Still chasing the news

Knowlton Nash, host of CBC-TV’s Witness and former host of The National, began his love affair with journalism as a young newsboy on a street corner in Toronto.

He says he remembers getting his bundle of papers each day, and ripping it open so he could read the headlines. When France fell in the Second World War, people rushed to buy the paper. Nash says his pockets were so full of change that day, he had trouble keeping his pants up.

In semi-retirement, he continues to keep up with media issues — via the web.

He makes daily visits to www.cbc.ca and www.bourque.org. The latter is a one-stop shopping destination for dozens of links to newspapers and media sites around the world. Nash says he gets his daily dose of news out of Ottawa via these two news sites.

Nash’s other favourite site is www.lonelyplanet.com for its practical and entertaining travel information.

Knowlton Nash’s latest book, Trivia Pursuit: How Showbiz Values are Corrupting the News, isow out in paperback. In it, Nash discusses the "dumbing down" of news and current affairs as entertainment, gossip and an obsession with immediacy take over news values. It’s published by McClelland and Stewart.