Nelson Spencer Thall (born November 7, 1952) is a media scientist and

Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (, ; July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media studies, media theory. Raised in Winnipeg, McLuhan studied at the University of Manitoba a ...

scholar most noted for his portrayal of media commentator Lenny Bloom. Thall is a member of one of the Five Families that controls the

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

newspaper. One of the last graduate students of McLuhan, Thall produced and hosted the

Corus Entertainment Corus Entertainment Inc. (often simply known as Corus) is a Canadian mass media and television production company. The company was founded in 1987 as Shaw Radio Ltd. as a subsidiary of Shaw Communications and was spun-off from Shaw in 1999. It h ...

series '' Cloak & Dagger'' discussing the effects of media with guests such as

Alex Jones Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American Far-right politics, far-right radio host, radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist. He hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas. ''The Alex Jones Show'' is the lo ...

David Icke David Vaughan Icke ( ; born 29 April 1952) is an English conspiracy theorist, author and a former Association football, footballer and sports broadcaster. He has written over 20 books, self-published since the mid-1990s, and spoken in more tha ...

, and

Andreas von Bülow Andreas von Bülow (born 17 July 1937) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and writer. He was Minister for Research and Technology from 1980 to 1982. Von Bülow has authored books about intelligence agencies, including ' ...

. During the last two years of the show on Corus and later via online streaming radio, Lenny Bloom was joined by Chicago-based activist Sherman Skolnick. As a former Director and Chief Archivist of the McLuhan Center On Global Communications Thall, in 1991, was the recipient of the Marshall McLuhan Distinguished Teachers Award and on May 7, 1996 represented the Writers Guild of Canada before the Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal, writing the legal definition of terms such as 'multimedia' into law. Also in 1996,

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

requested his contribution to 'Web-Weaving : Intranets, Extranets and Strategic Alliances' by Paula Boyle and Peter Lloyd where he updated the definition of The Global Village. From 1997 to 2002 he served on the Board of Directors of

Torstar Torstar Corporation is a Canadian mass media company which primarily publishes news. It is known for publishing the ''Toronto Star'', its flagship and namesake. Torstar was purchased by NordStar Capital LP, which is currently owned by Jordan Bi ...

. On December 30, 1999, Thall joined the board of directors of

Stan Lee Media Stan Lee Media, Inc. (SLM) was an Internet-based creation, production and marketing company that was founded in 1998, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2000, and ultimately dismissed from bankruptcy in November 2006. In its early yea ...

. In April 2004, Toronto police entered Thall's residence without a search warrant thus contravening his rights as granted under the

Canadian constitution The Constitution of Canada () is the supreme law in Canada. It outlines Canada's system of government and the civil and human rights of those who are citizens of Canada and non-citizens in Canada. Its contents are an amalgamation of various ...

. This illegal entry by police occurred only weeks after Cloak & Dagger Radio Show on AM640 broadcast live interviews with police informants who exposed internal police union corruption. Thall was arrested but never convicted, bail money and items seized returned to him by police. The break-in by police was reported in the newspaper. His lawyer,

Edward Greenspan Edward Leonard Greenspan, (February 28, 1944December 24, 2014) was one of Canada's most famous defence lawyers, and a prolific author of legal volumes. His fame was owed to numerous high-profile clients and to his national exposure on the Cana ...

, claimed that his client was harassed as a result of his work on radio.

References

1952 births Canadian talk radio hosts Living people Mass media scholars {{Canada-radio-bio-stub