The Owen Sound Sun Times earns some kind of a free speech award for publishing an online letter to the editor that tears a royal strip off the Sun Media newspaper.
"If I were a food critic served a plate of The Sun Times my comment would be that the newspaper is most often bland and boring, not unlike lumpy lukewarm overcooked oatmeal," writes Susan George of Wiarton.
"Where has the passion gone in the newspaper industry?" she asks in her letter. "'In the day' journalists lived and breathed the next story and the editor hungrily published it.
"An exclusive story could be in Owen Sound's backyard and The Sun Times would not recognize it if they tripped over it," she says. "Reminds me of a small narrow minded businessperson who would bend over to pick up a quarter and miss the $50 bill.
"I have conducted a survey of my own, asking friends and acquaintances what they think of The Sun Times and the general consensus is that it is boring and uneventful."
Ouch.
And this is from a reader with newspaper people in her family.
"If I were a food critic served a plate of The Sun Times my comment would be that the newspaper is most often bland and boring, not unlike lumpy lukewarm overcooked oatmeal," writes Susan George of Wiarton.
"Where has the passion gone in the newspaper industry?" she asks in her letter. "'In the day' journalists lived and breathed the next story and the editor hungrily published it.
"An exclusive story could be in Owen Sound's backyard and The Sun Times would not recognize it if they tripped over it," she says. "Reminds me of a small narrow minded businessperson who would bend over to pick up a quarter and miss the $50 bill.
"I have conducted a survey of my own, asking friends and acquaintances what they think of The Sun Times and the general consensus is that it is boring and uneventful."
Ouch.
And this is from a reader with newspaper people in her family.
Where has the passion gone? Hmmm, my guess is it disappeared when we finally clued in (after repeated hints) that our employers didn't care what kinds of articles we wrote, as long as the paper made money and lots of it. It was also around the same time that we learned beyond a shadow of a doubt that the loyalty street in journalism only went one way - and it wasn't our way.
ReplyDeleteI know journalists used to live and breathe their jobs with a passion few of us, if any, would comprehend today. Many of them also used to cope with the job and its stresses by regularly boozing themselves into a stupor, but I digress. The world has changed, Ms. George, and idealism must be tempered by a healthy dose of what we like to call "reality." Go on, getcha some. And if you're reading this, you're certainly welcome to come and hang around our newsroom for a couple of weeks. Let's see how long you last before you start chewing your own leg off, trying to escape the steel-jawed trap.