As a lover of Sex and the City (the television show), I went to one of the first showings of the newest Sex and the City movie (despite not fully enjoying the first one), aptly titled Sex and the City 2. A few of my thoughts after the jump (spoiler warnings ahead): Read more
Every Canadian does it — blame Rogers for something going wrong in their life.
Cell phone bill skyrocketing? Blame Rogers. Poor reception? Blame Rogers. On hold for three days? Blame Rogers. Your marriage ends because you cheat on your husband? Blame, and sue, Rogers.
Wait — what’s that, you ask. Blame Rogers because you had an affair on your husband and he left you? Why yes. And no, you didn’t cheat on him with someone at Rogers, nor did Rogers condone the affair. Instead, according to one Toronto woman, the company accidentally added the cell phone you used to talk to your boyfriend on the bill of household expenses your husband knows about. He called the number, learned of your infidelity and left you.
The next logical step therefore, is obviously to take the Canadian cable and cellular giant to the cleaners for $600,000.
According to an article in the Toronto Star, the woman is claiming that Rogers invaded her privacy and breached their contract with her. The results of these claims led to her life allegedly being ruined.
It all happened in 2007.Gabriella Nagy had a cell phone bill sent to her home address in her maiden name. When her husband added internet and home phone services to their joint cable account with Rogers, the company apparently mistakingly also added the woman’s cell phone to the bill — since it went to the same address. One thing led to another, her husband learned of the affair and left her.
Nagy is sorry — sort of, telling the Star:
It was a mistake. But I didn’t deserve to lose my life over it.
It took Nagy a little while to figure out just how her husband finally put the pieces together. But she now knows who is to blame for her marriage falling apart.
“I lost everything. I want others to know what a big corporation has done. I trusted Rogers with my personal information. We had a contract — and agreement that put my life right in their hands.
There are a few problems with this lawsuit.
No. 1 is just how dumb her husband had to be if she was already receiving a cell phone bill — in her maiden name — to their marital home. Would this not raise some red flags already? It’s not like Rogers covertly packages their invoices — their bigger than an average envelope and are stamped with a Rogers return address.
No. 2 is Nagy’s claims in general. Whether Rogers added the cell phone to her marital bill or not is not a concern to me — if you are going to screw around on your partner — you are likely going to get caught. And if you are screwing around on your partner, something tells me you are just happy in your marriage anyways — so how exactly did Rogers ruin your life?
There is lots of blame here — but I don’t think any of it really falls with Rogers. If they goofed up, they goofed up, but Nagy needs to take some responsibility here too. Was it Rogers’ fault she ran out on her husband? Did they cause the affair? If cell phones were not widely available would she have remained faithful? Somehow, I think the answers to all of these questions is no.
The only person to blame here is Nagy — and maybe the guy she was running around with.
Lisa Varano of Lisa Reports pointed me to an interesting article published in the Sunday Times in London on NotJSchool this weekend.
The crux of the article is that despite the fact that it is near impossible nowadays to get a job in journalism, lots of young people still want to get their shot in the field. Ed Casear makes his case by pointing to how “easy” the industry was 20, 30, 40 years ago and compares it with the industry of today.
His golden quote is what it supposedly “takes” to break into this impossible industry:
Today, you’ll need luck, flair, an alternative source of income, endless patience, an optimistic disposition, sharp elbows and a place to stay in London. But the essential quality for success now is surely tenacity. Look around the thinning newsrooms of the national titles. Look at the number of applicants for journalism courses, at the queue of graduates — qualified in everything except the only thing that matters, experience — who are desperate for unpaid work on newspapers and magazines. Look at the 1,200 people who applied in September for one reporter’s position on the new Sunday Times website. You’d shoot a horse with those odds.
Yes, his examples use London and the Times, but you could easily transfer them over here (I would assume those numbers would be higher in the U.S. and Canada). And yes, more and more people are willing to work for free (which is why so many internships in this industry are unpaid — because people will apply).
But is it really such a bad thing that the journalism profession is getting harder to tap into? And why is it that we are so willing to report on ourselves, and the decline of our industry, but have turned a blind eye to other industries who have fallen on hard times (just look at the current state of the trades — plumbing, carpentry, etc.)?
When I started in this industry, I was told you could teach someone to be a reporter who knew how to write, but you couldn’t teach someone to write. I was lucky to be one of the former. I could write well, and I would be able to learn the trade of this industry.
I never went to journalism school — I couldn’t get in — which means I have had to fight even harder to make it as a journalist. There have been no doors opened for me, I have stuck my foot in them all on my own.
Perhaps that is why I feel that if you want to be a journalist, you need to have that passion, that fight. You shouldn’t be doing this because it’s a job. That is why as the journalism industry has tightened its belts, and only the strong (and/or lifers) continue to persevere, it is almost like it is showing the strong surviving.
