I was walking my dog this morning and we passed a newspaper that had the headline TASERED 24 TIMES. There was something about this newspaper that was off-putting, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Something just didn’t seem right. Can someone please explain to me what it is about this particular NEWSPAPER that didn’t seem right this morning? I’m BEATEN; I give up.
Cover Rating: NEGATIVE NEWS
Using the Toronto Sun’s simplified logic that a 20% increase in food bank directly correlates to the worsening economy, TorontoSunSucks.com has compiled its own list of possible reasons for the increase in food bank use:
Cover Rating: NEGATIVE NEWS
Today I’ve decided not to write about the Toronto Sun. No, it’s not because the Toronto Sun no longer sucks (far from it in fact if you had the pleasure of reading Joe Warmington’s column this morning). Today it was Metro’s turn to suck big time. Metro just couldn’t turn down Rogers’ offer to buy their front page, so they sold out. Yes, this brings a new meaning to the word “suckage”. This is the all time suckiest of them all. It’s just a big giant advertisement in the form of a newspaper.
Last week I commended Dictionary.com for turning their homepage into a giant advertisement because, as I wrote in my article “The new Dictionary.com layout is a brilliant example of how an advertisement can be integrated into the site and still be unimposing to the user”.
Metro really bombed it though. Not only is the advertisement imposing, it’s just plain ugly. I’m not against making the cover page an advertisement, but there are better ways to go about it than this. Watch this TED video of Polish newspaper designer Jacek Utko talk about designing newspapers.
If they continue down this path, I just might need to start a new site called “metrosucks.com”.
One man says the cup is half full. Another man says the cup is half empty. The Toronto Sun says Jarvis street is being “SQUEEZED” on today’s cover. I say Jarvis street is being widened; turning 1 car lane into 2 bike lanes. Torontoist’s Marc Lostracco sums it up nicely in this comment in his response to another reader’s comment on Lostracco’s article:
“As someone who lives, drives, and cycles on Jarvis, I couldn't disagree with you more—and I'm someone who benefits by using Jarvis as a car thoroughfare to get out of the city.
It's never a good thing to just keep expanding to accommodate an increase in cars (widening the DVP, for example, wouldn't decrease traffic—it would encourage more of it and become just as congested). As far as Jarvis is concerned, "choking" it won't push much traffic off of it because it will still remain the north-south artery that it currently is, and relatively underutilized streets like Church could handle it. The inconvenience of waiting a few more minutes in your car to get to your home in Rosedale or Moore Park is not a convincing enough argument, and the notion that cars must be accommodated above all else is offensive.
But traffic flow concerns aside, the bottom line is this: we should actively be trying to undo some of our past mistakes, as well as our current ones (not enough space allocated for bike lanes, for example), and as a resident of the area that Jarvis ruthlessly cuts though, I don't believe for a blinkin' second that people complaining about the additional commute could give a shit about the health of the neighbourhoods along the Jarvis route. Because they don't live there; they just wanna get home quickly. If the same sort of ugly and highly-trafficked street was merely suggested today through Rosedale in order to provide quicker access to growing neighbourhoods north of it, people would be storming the gates with torches and pitchforks.
The expansion of Jarvis was a tragic mistake that will never be restored, yet the removal of one car lane to make way for two bike lanes is so incredibly minor that I am baffled by why people are so opposed to it. From what I've seen, I can only chalk it up to selfishness.
As a cyclist who uses Jarvis all the time to get to the bike lanes on Gerrard, I can tell you that riding a bike down Jarvis is an exercise in terror, and considering that the curb lanes are used for parking and thus bikes have to take up the entire lane (which is their right anyway), you'd be amazed at how incensed some drivers can get when the cyclist in front of them makes them miss a green light).
And as a driver on Jarvis who hates sitting in traffic, I still kinda say, "so what?" We shouldn't be driving as much as we do anyway. I consider the infuriating rush hour traffic jams not the fault of poor urban planning, but rather because we like moving around by ourselves in big machines that take up a lot of space. Traffic jams suck, but that's what we get for being infatuated with personal automobiles. [Shrug]”
Cover Rating: NEUTRAL NEWS
Each morning I set out on a mission to snap a photo of the Toronto Sun cover. With my dog in tow, I search for a Toronto Sun newspaper box that still has a paper on display. Even at 7:00AM, I still come across several Toronto Sun boxes that are empty. This could be a result of the papers being sold out, but more likely it’s a consequence of reduction of circulation.
