How The Globe Let Us Down

NoLongerEmpire
MailVille

I've been bashing the Globe and Mail up the side of the head because of it's pathetic 'BC Sporting Life' section for sometime now.

But now Richard Warnica from the UBC JSchool site (who we also ridiculed, albeit briefly, for taking the weekend off at the precise time of the municipal election in November) has really got the goods on how, and apparently why, the Globe keeps letting us down (long ago and far away example: remember that infamous push-the-dippers-off-the-cliff-poll right before the Provincial Election last May?).

Anyway, this time around Mr. Warnica has done an excellent job of nailing Globe bureau chief Rod Micklburgh down on the James Green issue:

Over at the Globe and Mail, BC bureau chief Rod Mickleburgh thought James Green would be a factor as soon as he saw the municipal ballot. “When you looked at that list, you could tell people were going to vote for James, not Jim Green,” he said.

The Globe didn't get to the James Green story until the day before the election, but Mickleburgh made no apologies. He pointed out that with only three or four reporters and, at most, two or three pages a day to work with, the Globe just doesn't have the resources to cover every story.

So, let me get this straight....... Mickleburgh himself is saying that he knew that this bit of chicanery was going to be a big, possibly even a deciding, factor in a watershed election that has huge implications for how this city is going to be run at a crucial time in it's history and he still could do nothing about it?

From my perspective, that is pathetic even if it were to come with a boatload full of mea culpas.

Don't get me wrong, I think Mickleburgh himself is one of the sharpest scribes in these here parts. By way of example it was he, and only he, amongst the mainstream journos, that gave us the real story on Mr. Campbell's phony 'Teachers-As-Wedge-Issue' way back when.

But clearly something, or somebody, is hamstringing the bureau chief.

Because, hell, even two pages and two real reporters (which Mickleburgh has) could be a thousand times more effective than the craptacular output of the entire Pacific Press Pablum Factory combined if only his Rodness could convince fast Eddie G. to dump the lowest common denominator/Gary Mason Puffmasterflash Pieces and really put his team to work on hard news all the time.

But, then again, if that were to happen how could we, the new dumb, possibly keep up with the comings and goings of those real Left Coast movers and shakers like Daniel Igali or, perhaps even more importantly, the latest in fashion from Carole Taylor?

After all, if people were really told what was going on 'round here they might start doing crazy stuff like, I dunno, their damndest to get vote out in the face of an onslaught of corporate-assisted hackflackery disguised as populism.

And that would be insane.

As in, like, totally.


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Exhibit #2: No Mallick this morning, at least not the Mallick that counts. Is Fast Eddie G. waiting to see which way the wind blows on Jan 23?
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