12 replies to this topic

[Nparker]

This is one of the best letters to the editor I have seen in the TC recently.

Problem after problem with no idea what to do

 

We turned health care over to the accountants because it was about money, not doctors. Now, one million B.C. residents don’t have a family doctor.

 

We closed mental institutions because it was about community support, not mental illness. Now, 29,000 are homeless in B.C.

 

We defunded the police because it was about compassion, not law enforcement. Now, Victoria is rated by Statistics Canada in 2020 as having the highest crime severity in the province, fourth overall in Canada.

 

We released repeat offenders because it was about addiction, not crime. Now, the mayors of Abbotsford, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Kamloops, Kelowna, Nanaimo, New Westminster, Prince George, Richmond, Saanich, Surrey, Vancouver and Victoria have written to the attorney general about doing something about catch-and-release policing.

 

We are decriminalizing small amounts of fentanyl because it is about health issues, not dirty drugs. After 8,800 deaths since 2016 due to overdoses in B.C., how does one imagine this approach will work?

 

Trying to solve a problem by creating another, possibly even larger problem is not a solution. If you don’t know what to do, say so. If you don’t know where to go, stand aside and let someone else try.

 

Gerald Backeland

Sidney

https://www.timescol...hinking-5459653

 

 

[pontcanna]

Langford, Victoria coverage has fallen short

• Times Colonist
• 18 Oct 2022
•  

In the Times Colonist’s coverage of Victoria politics, the overall tone is often quite critical and negative, with a lot of focus on perceived dysfunction and controversies (which often aren’t real controversies).

 

Meanwhile, coverage of Langford has typically been quite uncritical, often cheerleading all the exciting new things that are being done there.

 

You would think that if these narratives were true, then Victoria voters would have rejected the status quo and voted for change, while Langford voters would have happily re-elected their incumbent mayor and councillors.

 

In fact, the opposite happened. In Victoria, Marianne Alto, a close council ally of Lisa Helps, was easily elected with 56 per cent of the vote versus 36 per cent for Stephen Andrew, who ran a campaign focused on change. Similarly, the five council candidates endorsed by Lisa Helps finished in the top five spots in the election. Meanwhile in Langford, Stew Young and his Community First slate all went down to defeat.

 

Perhaps the majority of Victoria residents are happier than you think with the way the city has been run for the past eight years, despite a very vocal minority of critics. And perhaps not everything has been quite as rosy in Young’s Langford than what your cheerleading coverage has implied.

 

Steven Murray, Victoria

 

Link: https://digitaltimes...281663963925818

 

 

[Nparker]

There is nothing imagined about the dysfunction and mayhem in the CoV. I see it every time I step outside my door.

[Victoria Watcher]

Jack Knox:

 

 

 

The TC was still a fun place to work. I had a boss who, after a tough day, would kick another dent into my already-dented pick-up truck. We had a switchboard operator who twice lit her purse on fire while trying to sneak a smoke. Once, in the wee hours of the morning, the night crew gathered in the parking lot to watch two guys settle a you’re-fatter-than-I-am argument with a foot race.

 

I spent my first seven years working nights, which is when a lot of the weird stuff happened. On one occasion, all alone in the newsroom at 1 a.m., I looked up to find a man whose coat was festooned in school track-meet ribbons. He had popped by, he said, to divulge the seven top-secret secrets of the world, one of which was that Britain and the Soviet Union had engaged in a nuclear-weapon-testing competition that had knocked the Earth off its axis so badly that ships could no longer navigate by the stars. “I think what you have is more of a visual story,” I told him. “CHEK television is right next door.” Sorry, CHEK.

 

One day, just for fun, I wrote an (attempted) humour column, which eventually morphed into a full-time job. That was more than 4,000 columns ago — way too many for one particularly distraught reader who would periodically send letters imploring me to please, please, please stop writing. I haven’t heard from him in a while, but hope he will be comforted to learn that he’ll no longer have to endure me that often. It’s time to scale back. This is my last regularly scheduled column, though you’ll still hear from me when the spirit moves me.

 

https://www.timescol...matters-6796426

 

 

 

 

 

As they post the story with a 4-year-old photo.  Not possible to get an up-to-date photo, of your own worker, in your own office?