Newspaper boxes just don’t make sense anymore. Most people (in Toronto at least) will glance at a newspaper cover and then read the news online. Some people take newspapers with them on the GO Train or the subway, but it seems to me the daily Metro newspaper dominates this market.
The Toronto Sun (and other newspapers) are losing out on free advertising by not displaying the cover when the newspapers are all sold out. The future newspaper box will display the cover page regardless of whether there’s a newspaper inside or not. Eventually all newspaper boxes will be empty because printing newspaper will become redundant (We’re already almost there). But losing free advertising in the form of a newspaper box would be equivalent to digging a grave for any traditional newspaper.
Cover Rating: NEUTRAL NEWS
The Toronto Sun decided to print “ON RAMPAGE” as the headline in this morning’s paper, with “Sri Lanka consul general says Tamil Tigers behind Brampton restaurant fire” as the caption. An interesting choice for a headline, considering if you actually read the article, you’ll read the Peel Regional Police saying they haven’t even confirmed the fire was deliberately set. Peel Constable Adam Minnion goes further to say “We can never speak on opinions. We have to speak on the facts.” Constable Minnion would make a horrible Toronto Sun reporter. Speak on the facts? That’s plain boring. Right Toronto Sun?
Cover Rating: NEGATIVE NEWS
Once again the Toronto Sun cover this morning features a photo of the hunt for Victoria (Tori) Stafford’s body. Now that it’s known almost definitively that she’s deceased, the story has become worthy of space on the cover page.
On a more positive note, Toronto Sun “hack” Michele Mandel apologized yesterday to the deceased 8-year-old’s Mom for all but accusing her own child’s disappearance. Thanks a lot Michelle; that’s really going to make the grieving mother feel better. I wonder if Mandel wrote the article simply to avoid any future lawsuits?
While on the topic of toddlers, the Toronto Sun headline reads “TOT SHOT IN HOME”. They should win an award for this brilliant literary masterpiece.
Cover Rating: NEGATIVE NEWS
The Toronto Sun Family blog has long been criticizing the Toronto Sun for its lack of coverage on the 42-day-old search for missing Woodstock girl Victoria (Tori) Stafford. The case has now been upgraded from a missing child case to a murder case with the arrest of 28-year-old Michael Thomas C.S. Rafferty and 18-year-old Terri-Lynne McClintic, who were featured on today’s cover.
On Friday April 10th, Toronto Sun Family wrote: “Upfront space was available for stories about cats and dogs and the continuing bad economy, (yawn), but not for the desperate search for Victoria “Tori” Stafford, 8, and news that Oxford police have video of the girl walking with an unidentified woman.”
Now that the suspects have been arrested and the case has been all but solved (they’re still looking for the body), the Toronto Sun has dedicated an entire cover and 5 pages inside. I guess a murder story is more “newsworthy” than a missing child story.
Cover Rating: NEUTRAL NEWS
In today’s feature story, a susceptible 15-year-old girl was enticed by two “pimps” to become a prostitute and a stripper in a Mississauga strip club. The Toronto Sun should capitalize on these types of opportunities; they could hire her to help generate more intelligent headlines. I mean I feel bad for the 11-year-old who would be laid off as a result, but every newspaper needs to grow up sooner or later.
Cover Rating: NEUTRAL NEWS
Today’s Toronto Sun headline story discusses how 160 of Ontario’s doctors are charging OHIP $1 million or more in service fees for helping patients. As always the Toronto Sun wants to know if Dalton McGuinty is wasting taxpayer money. But when it comes to doctors they are walking a thin line.
Firstly, many doctors spend more than a decade in school and rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition loans. Secondly, after finishing school doctors are tempted to go down South to work for private health institutions where they can make a lot more money than in Canada. Thirdly, doctors are compensated on a per-case service charge model, so if they are pulling in over a million dollars in revenue, they’ve dealt with a lot of patients and they are helping a lot of people. Lastly, the number the Toronto Sun uses is gross revenue for a practice, not their net income or profit. As the Toronto Sun has indicated in its article, approximately 40% of their gross revenue is spent on the expenses in running a medical practice. The article doesn’t mention it, but I would suspect that some of those doctors who are generated $1M+ in revenue might be paying other doctors to work in their office.
I want to send a personal thanks to those doctors for staying in Canada, for saving our lives and for taking the time to help so many people.
Cover Rating: NEGATIVE NEWS
The Toronto Sun just doesn’t get it. Jenny Yuen probably had good intentions when she wrote her cover article entitled “Toronto’s war on cars”, but I suspect her article was edited by her superiors to put more emphasis on city hall’s “war on cars”. The first half of the article sounds drastically different than the last half; emphasizing on cars getting the short end of the stick in Toronto. The first half almost reads like the Joe Warmington’s “Pedal-pushers a problem” column from the other week.
