Sunday, July 19, 2009

Did The Times-Colonist Actually Call For RailGate Heads To Roll?

PushingTheMainstreamEnvelope
VictoriaVille(notQuebec)



There was a bit of a buzz about the BloggoDome after Keith Baldrey's and Bill Good's tag-team tirade against all that we do on the (not-so)Giant'98 on Friday morning.

Which I kind of liked, if only because it was a clear indication that the Glimmer Twins are feeling the heat.

But here's the real question that needs to be asked.....

Have Lotuslandian bloggers actually had a real, tangible effect on the Mainstream pro-Media coverage of the RailGate scandal?

Well, that's debatable in terms of the most recent reportage, especially given the fact that the Email destruction saga was rapidly wurlitzered after it was first floated by Gary Mason in the Globe.*

However, I wasn't thinking so much about the reportage as the analysis.

And one print organ whose editor-in-chief was given a pretty rough ride by the RailGate division of the bloggodome awhile back really has come around in that regard.

I had noted it when I came back from hiatus recently, but to my mind Saturday's Victoria Times-Colonist editorial was stronger than ever.**

To wit:

....No one employed by the government could be unaware of the charges against Dave Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi. It is beyond belief to think that any senior government employee would not know better than to destroy evidence that could be needed in a major court case.

That is apparently what has happened, according to evidence presented to the court this week. To make matters worse, some e-mails were destroyed after the defence lawyers asked to see them.

The loss of these documents is a serious problem for the B.C. Liberal government, one that will plague Premier Gordon Campbell and his cabinet until the next election.

Campbell's only real choice, if he wants to restore his government's credibility, is to give British Columbians a full accounting of what went wrong and who was to blame. The people who ordered the records destroyed have no place in government.....


Outrage.

It's not just for the cultists on the blogs anymore.

Ha!


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*Although a number of us, myself included, have made the case against the constant drumbeat of limited (and sometimes not-so limited) hangouts over the years.
**For the record, my good friend Mary feels very differently about this because she truly believes that the time has come for the proMedia to make like Ken Kesey's bus and go further.


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