Welcome
Over several years and through careful study, Julian Walker has written a memoir with numerous examples from the public record of what has gone wrong with our press. At one time in the Golden Age of the province’s free press there were upwards of 40 feisty small newspapers all seeking to shape the public debate, and when Saint John had five independent and competing daily newspapers.
We can never go back to those heady days, but Julian Walker’s book delves into new alternatives for seeing a lively, independent press, one that may rely on modern digital approaches, but is not afraid to call out the powers that be when things are going wrong.
Wires Crossed examines a continuing role for a federal government in adopting new ways of supporting this key part of our provincial life, without getting involved in press content.
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Wires Crossed...is a balanced examination of a controversial symbiosis — corporate power and media control, an issue with resonance across Canada now, as newspaper ownership is increasingly concentrated in a few large corporations. Julian Walker draws on a career as journalist, political insider, senior bureaucrat and academic for this vivid account of what can happen in society when a single corporate player acquires a dominant position in public life by owning and controlling the voice of the community.
-Linden MacIntyre, long-time journalist, CBC’s Fifth Estate,best-selling novelist ...Part personal memoir, part political and journalistic history, always entertaining and insightful, it is first and foremost a love story for the fourth estate and a rallying cry to preserve its integrity across this country and beyond.
-Mary McKenna, PhD, Assistant Dean, University of New Brunswick |
CHCO's Vicki Hogarth and Andrew Sutton chat with author Julian H. Walker about his recently published book "Wires Crossed", which details his long history as an editor and reporter in New Brunswick.