Five years ago tomorrow, legendary Toronto Sun columnist Robert "Bob" MacDonald lost his 14-year battle with prostate cancer.A fighter to the end, Bob was on the job for all but a short time before his death at age 76.
He was an award-winning, 55-year newspaper vet, a respected mentor to many, an AA advocate who never forgot his troubled roots, a loving father and a friend to many from all walks of life.
And he was an anchor in the Toronto Sun newsroom from Day One in November of 1971.
As Peter Worthington, a Sun co-founder, said in a Sun tribute: "If there's any individual who has had a presence throughout the Sun's history, it's been Bob. I miss the idea of him tremendously."
We'll be toasting Robert William MacDonald with a glass of orange juice tomorrow and thinking about his generation of newspaper men and women that made a huge difference as journalists and mentors.
These print media giants worked their magic in newsrooms for decades at the Telegram/Sun, Star and Globe and Mail and should never be forgotten.
Thank you Bob et al.
http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2995884
ReplyDeleteTo Our Readers, I'm Sorry
By JOHN CHAMBERS
Updated 5 hours ago
We goofed...twice.
I would like to be able to sit here and tell you that it has never happened before and it will never happen again. I can't.
Mistakes happen, sometimes even outright carelessness happens, as was the case this week...twice.
Based on the number of phone calls and emails received this week, a good number of you saw that on Thursday we ran the exact same Comment page that we ran on Tuesday. Adding insult to injury, on Friday we had the exact same letters to the editor we had on Thursday.
We have heard from our readers that this is unacceptable. It is unacceptable to the people who work at the Expositor too.
For more than 155 years the Expositor has served the residents of Brantford and Brant County, and through the last century and a half, the staff have worked hard to bring you the best product possible with all of the news, sports, entertainment and features you want, you need, you expect. This week we failed you. Rather, as the managing editor of the Expositor I failed you.
It would be unfair to paint each and every Expositor employee with the same tarnished brush this week. The Expositor staff is among the best, the brightest, the most dedicated, and hardest working staff in the business.
Whether it is the Expositor's clerical and admin staff (who have taken more than there fair share of calls this week), or the advertising staff who work hard to serve the needs of our advertisers, to the circulation and distribution folks who are up in the wee hours everyday to make sure you get your copy of the Expositor bright and early, and of course the dedicated team of editorial staff who work day in and day out to uncover the stories that matter to you.
These staff care about their work, they care about the Expositor, and they care about you, our readers.
Unfortunately this week, things fell through the cracks, went unchecked, got missed, and every possible combination of bad luck and Murphy's Law came into play.
Mistakes will happen again, but I hope each one of our readers will take some measure of comfort knowing we recognize our weaknesses and mistakes, and we are working to address them.
Simply put, I'm sorry. To our readers, our advertisers, and to all of our staff who work hard everyday, I apologize for this week's egregious errors. It IS unacceptable.
-John Chambers