Nelson Thall

{{BLP sources|date=December 2015}}

Nelson Spencer Thall (born November 7, 1952) is a media scientist and Marshall McLuhan 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 newspaper.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/a-crack-in-the-torstar-trust/article18143187/|title=A crack in the Torstar trust?|access-date=2016-09-13}} One of the last graduate students of McLuhan, Thall produced and hosted the Corus Entertainment series Cloak & Dagger{{Cite web | url=http://www.rense.com/general48/wherewereyou.htm |title = Where Were You when Cloak and Dagger Was Killed?}} discussing the effects of media with guests such as Alex Jones, David Icke, and Andreas von Bülow. 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{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TALZBQAAQBAJ&dq=Marshall+McLuhan+++thall&pg=PT137|title=McLuhan's Children: The Greenpeace Message and the Media: The Greenpeace Message and the Media|last=Dale|first=Stephen|date=1996-09-01|publisher=Between the Lines|isbn=9781926662176|language=en}} 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 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.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a2IABAAAQBAJ&dq=web+weaving+nelson+thall&pg=PA259 |title = Web-Weaving|isbn = 9781136349225|last1 = Boyle|first1 = Paula|last2 = Lloyd|first2 = Peter|date = 2007-06-07| publisher=Routledge }} From 1997 to 2002 he served on the Board of Directors of Torstar.{{Cite web|title=TORSTAR Corporation |url=http://www.torstar.com/corporate/officers.html |date=1999-04-18 |accessdate=2016-01-02 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/19990418011408/http://www.torstar.com/corporate/officers.html |archivedate=April 18, 1999 }}

On December 30, 1999, Thall joined the board of directors of Stan Lee Media.{{Cite web|title=Yahoo - One of the World's Leading Media Scientists Joins Stan Lee Media Board of Directors |url=http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/991230/ca_stan_le_1.html |date=2000-03-03 |accessdate=2015-12-14 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20000303145801/http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/991230/ca_stan_le_1.html |archivedate=March 3, 2000 }}

In April 2004, Toronto police entered Thall's residence without a search warrant{{Cite news|title = The strange case of Mr. Thall|url = https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-strange-case-of-mr-thall/article997412/|website = The Globe and Mail|accessdate = 2016-01-02}} thus contravening his rights as granted under the Canadian constitution. 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.{{Cite news|title = The strange case of Mr. Thall|url = https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-strange-case-of-mr-thall/article997412/|website = The Globe and Mail|accessdate = 2015-12-31}} His lawyer, Edward Greenspan, claimed that his client was harassed as a result of his work on radio.