Sunday 15 April 2007

Media spelling bee?

Michele Mandel, the blonde, shower-singing Toronto Sun columnist, put her best boot forward in a Toronto Media Idol Competition but didn't win.

Her rendition of I Can See Clearly Now clearly didn't impress the judges, so she's keeping her day job - a big bonus for Sun readers.

The competition was held on the same weekend the CanWest spelling bee finals were aired, which included footage of a Canada Post employee spelling bee.

Well, Good Golly, Miss Molly . . .

What are the chances of the Toronto Sun, Toronto Star, Globe and Mail and the National Post getting together for a good-natured Toronto Media Spelling Bee?

Have each newspaper select a team of five newsroom employees, be they reporters, columnists or editors, and assemble a panel of their peers for the judging.

Make a day of it, with members of the winning team returning to their newspaper with a trophy and the bragging rights.

Would the five best candidates from the ranks of the Sun, Star, Globe and Post rise to the challenge at a spelling bee, or would they fold like contestants on TV's new brain teaser, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

A Toronto Media Spelling Bee could be the ultimate challenge for the generation of newspaper people raised with computers and spell check.

We would place out bets on a newspaper spelling bee team top heavy with older folks educated in an era when spelling in the classroom was crucial.

Nothing against our former Sun colleagues, but our money would be on the Globe and Mail team.

Pardon us while we spell check this posting . . .

2 comments:

  1. What about including Metro in the challenge? I'll bet those wipper snappers can spell too even though they aren't nearly as old as globe writers! It will be the multi-generational battle royale, a different paper for every quarter century!

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