On this public holiday I thought I would share a post I read over at The Real Story that shows how bad the press in BC is and the fact that the role of the many political and social bloggers in BC is so needed. To read the full post go to http://therealstory.ca/2011-07-25/bc-politics/two-sides-good-one-side-bad#comments
Here are a few highghts to get you to read the entire article
A few years ago I sat down in the offices of a reporter covering the BC Rail corruption trial. I handed him a stack of information contained in affidavits sworn by BC Liberal government lawyers and employees and released by the court, affidavits the reporter hadn’t reviewed and wasn’t going to review,
...
When I first reviewed the affidavits revealing the breach together with Dohm’s original order and the documents laying out the case for the order it became clear to me that Dobell’s ‘error’ was serious and could even be a criminal code violation.
The issue was this: In order to vet government documents required by the investigation but perhaps containing privileged government information five people were given the right to see the documents
...
The reporter, over the course of a couple of hours and then days considered the story. It was shared with editors, who shared it with their bosses. And the bosses killed it. Or that’s what the reporter told me.
They killed it because they called Dobell and Dobell told them something along the lines of “I was entitled to see those documents, so there is no story.” They took Dobell’s word over the hard and fixed legalities of Judge Dohm’s order, which completely and directly shredded Dobell’s statement.
By and large, that’s the media in BC. And why do I care?
Because the truth suffers.
That little anecdote, which is just one of many, serves to illustrate how badly British Columbians are served by those who hold the power of deciding what’s news in BC.
In England, Parliamentary committee members were shocked to hear how often Murdoch and his chief aides met or spoke with the Prime Minister. Bill Good, Rick Cluff and others share personal relationships with BC Liberal premiers, Cabinet members and MLAs. They hang out. They golf together. They are personal friends.
There are many buddy/buddy relationships that get in the way of real reporting.
As we celebrate BC on this special day, ask yourself, why are we as a society putting up with the shameful actions of the main stream media in reporting in BC?
Here are a few highghts to get you to read the entire article
A few years ago I sat down in the offices of a reporter covering the BC Rail corruption trial. I handed him a stack of information contained in affidavits sworn by BC Liberal government lawyers and employees and released by the court, affidavits the reporter hadn’t reviewed and wasn’t going to review,
...
When I first reviewed the affidavits revealing the breach together with Dohm’s original order and the documents laying out the case for the order it became clear to me that Dobell’s ‘error’ was serious and could even be a criminal code violation.
The issue was this: In order to vet government documents required by the investigation but perhaps containing privileged government information five people were given the right to see the documents
...
The reporter, over the course of a couple of hours and then days considered the story. It was shared with editors, who shared it with their bosses. And the bosses killed it. Or that’s what the reporter told me.
They killed it because they called Dobell and Dobell told them something along the lines of “I was entitled to see those documents, so there is no story.” They took Dobell’s word over the hard and fixed legalities of Judge Dohm’s order, which completely and directly shredded Dobell’s statement.
By and large, that’s the media in BC. And why do I care?
Because the truth suffers.
That little anecdote, which is just one of many, serves to illustrate how badly British Columbians are served by those who hold the power of deciding what’s news in BC.
In England, Parliamentary committee members were shocked to hear how often Murdoch and his chief aides met or spoke with the Prime Minister. Bill Good, Rick Cluff and others share personal relationships with BC Liberal premiers, Cabinet members and MLAs. They hang out. They golf together. They are personal friends.
There are many buddy/buddy relationships that get in the way of real reporting.
As we celebrate BC on this special day, ask yourself, why are we as a society putting up with the shameful actions of the main stream media in reporting in BC?
No comments:
Post a Comment