the wee hours of the morning and Canadian columnists draped their newspapers' front pages with emotional, patriotic outbursts of pride.

But it didn't take long for the internal squabbling to recommence. First it was the vacuous debate to amend a gender-biased line in our national anthem, and now we're back to dissecting Canada's role in the abuse of Afghan detainees. Within a week, the unity that was felt during the Olympics has already started to dissipate.

But wait. This Friday the Paralympics will begin and the parade of honks and cheers emanating from bars and households across the country will resume. Or will it? After 17 days of relentless Olympic media coverage does the country have the appetite for 10 more? According to Caley Denton, VANOC's vice-president of ticketing and consumer marketing, the success of the Olympics has helped generate real interest in this year's Paralympics games. All it will take now is another prorogue of parliament and a relentless Paralympics media blitz at the expense of all other news going on in the world.

A blog post on this site yesterday evening erroneously reported that Ken Whyte laid off five staff at Chatelaine magazine. Though six staff members have been laid off, there is no evidence explicitly pointing to Whyte's role in the situation. The blog post has been removed, and the Ryerson Review of Journalism regrets the error.

According to the Financial Post, those laid off include: Handling editor Rachel Giese, deputy editor Melanie Morassutti, assistant editor Danielle Groen, assistant editor Jacqueline Nunes, photo editor Myles McCutcheon and senior designer Sofia Barros.

Yesterday, BBC director general Mark Thompson declared to the globe the station's pursuit to produce "the best journalism in the world." This is in response to an uproar from critics after BBC announced the 600 million-pound ($932.8 million) restructure that would see the elimination of the network's sports programming and popular TV shows like Mad Men, The Office and The Wire.

Thompson went on to outline how BBC plans to heighten the quality of their journalistic coverage to replace the much-adored content: better special analysis, more in-depth examination of parliament, enhanced increased business, arts and culture and world coverage. It's a tricky bait-and-switch; as the network shifts away from their online model, sports and television entertainment, it boosts its journalistic integrity, which is admirable.

But, at a time when the rest of the world's newsrooms are decimated by layoffs from the outgoing recession, it feels like one of the wealthiest international news stations is rubbing salt in our wounds. In response to these sandbox antics, we at the Ryerson Review of Journalism accept Mr. Thompson's challenge, and pledge to be the bestest journalists in the whole wide world.

The New York Times doesn't want us to read anymore. With the 2010 Winter Olympics at a close, the highly regarded paper decided to lose the usual results bar graph and make an audio presentation for its website instead. You can hear how close the silver medalist came to taking home the gold, with each piano key-like sound representing the time the athletes crossed the finish line. It's an interesting approach to delivering the news, but does the Times really want to give people more reason not to pick up newsprint?

CBC Toronto's Metro Morning host Andy Barrie is officially off the airwaves. The revered radio man hosted his last show Thursday but came back this morning to be interviewed by Matt Galloway and serenaded by Moxy Fruvous.

Dedicated Toronto listeners are mourning his departure after a 45-year career, first in private radio, then at CBC. "Andy is like the Platonic model of what Canadian public broadcasting should be," wrote Rick Salutin in his Globe and Mail column. "This is despite the fact that he grew up in the United States, came here as a deserter in the Vietnam years and spent most of his career in private radio. Or maybe it's because of those things."

Salutin believes Andy was so loved because he showed listeners a respect forgotten by other broadcasters and reporters. Now that he's gone, Salutin wonders whether his show will retain that same quality. "I presume the Einsteins who dumbed down the rest of CBC plan to move in and relevant it to death."

Spot.us has taken up the cause of the underprivileged journalist. The "community powered reporting" website that provides journalists with funding to pursue stories has announced that contributors will soon be able to donate their time and knowledge to an article, instead of just their money. Is it an innovative way to promote journalism (granted, an industry in need of philanthropy), or is it a low-budget version of a corporate investor with editorial influence?

Maybe it's naive to be resistant to these kinds of partnerships. After all, if the National Post and CBC can share content, anything is possible.

Not loving CTV's Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games coverage? According to writer Joanne C. Gerstner, even our friends down South are peeved by the loss of the Olympic coverage bid by CBC. Gerstner's article, posted on both The New York Times and Toronto Star, says people who live near the 49th parallel have become used to watching CBC for Olympic coverage over the years as an alternative to NBC, but now they find themselves without another option.

CTV is not readily available in the U.S. or along the border, as opposed to CBC, so viewers in the U.S. are stuck without it this time around. There's even a small anti-NBC coverage Facebook group that says, "In Detroit, we miss CBC. They covered the games as if they were about the athletes and the competetion, and not self-promotion of network personalities."

Alex Strachan, writing for Canwest News Service, broke down the pros and cons with CTV's coverage of the games. His piece tends to favour CTV, saying it has brought fresh, entertaining coverage. And, with the added bonus that thankfully the CTV coverage doesn't use our tax dollars. But he's forgetting the main problem.

