BC Ferries: Spokesthingy Vs. Sources

ThereIsNo'W'In

StenographyVille

From one of the many bits of proMedia stenography that took BC Ferries' word for it, verbatim, on their latest 'incident':

BC Ferries cancelled eight sailings today on major routes between the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island due to the failure of an engine on the Queen of Oak Bay Thursday night.

One of the boat's main engines failed during the 5 p.m. sailing from Nanaimo to Vancouver's Horseshoe Bay. "The captain did muster the fire party," said BC Ferries spokeswoman, Deborah Marshall. "There was no fire, there was smoke coming from a clutch."...

From Chris Montgomery over at 'On The Waterfront' who did the opposite of stenography and went to real sources:

...As I said earlier, I was confused by repeated news reports today in which a BC Ferries spokeswoman was quoted as saying the Queen of Oak Bay wobbled in to Horseshoe Bay on one engine Thursday night with a “smoking clutch”.

I was confused because I’d got a call when the coast guard hovercraft was scrambled to the scene after the coast guard was contacted by the ferry — which was reporting a crankcase explosion.

I’m not sure what the clutch issue was all about, but here is what has actually been determined so far, according to sources who would know: It was the crankcase. The liner had a crack of some sort. Cylinder lubricant was washed away. The doors on the case blew. One piston in particular suffered damage....

Now.

And this is important.

The Spokesthingy and Ms. Montgomery both have track records.

And, to the best of my knowledge, only one has never let us down going all the way back to the Queen of the North sinking and beyond:

...In the days just following the (Queen of the North) ferry sinking, Chris Montgomery, a Province reporter who has long led the pack in maritime news, broke stories about the Queen of the North's delayed decommission date and the inaccurate passenger manifests. But after Montgomery co-wrote a story claiming an RCMP investigation into possible criminal negligence by B.C. Ferries was underway, Hahn publicly took issue with the claim that B.C. Ferries was itself the target of the investigation. An RCMP representative told The Tyee the difference of opinion between Montgomery and Hahn is one of "semantics," though a criminal investigation can not be formally announced until the TSB issues its report, possibly years away.

In the meantime, B.C. Ferries no longer returns Montgomery's phone calls....

OK?

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And in case you have doubts about there actually being a BC Ferries spin-driven stenography-development strategy, have a read of Andrew MacLeod's piece on the matter in The Tyee from a couple of years ago, here (especially the section sub-titled 'Proactive Communications'.

And one other thing....If you were to compare the comments to the stenography, here, and the comments to one of Ms. Montgomery's missives on this matter, here, you will see that there is no comparison there either.....But, of course, the defenders of the stenographers would like you to keep on thinking that the blogs are where the real feverswamps are.

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