This time we have journalism, civic politics, and a rare ongoing side-trip into, well, sex.
Journalism Here in Vancouver · We’re into the fourth week of a civic-workers strike. The garbage isn’t getting picked up, a lot of kids’ summer day-camps are closed (real hardship for single parents), and it’s generally nasty. All the suburban municipalities have settled. The city workers I know all say they want a deal about like the burb workers got; but the union and management mostly aren’t talking. Why not?
Unfortunately, the local newspaper is giving us exactly zero drill-down or depth of coverage on the story. Fortunately, an excellent local online publication, the Tyee, does some actual journalism. I’m still puzzled. The city says they offered the union a deal like the burbs got. The union flatly denies it. Somebody’s lying. Each side accuses the other, darkly, of a hidden political agenda. The citizens, I bet, would be largely unsurprised if either set of accusations turned out to be true.
Maybe the Tyee doesn’t have the reach to embarrass them on this, but the local broadsheet ought to have dug this up, and ought to be running the “Who’s Lying!?!?” story on the front page every day until someone comes clean.
Shame on you, Vancouver Sun.
Journalism and Competence · While we’re dissing the mainstream... at Brad DeLong’s site, an excellent proposal, which I fully support: The Baseball Test for Journalists.
Did I Mention Sex? · Well, actually, I didn’t. But my brother Rob has an entry on the subject, unimaginatively entitled XXX. I recommend it.
Comment feed for ongoing:
From: J. King (Aug 17 2007, at 22:21)
Tim, you shouldn't really be surprised that the Sun isn't doing a stellar job, I suspect. I don't know if the Vancouver Sun is anything like that which we have here in good ol' Toronto, but if it is... Well, let's just say that one comedy skit that has stuck we me over the years goes something like this:
(a man is sitting on a bench reading a newspaper; a second man joins him)
Man 2: "Ah, you're reading the paper?"
Man 1: "No, I'm reading the Sun."
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From: Austin (Aug 20 2007, at 09:36)
If the Vancouver Sun is anything like the Toronto Scum, and I suspect it is, you can only expect two good things out of it, for some value of good: the Sunshine Girl and hockey coverage.
Other than that, it's not fit for wrapping fish.
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From: Andrew Hobson (Aug 20 2007, at 18:58)
Baseball reporters are no more familiar with their assigned field than other reporters.
Please read firejoemorgan.com for detailed (and frequently hilarious) examples.
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From: Ryan Cousineau (Aug 21 2007, at 02:10)
Before this goes any further, it should be said the Vancouver Sun has no relation -- certainly in tone, and I don't think corporately, to the Sun papers in the rest of the country.
Whatever its vices, the Vancouver Sun is a high-toned broadsheet, clearly aspiring to be the local-news version of the Globe & Mail or National Post.
In other words, no Sunshine Girls.
As for actual lying about the state of negotiations, that's just bizarre. I suspect the offer differed in some minor ways from similar suburban deals, thus leaving both sides the opening to be right (and wrong).
In my opinion, the union's original offer (basically, that the deal expire right before the Olympics started) was pure naughty bluff, but opening offers should be that way. I don't know how things have regressed from there.
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From: walter (Aug 24 2007, at 23:33)
I stopped subscribing or reading the Vancouver Sun a few years back: When Asper The Younger decided that he as was a Newspaper man. What he did was fire Russ Mills the publisher of the Ottawa Citizen, fire Gordon Gibson and other un-newspaper things -
http://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/sfu_news/regular_features/comment07110201.shtml
- from that day on i have read only the Globe and Mail and the Tyee. The Vancouver Sun is no better than a village broadsheet. The few times i have glanced through it, all I could see was what an useless waste of paper it had become. It should be put out of its misery. I have read more interesting news analysis in the Tyee and all of places in the Georgia Straight. And even the national paper, G&M, offers more meaty coverage of BC happenings than the Sun can ever hope to offer. I love reminding the Vancouver Sun subscription service when they phone asking if i wish to subscribe that I will never forget about Russ Mills, Gordon Gibson, and that the VC will never be allowed in my house as long as it;s run by non-newspaper types. So I am not in the least bit surprised that it has failed the citizens of Vancouver yet again by not digging into the latest strike stances, of the two sides. It is one more example of it's "journalistic" failure. But in keeping with its legacy ...
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