Antonia Zerbisias

Antonia Zerbisias (born in Montreal^[1]) is a Canadian journalist associated with the Toronto Star since 1989. She has been a reporter and TV host for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as well as the Montreal correspondent for Variety trade paper. She was nominated for ACTRA awards for her documentary writing in 1980 and 1981, and won the 1996 National Newspaper Award for critical writing for her columns about magazines.

Career

Zerbisias has a BA in applied social sciences from Concordia University (then called Sir George Williams University), as well as an MBA from the same university.^[1] Her first job as a reporter, in the early 1970s, was with the now-defunct Montreal weekly newspaper the Sunday Express.^[1] In the late 1970s she joined CBC, eventually becoming a current affairs reporter for The City at Six.

In 1980 she returned to school to earn her MBA (Marketing Research, Honours, 1985), while still working as a journalist for CBC-TV and Variety. In 1986, she became a reporter/producer for the CBC-TV business show Venture. In 2002-2003, she co-hosted the CBC Newsworld program Inside Media with Matthew Fraser.^[2]

Toronto Star

Zerbisias joined the Toronto Star in 1989. She began as a broadcasting critic and reporter and, in 1991, joined the Montreal bureau. In 1993, she returned to Toronto and became media reporter. She won the 1996 National Newspaper Award for critical writing for her columns about magazines; the award noting that Zerbisias "is not one to mince with words as she focuses on the subject matter at hand. She proceeds to give us her insights, analysis and critique not only with rhetorical, stylistic and intellectual rigor, but with gusto and passion, a rare commodity in today's bland politically correct journalism."^[1] In 1997, she became TV critic and then, in 2003, was appointed media columnist.

Zerbisias' blog for the Star, Azerbic [2] effectively went on hiatus in August 2006 and ceased publishing the following December. She continued as media critic until June 2007, when she became the social issues and cultural affairs columnist at the Toronto Star. In January 2008, she launched a new blog, with a focus on feminist issues, for The Toronto Star, Broadsides [3].

Controversies

Throughout her career as a columnist, Zerbisias has taken a number of controversial positions, especially with respect to the Middle East and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Among other things, she was an early advocate of broadcasting by Al-Jazeera in Canada,^[3] and asked former Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler whether he was loyal to Canada or Israel.^[4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} "In Your Face", The Ryerson Review of Journalism (Spring 2006)
2. ^ [1]
3. ^ Let Al-Jazeera Broadcast Here, by Antonia Zerbisias, Toronto Star, August 28, 2003.
4. ^ A Toronto Star columnist crosses the line, by Jonathan Kay, National Post, September 22, 2009.

External links

• Zerbisias' columns in the Toronto Star
• Azerbic - Zerbisias' former blog page at the Toronto Star
• "In Your Face", The Ryerson Review of Journalism (Spring 2006)
• Broadsides - Zerbisias' new blog page at the Toronto Star
• Antonia Zerbisias interview - Thursday, 09 October 2008