Jeff Craig, a former Ottawa/Toronto/Edmonton newsroom employee now working in Hollywood, comments on current affairs at the Edmonton Sun in an e-mail to TSF:
"I'm a former start-up desker from Ottawa, the former entertainment editor and columnist from Edmonton, and I spent a week in between (as a favor and for fun during my journey west) as Linda Leatherdale's copy editor in Toronto.
"I am almost without words as to what has happened now.
"(Peter) Worthington is so right on when the fatal shot was fired; who could have seen it being able to get worse and worse?
"And while he doesn't need defence, Graham Dalziel deserves it. Nothing about that cat, other than him flipping a line gauge as a substitute for cigarettes, was overt: but don't mistake that for him not caring about the newsroom. He really did work behind the scenes as one of the greatest allies the Edmonton Sun newsroom ever had. Paul Stanway, too.
"We know about the casualties - but few of us know what Paul and Graham did in years past to stem the bleeding even more.
"Rather sad to see some people dissing him (Dalziel).
"I left for many reasons, just as I left Canada. But it was the Quebecor-mandated slaughter of the newsroom and editorial product - including the Weekend entertainment pullout, which was one of the best accomplishments under my watch, thanks in such large part to my entertainment staff, which is now entirely gone - that made me throw in the towel.
"I am still bewildered that the media outlet (Canoe included) that had absolutely the best entertainment coverage in the world pissed it away from an office in Montreal (and) didn't do everything in its power to hold on to John Sakamoto.
"Quebecor is a vampirish company with a history of nothing but failure and acquiring outside good companies to keep it afloat. If, finally, the Suns start losing serious money because there's no content, maybe they'll again be up for sale.
"Then let's go through this blog and grab everybody we can and enlist John Paton, Rob Paynter, Linda Leatherdale, Rick Van Sickle, Graham Dalziel, Paul Stanway, Les Pyette and, well, the list goes on . . . and buy at least one of the papers and Canoe back.
"I'd come back from Hollywood for that.
Jeff Craig"
"I'm a former start-up desker from Ottawa, the former entertainment editor and columnist from Edmonton, and I spent a week in between (as a favor and for fun during my journey west) as Linda Leatherdale's copy editor in Toronto.
"I am almost without words as to what has happened now.
"(Peter) Worthington is so right on when the fatal shot was fired; who could have seen it being able to get worse and worse?
"And while he doesn't need defence, Graham Dalziel deserves it. Nothing about that cat, other than him flipping a line gauge as a substitute for cigarettes, was overt: but don't mistake that for him not caring about the newsroom. He really did work behind the scenes as one of the greatest allies the Edmonton Sun newsroom ever had. Paul Stanway, too.
"We know about the casualties - but few of us know what Paul and Graham did in years past to stem the bleeding even more.
"Rather sad to see some people dissing him (Dalziel).
"I left for many reasons, just as I left Canada. But it was the Quebecor-mandated slaughter of the newsroom and editorial product - including the Weekend entertainment pullout, which was one of the best accomplishments under my watch, thanks in such large part to my entertainment staff, which is now entirely gone - that made me throw in the towel.
"I am still bewildered that the media outlet (Canoe included) that had absolutely the best entertainment coverage in the world pissed it away from an office in Montreal (and) didn't do everything in its power to hold on to John Sakamoto.
"Quebecor is a vampirish company with a history of nothing but failure and acquiring outside good companies to keep it afloat. If, finally, the Suns start losing serious money because there's no content, maybe they'll again be up for sale.
"Then let's go through this blog and grab everybody we can and enlist John Paton, Rob Paynter, Linda Leatherdale, Rick Van Sickle, Graham Dalziel, Paul Stanway, Les Pyette and, well, the list goes on . . . and buy at least one of the papers and Canoe back.
"I'd come back from Hollywood for that.
Jeff Craig"
Thank you for your e-mail, Jeff.
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