Monday 18 February 2008

Good news day

It was a good news only day for the Calgary Sun today.

Nothing but positive news from front to back for Family Day in Alberta. The front page story was about a man being reunited with his lost dog.

The only violence reported was an NHL hockey brawl.

"Please rest assured that we are not cutting any corners by omitting news that is important to you," the tabloid told its readers. "That is something we would never do.

"We just figured that one day of the year, if all the puzzle pieces fell into place, we could do this."

Calgary's good news day takes us back to the early 1970s when the Richmond Review in B.C. published a good-news-only edition.

Michael "Mickey" Carlton, the managing editor, was ticked off about something before announcing to his staff the next edition would be all good news.

The "pink edition," in name and appearance, included a photo of a cow with its udders censored. All of the news stories were about "nice" things happening in the community.

All syrup, no sass.

Once the Review's pink edition was out of the way, it was back to cops, robbers and girlie photos and Mickey's hard-hitting Tattler gossip column.

Our pink edition received a lot of media coverage and is talked about occasionally almost four decades later.

United Press International has picked up the Calgary Sun's good news day, which is not shabby news exposure.

Tomorrow, it will be back to murder, mayhem and world conflicts.

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