Never, in the first 28 years of the Toronto Sun, was it a firing offence to write about newsroom changes and troop movements, or to speak to other media about Sun affairs.
Founding publisher Doug Creighton clearly practiced what he preached in saying the Sun had no secrets, it was an "open book."
Employees treasured that freedom of speech and readers enjoyed reading about the inner workings of their favourite newspaper.
Doug's "open book" policy has been slammed shut by Quebecor.
Quebecor's ownership of Sun Media has created a small army of Deep Throat tipsters at the Suns in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton.
Threatening to fire employees who provide this blog with newspaper troop movements is beyond belief. The fear is real - and all too incredulous for Sun vets to absorb.
How can journalists work in that environment?
Why would they want to work in that environment?
Founding publisher Doug Creighton clearly practiced what he preached in saying the Sun had no secrets, it was an "open book."
Employees treasured that freedom of speech and readers enjoyed reading about the inner workings of their favourite newspaper.
Doug's "open book" policy has been slammed shut by Quebecor.
Quebecor's ownership of Sun Media has created a small army of Deep Throat tipsters at the Suns in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton.
Threatening to fire employees who provide this blog with newspaper troop movements is beyond belief. The fear is real - and all too incredulous for Sun vets to absorb.
How can journalists work in that environment?
Why would they want to work in that environment?
As a former Day Oner in Ottawa, I came in at the tail end of the Doug Creighton era. But I know what the Suns -- all of them -- were meant to be and what they have become under the "leadership" of Quebecor, the Peladeaus pater et fils and the tools they have hired to run the Little Papers That Could into the ground. I also fear what will happen when the CanWest rags -- minus CP copy -- become the only voice in soon-to-be one-newspaper towns. The only hope is that Canadians in the Sun cities rally to save their papers from Peladeau's scorched earth policy. And they will only know this if the Sun staffers tell them. Keep posting here. Don't fear the reaper.Keep linking TSF to other sites. Those papers with unions should be asking their leadership to make the looting and pillaging of the Suns a national story.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah! Darcy Henton has left the Edm Sun where he was the Legislature reporter and gone over to the Journal. So sad to see another veteran hit the road. Darcy, formerly of the Toronto Star and Calgary (pre-strike) Herald, was a digger and will be hard to replace. Sigh
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately Darcy will not be hard to replace. And I say that with no disrepsect whatsoever for one of the best Canadian journalists still working today. The fact is Darcy has been left twisting in the Legilstive winds since last year's cutbacks began, submitting little more than a 35 line story each weekday. The only times he wasn't hobbled by a lack of editorial space in the newspaper was during the provincial election. Many of us here are sad to see him go. The Journal did well by guessing Darcy was likely unhappy, and boldly snapped him up while he was still a Sun employee.
ReplyDeleteDarcy deserves that kind of respect. Good for the Journal, and good for him.