Thursday 8 January 2009

Hear, hear

Dale Bass at Kamloops This Week in B.C. has her say about the gutting of Canadian newspapers and the centralization of media to the detriment of local news coverage.

The former London Free Press veteran, with Kamloops This Week since 200o, talks about major cutbacks at Sun Media and Canwest and how another newspaper friend at the Free Press is now unemployed.

It is a recommended read. Her comments include:

"Another journalist, while discussing the gutting our industry is now enduring, jokingly suggested we should also demand a bailout from the federal government, because our jobs are also essential.

"Perhaps not as vital as the automotive sector, with the myriad spinoff jobs and companies each car creates, but there is an argument to be made for maintaining the viability - and value - of a non-centralized media.

"After all, we’re not building widgets for sale; when we do our jobs right, we’re an essential cog in the way democracy exists.

"We’re keeping politicians and bureaucrats accountable.

"We’re asking the questions you might want to ask.

"When you call us up to tell us about a problem in your neighbourhood, I think it’s a good thing that we know where that area is, that we've driven through it - that we’re in the same city it is in.

"Somehow, centralizing things like production, management or - and it could happen - covering the local news for several communities in one spot just doesn't seem to belong in a democracy.

"It’s the kind of media one would expect from a dictatorship or perhaps a Third World country."

Good points, Dale.

cc PKP

1 comment: