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Life tends to be cyclical. Everything, fashion,
music or economics -- eventually returns.
And so did Don Canaan -- from a Bronx tenement to
marriage, children, success in television newsfilm,
immigration to Israel, re-marriage, two more
children and a return to the U.S.A. and a new facet
of journalism--print.
Canaan's career dates to his appearance on Mike
Wallace's NightBeat program. His news background
covers four decades of history -- from 1960 until
his departure from United Press International to
become a Quality Editor for LexisNexis.
From 1961-1974, Canaan edited newsfilm and
documentaries for NBC News in New York, and in 1974
made aliyah as part of an American group planning to
settle Yamit in the Sinai.
With unemployment rampant during the late 1970s and
early 1980s. he became a statistic -- unable to work
in TV newsfilm because it had been superseded by
videotape -- unable to work in that medium because
of a classic "Catch-22" situation; you had to have a
job to be accepted into the union and you had to be
in the union in order to get a job.
His former union, the Motion Picture Film Editors,
Local 771 of the International Alliance of
Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), had been
devastated by NABET, the National Association of
Broadcasting Engineering Technicians.
This quandary came about because film in TV news had
become an anachronism -- a victim of American
technology combined with Japanese ingenuity. During
three years overseas, 22 years of TV journalism
experience disappeared beneath a tidal wave of
progress.
The Ohio State University's School of Journalism in
Columbus, Ohio, came to the rescue with an offer to
earn a master's degree while serving as an assistant
in its TV news workshop.
Then a terrific opportunity came up at the American
Israelite. Canaan was brought on board as staff
writer, copy editor and photographer. He enterprised
stories that brought kudos from the community. His
four-part series, "Jews in Ohio's Prisons: Does
Anybody Care?" received a first place award for best
weekly journalism in Ohio from the State of Ohio Bar
Association.
Every evening, Sunday through Thursday, Canaan
compiles and edits IsraelNewsFaxx. This newsletter
is sent to a selective clientele throughout the
United States, as well as being posted on this
website..
The midi music file, Lena from Palesteena (1920),
has been purchased from Al Levy at
http://alevy.com. The music is dedicated to my granddaughter, Alexis
Hadassah Mercedes Canaan-Shelton.
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