MICHAEL COREN

'Michael Coren' (born January 15, 1959 in Essex, England) is a Canadian columnist, author, public speaker, radio host and television talk show host. He is the host of the television series ''The Michael Coren Show''. He has also been a long-time radio personality, particularly on CFRB radio.

Contents

Career in Canadian media

Political controversies

Spirituality

Published Books

References

External links

Career in Canadian media

Coren moved from the UK to Canada in 1987. He became a permanent resident through marriage. There is no information on when, or if, he became a citizen. For several years, he was a columnist for ''Frank'' and then ''The Globe and Mail'', before he began syndicated columns for the ''Financial Post'' and Sun Media in 1995. Following his departure from ''Frank'', he became a favourite target of that publication, culminating in a spoof ad contest to "deflower" Michael Coren (a nod to ''Frank'''s notorious "Deflower Caroline Mulroney" contest, and a satirical jab at Coren's conservative leanings.) Coren had also been a favorite target of ''Frank'' back in the days before he began writing for them.
He is also a broadcaster, co-hosting a political debate segment with Irshad Manji on TVOntario's ''Studio 2''. In 1995, he began an evening talk show on CFRB. In 1999, Coren briefly moved to Talk 640 for a short stint as its morning man. He returned to CFRB, where he broadcasted from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. weekday nights, and regularly filled in for other hosts until November 2005. Coren was dismissed by CFRB as a result of complaints arising from comments ridiculing the weight of an apparent guest. In fact, the guest was an actor and the segment was scripted. According to CFRB's Operations Manager, Steve Kowch, "Pat Holiday, our general manager and myself went through the tape of Monday night's show and were shocked....it was totally out of bounds." Coren argues that it was a satire comparing in his mind public attitude to third world starvation with North America's obsession with slimming and self-indulgence.
Despite this acrimonious termination, Coren made regular talk show appearances on CFRB in July 2006, at the start of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, as he happened to be in Israel at the time. After receiving 60% approval from CFRB listeners in an August 2006 poll, Coren returned to the CFRB airwaves in September 2006 with a Sunday Evening show.^[1] As of the 22nd of April 2007, the show expanded from its usual 1 hour 7-8pm to 7-9 pm. Coren celebrated by giving away double the prizes usually given out.
On television, Coren hosts ''The Michael Coren Show'' weeknights on Crossroads Television Services, and is published every Saturday in the Sun newspaper chain. He is also a columnist for the ''Western Standard'', Catholic Insight and The Women's Post and writes regularly for the ''National Post'', ''Reader's Digest'' and several other publications. He is also a public speaker, particularly at religious gatherings.

Political controversies

He also drew some criticism from Pagan groups for an August 2, 2003 article in which he expressed displeasure with the decision to allow tax-funded Wiccan chaplains to work in Canadian prisons.
He is staunchly pro-life and has a reputation as a mainstream social conservative. Unlike many of his conservative counterparts, he was opposed the US Invasion of Iraq, as was the Catholic Church of course, and it seems unlikely that this was a coincidence. Michael Coren appears to follow the Catholic Church's position on most issues. He has borrowed a page from the Catholic Church's playbook by attempting to blame gays for the sexual abuse scandal, since most of the victims were male, and kill two birds with one stone by using this to justify the ban on gay priests. In a Sun newspaper column he compared homosexuality with necrophilia and bestiality. He has compared Paul Martin to Hitler, for his support of gay marriage, on his television show, and on Friday Sept. 7, 2007, he compared Pierre Trudeau to Hitler on his television program. He said that anyone who says that Mel Gibson's "The Passion" is anti-Semitic "either sees anti-Semitism in everything or are themselves antiSemites", despite the fact that passion plays have sparked antiSemitic violence for centuries, and Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, was amongst those who declared that the film is antiSemitic. Comments made by Mel Gibson following his arrest for drunk driving would seem to support Rabbi Hier's position. Michael Coren has said that the Catholic Church confined Jews to ghettos for centuries "for their own protection." He has accused James Baker and Hillary Clinton of being antiSemites. When a judge ordered the removal of a Christmas tree from the lobby of the building where she worked Michael Coren said the situation was made worse because she had a Jewish name. On Credo Michael Coren said that he is Jewish enough for the Nazis, but not Jewish enough for the Jews, a joke which is at once tasteless and borderline antiSemitic. He has converted to catholicism on three separate occasions, but criticizes others for "failing in their faith." He converted to Christianity, the last time, nine years ago.
Coren has written often in his Sun column and said on his show that he receives a great deal of hate mail from feminists, homosexuals and anti-Semitics, and openly challenged the tolerance and open-mindedness that these groups espouse. He accuses them of hypocrisy for being intolerant towards those of differing opinions, and for being intolerant of his intolerance of them. Michael Coren conducted a live "Town Hall" style debate with CFRB's Mark Elliot in 2006 and demonstrated his willingness to answer questions from his gay and lesbian audience members without criticising them as individuals. Toronto's gay and lesbian community attempted to derail this debate by shouting down Coren's responses. ^[2]
[3] For this, Coren has said that he carefully guards his contact information in order to protect his family.

Spirituality

His articles and speeches often include stories of his own personal spiritual journey. Coren's father was Jewish as was his maternal grandfather.
He converted to Evangelical Christianity after a conversion experience as an adult, greatly influenced by Canadian televangelist Terry Winter.
In early 2004, he embraced Catholicism. He cites St. Thomas More, C.S. Lewis, Ronald Knox and his God-father Lord Longford as spiritual influences, but remains connected to the ecumenical scene in Canada and beyond.

Published Books

Coren is the author of eleven books including works of social criticism and biographies of famous writers. His biographies include the lives of G.K. Chesterton, J.R.R. Tolkien, H.G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, and C.S. Lewis. His books have been translated into fourteen languages. He is currently writing a book entitled Socon, A Handbook for Moral Conservatives.

References

1. The Sunday Evening show began as a 1 hour program from 7 to 8pm but as of April 22 was expanded into a 2 hour show. Coren celebrated the occasion by giving out double the normal amount of prizes usually given on the show. Michael Coren Reinstated on CFRB Radio, by "Popular Demand", LifeSiteNews, September 7, 2006.
2. http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Coren_Michael/2007/07/21/4357089.html
3. http://www.cwfa.org/articles/4322/CFI/cfreport/index.htm

External links

★ Official site

★ Michael Coren on CFRB