 

 

 

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 April 2023 - 04:54 AM.

[lanforod]

Eh. It’s a good photo. Maybe like Horgan, he looks like crap now?

[Victoria Watcher]

Probably doesn’t change the story much. But shows a bit of a lack of effort.

[Mike K.]

I saw Mr. Knox recently. He looks great for a guy his age.

[Victoria Watcher]

He started at the TC in 1988 and was a reporter elsewhere in the province prior to that. So he’s at least at early retirement age. Although I’m not sure if you must retire from writing. A few other TC guys went long, like Jim Hume.

Hume, who died in 2022:


His writing appeared in this newspaper for more than 65 years, up until 2014. He later started posting essays and columns on his website (jimhume.ca) as The Old Islander.

He continued his insightful, historically grounded observations on the passing scene until April 1. His last column was a sober warning about the potential after-effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.


https://www.timescol...s-at-98-5261807

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 April 2023 - 09:23 AM.

[todd]

I have two pay print subscriptions currently: Times Colonist and MAD Magazine.

[Nparker]

I have two pay print subscriptions currently: Times Colonist and MAD Magazine.

One is an absurd take on the world around us and the other is MAD Magazine.

[todd]

One is an absurd take on the world around us and the other is MAD Magazine.

“..day at the Times Colonist, I was toured around the building by an editor who cheerfully pointed out places where people had had sex. The cot in the first aid room made sense, but the stairwell just looked painful.

As it turned…”

https://youtu.be/qjlDDZkGONs

[AllseeingEye]

JK had a nice career; he's not wrong IMO about real reporters doing the legwork and editors reviewing their work.

 

That said I always felt like Knox tried too hard to "be" humorous. He did come up with a few nuggets in particular with reference to the fractured nature of this area, i.e. Dysfunction by the Sea and its close cousin Balkans by the Sea, but to me Dave Barry of the Miami Herald was and will remain the gold standard for journalistic humor now and for the foreseeable future.

 

Barry, who wrote for that paper from 1983-2005, won just about every conceivable journalism award one can in the profession, including a Pultizer Prize for Commentary and a Walter Cronkite award for journalistic excellence. He never ever had to "try" to be side-splittingly funny, he just was. He penned classic pieces on being present for the birth of his son, another gem called the Golden Minutes of Family skiing and perhaps his most well known classic, 2008's "A Journey into my Colon".

 

JK on his very best day never came close to achieving those levels of wit, humour and just damn funny s***. Regardless sticking it out for 4000 columns and lasting this long in the world of digital and streaming media is no mean feat so congrats to him for that.

Edited by AllseeingEye, 02 April 2023 - 07:55 PM.

[UDeMan]

I got this email from Times Colonist.  I think this bill C-18 was not thought out well.

 

 

Dear readers,

Soon, this newsletter and our website may be one of the few ways you can find stories about our community.

That’s because of the federal government’s Online News Act, also known as Bill C-18, which was approved in Ottawa last week. As a result, Canadian journalism and your access to news are under threat due to the reaction from tech giants.

The Online News Act will essentially force companies like Google and Facebook to pay Canadian media companies copyright fees when their content appears on their platforms, regardless of who is sharing it.

Meta, the parent company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has said they will block all Canadian news stories published by Canadian outlets, like ours, from your feeds.

Now, Google is promising to do the same.

Undoubtedly, this will have a huge impact not solely on news, but, more importantly, on people like yourself who may rely on these platforms to discover what’s happening in your community and to get context to events happening in your own backyard.

So, what’s next?

As a newsletter subscriber, you’ll continue to get the day’s top local news for free in your inbox. If you follow us on Facebook or search for local news on Google, we ask that you consider bookmarking our site as your homepage.

We do, however, have a favour to ask:

Forward this newsletter to everyone you think values local news. Your family. Your friends. Your neighbours. Encourage them to sign up for our free newsletter so that they will continue receiving their local news and stay informed.

With your help, more people will be able to get their local news from a trusted source. In today’s age of misinformation, that’s more important than ever.

Thank you. We appreciate you.

Sincerely,

The Times Colonist Team

Edited by UDeMan, 29 June 2023 - 03:56 PM.