“It's city policy to put pedestrians, cyclists and transit ahead of automobiles as part of its integrated transportation plan. But despite an additional 10 million cars bought by North Americans each year, Toronto has no plan to accommodate the extra vehicles, said the city's manager of transportation services.”
What Toronto Sun writers fail to acknowledge is that improving congestion by focusing on traffic flow IS NOT the solution. Congestion is one of the reasons over 1 million people a day take public transportation instead of driving in Toronto. If they add 4 more lanes to the Gardiner or the DVP to improve traffic flow, those lanes would fill up quickly by people who were previously taking transit. The outcome would be instead of having 3 lanes of gridlock at rush hour, we’d have 5-lane parking lots. If you’ve ever driven in Beijing or Los Angeles you’d know that adding more lanes is not the solution; there simply isn’t enough space. The focus needs to be on public transit and other methods of transportation to get people out of their cars.
Reality check for Toronto Sun columnists who are adamant about driving: Getting other people out of their cars will benefit you if you continue using your automobile as your primary means of transportation; and for that you should be grateful that the city is putting so much emphasis on it.
Cover Rating: NEGATIVE NEWS
Whenever I read stories about babies falling from apartment buildings, the first question that comes to mind is how the hell does that happen? In this morning’s Toronto Sun cover story, a Mississauga baby survived an 8-storey fall; landing on dense shrubs. Here’s the explanation on how the baby managed to fall off the balcony: “Peel police say the toddler squirmed out of his mother's arms as they stood on the corner balcony and fell, landing on the two-metre-tall bush.”
Can a baby really just “squirm” out of his mother’s arms and fall off the balcony? Assuming this is true, then why is the mother standing on the edge of the balcony with her baby? I lived on a 19th story apartment for a year and I wouldn’t even hold a beer that close to the edge, let alone my baby. But the media generally doesn’t want to be too insensitive or accuse the mother of being careless; she’s probably already traumatized by the incident as it is. The Toronto Sun accepted the police explanation: “Peel Const. J.P. Valade said the fall is being treated as an accident.”.
The only media agency I could find asking this question is CityNews: “Cops have now finished their probe into the incident and have ruled it an accident. No charges will be laid but there's no word on why the mom got so close to the edge of the ledge with the baby in her arms.” Thanks CityNews for asking the question that needed to be asked.
Cover Rating: NEUTRAL NEWS
An emergency meeting was held at the Toronto Sun last night. The editors wanted to find a way to top the rhyme they conceived for yesterday’s cover “CRASH CASH MAY BE CUT”. They decided that the only way to top a terrible rhyme would be to fancy an even more juvenile pun.
Oh, and just in case you didn’t actually realize that “Plane” has multiple meaning within the context of this headline, the Toronto Sun took the time to shade each letter in the word “PLANE” with a distinguishable blue colour to identify their inane pun.
Cover Rating: NEUTRAL NEWS
After a brief hiatus, the Rhyming Gods of the Toronto Sun have returned with the headline “CRASH CASH MAY BE CUT” (The last juvenile rhyme that surfaced on the cover was May 4th’s “DASH FOR CITY CASH”). You see, the insurance companies are losing money right now so the Financial Services Commission of Ontario wants to reduce the $100,000 cap on insurance payouts for non-catastrophic injuries to $25,000.
Essentially this is a roundabout way for the government to bailout the insurance companies because the government will end up footing the bill for the portion of the medical expenses that exceeds $25,000. It would be comparable to lowering the tax rate for corporations. There are two ways to look at it: One way is that the Ontario government would be taking taxpayer’s money and enriching corporations. Another way is to say that the government is helping the insurance industry to save thousands of jobs in Canada. I don’t think anyone who currently works for GM Canada would honestly oppose any bailout to the auto industry.
On the headline, I would have been happy with “INSURANCE PAYOUTS MAY BE CUT”. But that surely would have forced the Toronto Sun to reduce the size of the font which would be unacceptable.
Cover Rating: NEUTRAL NEWS
In an unexpected move, the Toronto Sun has given Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla an opportunity to tell her side of the story after several weeks of highlighting her indiscretions. Dhalla testified before a parliamentary committee yesterday to defend herself against allegations that she forced her hired help to shine shoes, do the laundry, and scrub floors – what is it again that Nannies are hired for?
