Michael Coren

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Michael Coren bigraphy, stories - Canadian columnist, author, public speaker, radio host and television talk show host

Michael Coren : biography

January 15, 1959 –

Michael Coren (born January 15, 1959) is a British-Canadian columnist, author, public speaker, radio host and television talk show host. He hosted the television talk show The Michael Coren Show on the Crossroads Television System from 1999 to 2011 when he moved to the Sun News Network to host an evening talk show, The Arena with Michael Coren., Toronto Sun, June 28, 2011 He has also been a long-time radio personality, particularly on CFRB radio.

He has written more than ten books, including biographies of G. K. Chesterton, H. G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, and C. S. Lewis. His latest two books, Heresy: Ten Lies They Spread About Christianity and Why Catholics are Right, were published in 2012 and 2011 respectively.

Life and career

Coren was born in Essex, England. After obtaining a degree in politics from Nottingham University, he moved from Britain to Canada in 1987. 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. Coren took exception to being labelled a "literary prostitute" during a 1994 interview.Ovsenny, Christopher, Cloak and Dagger, Ryerson Review of Journalism Spring 1994 http://www.rrj.ca/issue/1994/spring/187/

His career as a broadcaster began in the early 1990s when he co-hosted 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 hosted a show 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.The show began as a one 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. , LifeSiteNews, September 7, 2006. As of the 22nd of April 2007, the show expanded from its usual 1 hour 7-8pm to 7-9 pm., CFRB website, accessed December 30, 2007 Coren celebrated by giving away double the prizes usually given out. In the fall of 2007 he and former Liberal Party of Canada president Stephen LeDrew launched a daily hour-long afternoon show on CFRB called Two Bald Guys With Strong Opinions in which the two argue about the issues of the day., CFRB website, accessed December 30, 2007 After the departure of LeDrew, Coren was joined by Tarek Fatah after several on air auditions by potential replacement co-hosts. Coren was again let go by CFRB along with 12 other staff of the Toronto radio station on 27 August 2009.O’Toole, Megan. , National Post, Toronto, August 27, 2009.