No job should be easy — we call it work for a reason. And from past experience I know I would much rather be working with people that want to be here, than those who are just doing it for a paycheque.
And I don’t like to see the industry reporting on its own woes and its demise so much. Why newspapers feel the need to constantly be reporting on their own death I just don’t understand. It’s almost as though we are looking for pity from the public, (“Hey, maybe if we write about how subscriptions are dropping, meaning we need to layoff, people will pity us and buy a subscription”).
After all, isn’t journalism supposed to take itself out of the equation and explore the world around it? Perhaps we should be talking to other industries who are also facing the problems we are — only instead of having hundreds of young people trying to get a single job, there is no one stepping up to fill an empty spot (the decline of the family farm, anyone?).
What do you think? Will we ever see the “glory days” of journalism? Or is this the new reality?
Sunday was the 144th time a Canadian soldier’s body has been brought down the Highway of Heroes from CFB Trenton to the coroner’s office in Toronto.
Sunday was the first time I have ever seen the brigade.
It hit me harder than I ever imagined and put my life’s problems and frustrations in complete perspective.
The Highway of Heroes, for those who don’t know, is a section of Highway 401, which was given its name after citizens just started filling the highway’s overpasses to pay tribute when a Canadian soldier who had been killed in Afghanistan returned home.
I always said I wanted to do it. Just to see what it’s like when the hearse passes underneath. What does the crowd do? What is the mood on the bridge? Why do the people keep coming back? When will this touching tribute end?
When journalist Michelle Lang was killed in Afghanistan in December, I wanted to head up to the coroner’s office in Toronto to be one of the people who lined the street there to pay my respects. I felt as a fellow journalist I owed her at least that much. Timing did not work out for me since I was working that weekend.
Early Sunday afternoon, I heard 24-year-old Kevin McKay’s body was coming home later that afternoon. Again, I echoed my sentiments that one day I would make it to the Highway of Heroes. Or at least to the coroner’s office.
Instead, I was heading home when my traffic was stopped merging from Mt. Pleasant Road to Jarvis St. at Bloor St. I knew why instantly. As the lights changed from red to green and back to red again — we sat there.
Two police motorcycles went by and I turned off my radio.
After the light changed back to green and returned to red once more, I put my car in park, and turned it off as a sign of respect. I realized then that everyone around me must have known what was going on as well — as there was no angry honking, no swearing, no shaking of angry fists. It was quiet.
And as the police officer who stopped us threw his hand up to salute as the first car in the motorcade passed us, I began to cry.
I was sobbing by the time the hearse went by.
There are no words for seeing something like this. It is not like any other funeral motorcade (though those make me misty-eyed when they pass me too). There is something different knowing that there is a young soldier’s body in that hearse. A soldier who died so far away from home, fighting in a war that many do not completely support.
It wasn’t as cool or as interesting as I thought. And instead of my inquisitive reporter side coming out, my human side did.
I don’t know now if I could stand on a bridge and wave to the motorcade when the 145st soldier dies over there. But I sure wish another member of our armed forces will not come home in a casket before our troops come home for good.
But I know that’s just a pipe dream.
(Photo of a crowd on the Highway of Heroes from 2008 courtesy of Kaetidh on Flickr. You can find more of her photos here).
CTV talks to “Bombshell” McGee, world must stop and listen
Sunday afternoon, CTV sent out an interesting press release.
According to them, Michelle “Bombshell” McGee (AKA one of the women who Jesse James had an affair with) is in Toronto filming an ad for Ashley Madison (you know, the online dating site for people who want to cheat on their spouses) so they sat down and talked with her.
Press releases are supposed to be exciting so that people will read them and cover whatever the event is, but there are a couple parts that really stood out as a little over the top.
First:
Is Bombshell McGee really the most hated woman in the world right now? Really? There’s no one else at the top of anyone’s list? Maybe this should get a pass since it’s not like the said she’s the most hated woman in the history of the world. But still, why should I hate this woman? I don’t even know this woman. She didn’t break up my marriage, so why would I have any beefs with her?
Secondly:
Lainey goes head-to-head? Is she fighting McGee? Because that’s what I think of when I hear head-to-head. Challenges may have been a better word choice here.
The release then goes on to excerpt quotes from the two-part interview. An interview that there is little point to now. This “news” is months old and not really much of a “get” since McGee is in Canada filming a commercial. It would be like sitting down with Brad Pitt now and being like, “So you left Jennifer Aniston five years ago, eh?”
The American tabloids are not even all that interested in Bombshell McGee anymore — that’s how old this story is. That also makes it crystal clear why McGee did this interview: To keep her face out there and her 15 minutes of fame ticking.
It’s a little sad then when a Canadian TV show plays into exactly what someone named Bombshell wants.