Sunday, September 19, 2010

Did Jeff Lee Just Circle Lotusland's CorpMedia Wagons?

AllTheFauxBlameThatFits
AgendalessReporterVille


______

Double-Secret Probation Update, 12:00 Midnight....Mr. Lee has responded in the comments (scroll down)....He takes issue with Mr. Reid's analysis and has some other informative things to say....I have a follow-up post where you can read Mr. Lee's comment in full with both the background and my initial response, here.

Please See....Update, 6:00pm
at the bottom of the post regarding a comment left by someone who, it would appear, may be Mr. Lee...The commenter does not agree with at least one tenet of the post...
______



Jeff Lee has Frances Bula's old civic affairs beat at the Vancouver Sun.

And, while I may be wrong, it is my impression that Mr. Lee views himself as a hard-as-nails, no-nonsense cynic that won't take crap from anybody.

Especially propaganda prop-crap.

Thus, I found it interesting that Mr. Lee took a break from his holidays to crap on just about everybody 'round town that is making more noise (and getting more attention?) in the proCorpMedia than he is these days.

As you might expect, Mr. Lee's toilet-bowl targets were, wait for it......

....Bloggers:

".....I have tried to keep myself occupied finishing a needed workshop, ignoring for the most part the phone calls and emails that would otherwise disrupt a project that has been delayed far too long. But I haven't been able to completely tune out and have been astonished at the stuff welling up around Cambie and Twelfth.

Hmm. We have Alex Tsakumis, the wild card, with his breathless attacks on Vision Vancouver, Mayor Gregor Robertson and civicscene.ca blogger Jonathan Ross (and frankly, anyone who seems to disagree with him.)

We have Mike Klassen over at citycaucus.com, a regular NPA attack machine, chiming in and then taking a serious run at Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason when he suggests the civic blogging world has become tainted with "juvenile attacks." Citycaucus may break great stories, but you can't miss the political sideswiping that constantly takes place.

We have Global TV giving credibility to Tsakumis' blog post about civicscene.ca being a mouthpiece for Vision Vancouver through communications company FD Element, but hanging the story on a single unidentified source who frankly, anyone over at FD Element would know anyway. The only people who don't know the source's name? The public.

Ross, punctured and wounded, attacks the mainstream media, suggesting they don't follow original ideas anymore. Meanwhile, MSM is predictably badmouthed by respondents to most of the blogs, who seem to suggest that level-headed and responsible journalism is somehow akin to a dinosaur awaiting the asteroid strike.

Oh, were we to wish that those out in the wild and woolly blogosphere were willing to hold fire long enough to make sure a story is correct, balanced and fair....."



Now.

That last bit is most interesting to me.

Why?

Because those who have been paying attention have themselves been wondering lately just where Mr. Lee himself gets some of his stuff.

One of those folks is former Civic Pol Ian Reid, who recently mused on the interesting 'timing' of posts by Prop-Blogger Mike Klassen and the take-no-crap-from-anybody Mr. Lee.

The following is from a piece by Mr. Reid in the Vancouver Observer from a few weeks ago:

"If you're wondering where a certain reporter is getting the "scoop" on civic affairs, look no further than NPA blogger Mike Klassen, the blogger behind the paranoid CityCaucus blog. Yesterday the Vancouver Sun's Jeff Lee posted a story about a leaked memo to City Manager Penny Ballem that said that city staff were "politicized, worn down by aggressive council agenda." This memo originally appeared on Klassen's site just a day earlier. It's not the first time that Lee and Klassen appear to have been managing the same information...."

****


Look.

I'm not certain about the Lee-Klassen thing, so I won't make like either Ken Kesey or Neal Cassady (or Woody Harrelson?) and go any further with it.

But to Mr. Lee's point that it is all the bloggers "fault", be they 'Prop-Bloggers-For-Hire' or the Real Amateurs who are up front about their point of view and/or their agenda, I would argue that it is not.

Their "fault" I mean.

Instead, and I'm very serious about this, it is my considered opinion that the real fault lies at the feet of folks in the MSM/proCorpMedia that Wurlitzer's any and all Prop-Crap without first determining if it is, as Mr. Lee said above, "correct, balanced and fair".

And if you think I'm full of crap myself, all you have to do is remember one word.

And that word is....

"Snowmaggedon."

OK?