Instead, Dhalla painted a picture of luxury (Toronto Star), describing the 1500 square foot basement that was given to the Nannies, furnished with a 60-inch flat-screen TV. Good thing she specified it’s a “flat-screen” television. Imagine how the parliamentary committee would have judged her had she told them that she provided a 60-inch cathode ray tube (CRT) television? She’d be impeached.
In other news, Mike Strobel’s “Moonlight Ladies” column is gaining traction with a dedicated tab on the homepage. We’ll see if this tab is permanent. Strobel’s “In praise of older women” column discusses how it’s not just older men who are into Moonlight ladies; younger guys dig them too: “They see less likelihood of PMS or finding bubblegum stuck to their bedsheets”. Thanks for the visual Mike.
Cover Rating: NEUTRAL NEWS
Being someone who works in the Information Technology industry, I’ve consulted a company or two about their Content Management Systems (CMS). Companies that use Content Management Systems typically have several “templates” that they can choose from when publishing content depending on what type of content they are publishing (Be it news, announcements, events, etc.). The content publisher could choose for example, the “Two-Column News article” template, or “Three columns with footer” template.
I can only imagine the wealth of templates made available to whoever is publishing the Toronto Sun cover. Today’s cover uses the “DARK MURDER GUN DEATH” template. The description 
reads “Use this template for the worst kinds of gun deaths; fear propensity = HIGH”. Other templates may include “REGULAR HEADLINE WITH SILLY CAPTION”; we saw this one used on Friday’s cover with the “Boo! City Hall dodos shoo his didgeridoo” caption. There’s also a template that includes a placeholder for a “Photoshopped image”, such as last Tuesday’s Joe Pantalone cover.
Sometimes however, the Toronto Sun wants to mix a scary headline with regular news. In this particular circumstance they would choose the “DARK MURDER GUN DEATH HEADER WITH REGULAR NEWS BODY” template. This template can be spotted on the Friday April 24th “GANG WAR FEARED” cover.
Cover Rating: NEGATIVE NEWS
The Toronto Sun is working very hard to create a scandal out of the Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla story. Starting with the illegal Nanny story from last week and now with the suggestion that Dhalla paid “big bucks” to cut a romantic scene out of a movie she appeared in prior to becoming a Member of Parliament. When you actually read the article and watch its accompanying video, you’ll see that this particular romantic scene is very innocent and Dhalla is fully clothed. It now appears that she simply wanted the innocent scene removed to prevent any possible backlash it may have on her political career. This anti climatic cover story would be a disappointment to even the most casual tabloid reader.
Cover Rating: NEGATIVE NEWS
The Toronto Sun came through today with a surprisingly positive cover for Mother’s Day with a nice story about a Mother’s wish to save her baby.
Of course the editors for the Toronto Sun couldn’t let the newspaper go out without something controversial on the cover.
Ian Robertson’s article suggests that we are being “gouged” by the recent hike in gas prices using Liberal MP Dan McTeague as its primary source to draw this conclusion.
"We remain in a very depressed situation, economically," he said. Claiming the largest stockpile of fuel since 1990, "there's nowhere for the prices to go but down," McTeague said.
When McTeague couldn’t answer what the future holds for gas prices (“it’s anyone’s guess”), the Toronto Sun found anyone in the form of Hamilton’s Ron Hollis who runs the website boycottgas.ca.
Hollis predicted “gas will be up to $1.25 by July 1”. But it’s of course, “anyone’s guess”.
Cover Rating: POSITIVE NEWS
I guess Toronto Sun cartoonist Tim Peckham wasn’t on duty last night. Otherwise he could have done his Photoshop magic and inserted an actual boner in place of Councillor Adam Giambrone’s head.
Now that would have been funny and fitting for the Toronto Sun’s ludicrous headline this morning.
Cover Rating: NEGATIVE NEWS
“Boo! City Hall dodos shoo his didgeridoo”
Did the Toronto Sun seriously put that on the cover this morning or am I on some sort of hallucinatory drugs?
I knew Mike Strobel was a horrendous writer, but this sets a new all-time low.
On a more positive note, I consider today’s cover generally positive given the main headline “STEELTOWN BUZZ”. This marks the first positive cover since I started rating the covers 10 days ago.
Cover Rating: POSITIVE NEWS
I’m happy to say that Sports writer Steve Simmons wrote a good feature column pleading with with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to allow RIM CEO Jim Balsillie to move the team to Southern Ontario.
I wish I could say the same for columnist Sue-Ann Levy who starts out her column entitled “Mean Streets: It’s bike vs. car” by saying that she took out her hybrid commuter bike last weekend only to deal with “jarring, bumpy, and at times perilous” roads.