Last week Now Magazine's Susan G. Cole ranted about why the Olympics are bad. She ended with something to think about: "Remember when the Russians and the Americans won everything and our reporters--instead of themselves carrying the Olympic torch all over Canada or playing Canadian cheerleader while covering the actual events--dutifully reported on all those Canucks who came in 26th? Those were the days."

Do you like dots? And colours? And buttons you can click on? If yes, Slate Magazine's News Dots social network map is for you!

The map, which uses tagging software from Thomson Reuters, connects people, places and things mentioned in stories based on how frequently they appear, and presents the results as a social network web bonanza. It might not be the most functional tool unless you're conducting topic analysis research, but it promises at least six minutes of distraction time—guaranteed!

In other news, Shaw Communications won the court battle yesterday for 20 percent of equity and 80 percent of voting shares for Canwest's broadcast division. Beating out a competing bid from Catalyst Capital Group, which was backed by Goldman Sachs, the Asper family and former Rogers Communications CEO John Tory, it's interesting to note that carriers are increasingly becoming owners of the channels as well, and raises the question of how this increase will affect broadcasting in Canada. Although the Aspers might not be the best choice to lead Canwest (to put it lightly), it remains to be seen whether this sale will be a win for anyone involved.

An anonymous citizen-shot video capturing the death of Neda Agha-Soltan during last year's Iranian election protest has won the prestigious George Polk Award for Videography Tuesday--meaning that paid journalists really must enhance their efforts to produce quality work.

In the 40-second video, a woman is seen lying on the street, surrounded by men with their hands placed over her heart. While more people gather, blood starts protruding out of her mouth and nose.

Established by Long Island University in 1949, the prestigious awards recognize local, national, financial and foreign reporting of all streams. Some of the well-known names who have received George Polk awards include Gay Talese and Walter Cronkite. Tuesday, however, was the first time in the foundation's 61-year-long history that it has awarded an anonymous contestant. According to a CBC report the judges recognized his or her courage.

"This award celebrates the fact that, in today's world, a brave bystander with a cellphone camera can use video-sharing and social networking sites to deliver news," said John Darnton, curator of the George Polk Awards.

While I acknowledge the videographer's valiance, his or her accomplishment has shed a new light on citizen journalism: now any person with a camera phone can not only do my job, he or she can also win my awards. And that scares me, a lot.

Here is a link to the video. Warning: It contains graphic content

Canadian folk fans across the nation mourned singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot this afternoon after news of his death circulated on the internet and onto the sites of Canwest publications. Everyone was shocked. Especially Lightfoot, who heard of his own demise on the radio and spoke about it on CP24 a half hour after receiving the news. "I haven't gotten that much airplay of my music in weeks," the singer joked with the news station.

Accusations have already started to fly about how the rumour was started, with some blaming Lightfoot's friend Ronnie Hawkins for spreading the false information and others pointing to Twitter as the culprit. And as if using the social-networking microsite as a source to prove somebody's death isn't bad enough, the original Canwest story is now nowhere to be found. There's not even any mention of the news organization's error, let alone an apology for it. What ever happened to honesty, transparency and finding a primary source?

Shed your petty pound problems alongside your fashion mags. That is what the National Eating Disorder Information Centre is encouraging Torontonians to do at the corner of Queen Street West and Soho Street with its streetcar shelter ad that serves as a transparent trash receptacle for fashion magazines.

Set against a bright fuchsia backdrop the ad reads, "Shed your weight problem here," and according to NEDIC director, Merryl Bear, it was created to draw attention to the sizeist standards showcased in beauty magazines.

Acting editor in chief of Fashion, Bernadette Morra, supports the smart message. "It is the designers that are promoting this image," she says. "We at Fashion try our hardest to balance the reality and the fantasy."

But realistic body standards are pretty slim in women's style magazines. Think back to Self magazine's August cover of Kelly Clarkson where her naturally curvaceous body was tweaked and prodded into a mainstream shape. Editor in chief, Lucy Danziger, justified the retouching on her blog by claiming it made Clarkson "look her personal best... Did we publish an act of fiction? No."

So remove a mole here, some arm fat there. No biggie. But if your "personal best" isn't real then how can the image be anything but a farce?

Although fashion magazines have always featured the ideal body standard, it can be a heavy load to carry. Conveniently, Torontonians now have one more place to dump it.

Wikileaks, the non-profit disclosure website, in conjunction with the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, are proposing legislation to the Icelandic government that would offer greater protection for journalists and their sources.

The proposed legal changes would benefit investigative journalists, anti-corruption organizations and human rights groups. Specifics should include legal protection for whistleblowers and other sources.

In a BBC report, Wikileaks editor Julian Assange says the proposal would "protect the press around the world" and turn Iceland into a 'journalistic haven.'" This, he believes, will boost Iceland's global image.

Should the law be introduced, it would most likely entice journalists and other organizations to operate online via Iceland. However, if it comes down to needing physical refuge, I'm heading to Aruba, which still has no extradition treaties with Canada and no snow rather than more.