Open Sources Guelph - February 6, 2020

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're sick.... of talking about certain things. It may be closer to Valentine's Day than it is to Festivus, but we have some grievances to air on this week's show! From the disappointing end to you-know-who's impeachment to the pendulum doom out of China that the media's got us riding, we've got lots of thoughts on this week's news, as well as some discussion about how the news might get made in the future, and why it hopefully won't be "soft."

This Thursday, February 6, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

Acquittal Place. Unless something went radically wrong (or right) on Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump was acquitted in his Senate Impeachment Trial. At the same time, Democrats are trying to make the case that a dangerous corrupt President now unshackled from check and balances as the reason to vote Trump out of office at the same time that they can't figure out who won their first caucus. How much crazier is this about to get?

Virus Marketing. The outbreak of a coronavirus in China has set the world on edge as we've started throwing around the word "pandemic" with reckless abandon, and then we rent movies like Outbreak and Contagion to try and scare us straight. But have we been done right by the media coverage of the coronavirus? And what about the resulting racism against Canadians of Chinese and Asian decent who are now both a source of fear and the butt of jokes?

In Media Biz. A list of 97 recommendations from the Broadcasting & Telecommunications Legislation Review Panel has been released, and it contains some obvious stuff like taxing Netflix and giving the CBC more funding, but then Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault stepped in it on CTV's Question Period when he suggested that media outlets might be made to register and get approval from the government. So what changes could be coming to Canada's media world?

Killing Us Softly. From the Royal family drama, to the Prime Minister's beard and his purchase of elitist non-Tim Hortons donuts, we've got some serious issues here in 2020, and these are not among them. An op-ed on CBC News is warning us that we're too fixated on "soft" news, and we're not focused enough on the issues that really matter. Is there a point that can be made here, and why can't we do better and discuss the serious issues?

Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.