She then goes on to say “the committee’s car haters were only to happy too (sic) advance their crusade to make Toronto as car-unfriendly as possible”. “It has become abundantly clear that Mayor David Miller and his cabal of airheads are only too happy to fill the non-stop green demands with endless money the city does not have.”
After 15 paragraphs of pseudo-jibberish, she concludes that cars are still “The Much Better Way”. Gee, maybe that explains why the pro-cyclist lobby is battling for more bike lanes that your newspaper is battling against.
Cover Rating: NEUTRAL NEWS
Today’s cover nicely balances some positive news about Jim Balsillie’s bid to bring the Phoenix Coyotes to Ontario with a negative, unflattering picture of a terror accused who has pleaded guilty.
Inside the paper you’ll find another ridiculous article written by Joe Warmington entitled “Pedal-pushers a problem” that suggests that bicycles should be banned from city roads. Here’s an excerpt:
“Right after Car-Free Day in Toronto this September I wish they would then have a Bike- Free Day -- just as a reminder to these cyclists that using our roads is a privilege. Of course, we know with this bikes-are-good and cars-are-bad council, they want it to be the other way around.”
I can assure you Mr. Warmington that you wouldn’t want a “bike free day”. Imagine all the cyclists in Toronto were instead driving cars; adding tens of thousands of additional cars on the road. Be careful what you wish for.
Cover Rating: NEUTRAL NEWS
Today’s cover of the Toronto Sun features a doctored photo of Councillor and Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone created by Tim Peckham.
Sensationalist columnist Sue-Ann Levy spends her entire article criticizing the “treehuggers” from “Socialist Silly Hall”, calling it “tree-pocrisy”.
Instead of providing objective journalism, Levy quotes Pantalone out of context and fails to adequately tell both sides of the story.
Here are some quotes from the article:
“As is their habit under the city's draconian private tree bylaw, the tree police (a.k.a. the city's Urban Forestry staff) denied the request, stating the tree is "healthy" and a "significant and valuable part" of the urban forest with "plenty of room for future growth."”
“Given Mayor David Miller's incessant (and nauseating) focus on a climate change agenda, you can imagine my surprise when every single one of council's tree huggers (and Miller's minions) voted 27-2 to grant the tree the chop!”
“In my two years covering the twisted tree logic that emanates from Socialist Silly Hall this has to be the finest example of tree-pocrisy yet.”
“He laughed when I told him about last week's vote, saying he's amazed council's tree-huggers actually have jobs.”
"I thought there was a requirement of least an IQ of room temperature," he said. "I'm not surprised at all."
Cover Rating: NEGATIVE NEWS
This is old news, but the National Post has decided to cut its Monday paper throughout the summer (Beginning on June 29th).
With a headline like today’s “DASH FOR CITY CASH”, perhaps the Toronto Sun should consider doing the same.
At least we’re seeing some positive news with the Jays winning-streak.
Cover Rating: NEUTRAL NEWS
I love the Toronto Sun headline this morning: “PATIENTS AT RISK”. When you think about this phrase, it does make sense. Patients are indeed at risk.
I mean, they are patients for a reason; they are usually sick. Healthy people don’t generally check themselves into hospitals without a reason.
So yeah, it does make sense that they are at risk.
Thanks for pointing this out Toronto Sun!
Cover Rating: NEGATIVE NEWS
Here a few quotes from this morning’s Toronto Sun headline story:
“The memories of Kim's now-deceased wife and of raising their three daughters are as strong as the foundation of the five-level backsplit house on Maplehurst Ave. His wife's minivan, which she used for family trips and chores, still sits on the driveway.”
"I don't want to sell it because my wife was here, I have emotional values here," Kim said. "Actually, my dog passed away, too."
"I want to stay here, but if the city offers me more than I ask, more than I'm expecting, it's OK," he said.
When put like that it sounds funny. I don’t want to sell because my wife was here, but if the city offers more than I ask, it’s OK.
Cover Rating: NEUTRAL NEWS
Today’s Toronto Sun discusses the City of Toronto’s purchase of a Willowdale home for $800,000 to build a park at a time when City pools are being closed down due to the financial situation of the city.
I’m left to wonder what today’s headline would have been had the City decided to sell the parkland to developers in order to keep the pools open for one more year.
Pools are temporary, parks are permanent. Negotiations for 283 Greenfield Ave. have been happening since 2007. I’d much rather see the city invest in a long-term vision rather than a short-term cost.
Cover Rating: NEGATIVE NEWS
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