______
Finally, it is also interesting to me, because, I think it perhaps illustrates something else about how Mr. Lee works, that the man from the VSun also took a swipe at Frances Bula for wading into things herself. Why do I point that out? Well, to my mind Ms. Bula is the only person with MSM bonafides in this town who has actually called-out Mess'rs Klassen and Fontaine, by making it clear what they are really up to with their so-called 'blog'.
Oh..And for those waiting...RailGateTimeline Finale is coming tomorrow....promise.
Update: A commenter named 'Jeff'' has made an interesting contribution to the discussion here. I'm awaiting response by Email in an attempt to confirm if this is the real Mr. Lee (will let you know).


.

9 comments:

Grant G said...

Well well well....Mr. Ross K....

I AM actually wearing pants while I make this comment.....

Jeff lee/AGT/Klassen/Jonathon Ross etc etc.....

I have never seen so much "Childish mud slinging" in all my life...From all sides, he said she said...

Both the NPA and Vision are political, both wasted taxpayer money on attacks, both parties are involved with the un-inhabitable city hall....Both party`s signed leases, both parties are hacks, Klassen, Alex G Tsakumis,Jonathon Ross, Jeff Lee....

The whole works of them are acting like bad children, no smoking guns, no issues of any importance to the people of Vancouver, just petty politics of the worst kind...

Let them talk about the $$$hundred million dollar plus loss Vancouver will take on the athletes village, let them talk about lowering taxes, let them talk about policing/fire/services...Let them do their job...

But no, AGT yaps about personal petty junk, these people are children not writers....

The whole Province is going to hell in a hand basket and AGT/Klassen/Lee and others are throwing mud pies at each other, cheap/petty/National inquirer type crap...

While you Ross K..Farrell...Laila..even myself on occasion expose the rats to the light of day, bolckbuster,fact filled, smoking gun stories that affect democracy, human rights, pure crime and cronyism....

Yet the AGT`s and Klassen`s are worried about hanging soiled dirty underwear on their blogs...

I will not lower myself to their low brow kindergarten level of gossip!

Anonymous said...

And yet AGT and Klassen have their investigative stuff later reported upon in the Vancouver Sun and also reported on Global BC. They have even both appeared on Global BC on seceral occasions.

No other blogger can claim such achievements - Not Grant, Ross K, Farrell, Laila or anyone else.

Anonymous said...

Ross, I think you're leaping to some ill-founded conclusions.
Firstly, I haven't bothered to respond to Ian Reid's post because I consider the source considerably tainted. He is, after all, a political operative and former chief of staff for a provincial political leader. That's enough of a reason to question anything he writes.
But in the main, he is wrong anyway. I've no association with ANY of the bloggers, although I am willing to develop a story - using time-honoured journalistic principles - that any of the bloggers break. There is some good work being done out there.
I find it amusing that I am attracting such attention mere weeks and months since I returned to the beat.
By the way, I may have Frances' old civic affairs beat, but if you look back far enough, you will find she actually took it over from me when I left in 1997 or so. Merry-go-round.
My point about the political blogging going on at City Hall right now is that much of it is being done without regard to the principles of journalism. It's a case of find something nasty, throw it at the wall and see if it sticks. And in not an infrequent number of cases, the information is being given a severe twist or torque. Shaping the news like that to fit a political point of view is dangerous and, to my mind, irresponsible.
The fact I'm being shot at from all sides just makes my point.
Lastly, why don't you really identify yourself. Using a pseudonym doesn't really cut it.
I always post under my own name. I have no reason not to. Why don't you do the same? Your comments would find more validity.
Cheers,
Jeff Lee

RossK said...

Thanks Grant.

_____
Anon-Above

Which is, precisely, my point.

Thanks for getting to heart of the matter.

For certain folks 'round here it's all about getting wurlitzered.

Which, if that's all they really care about, means that prop is their game.

____

And thanks to you, also, Mr. Lee.

I'll write a follow-up after I've confirmed you are the real Jeff.

And if you have concerns that I am a political operative, feel free to contact either Kim Bolan and/or Ms. Bula regarding my previous activities and whether I'm willing to self-correct based on facts, not prop.

As to the online moniker, well....Again, getting myself into the wurlitzer's maw is not my intent....However, there are people I work with that could get pulled into it by association....And I'm not talking about my local pol-blogging....Instead, I'm talking about my criticisms of national health and technology policy.

.

Grant G said...

Well anon...You aren`t too well informed, Farrell/Laila/ have been on the air, many times, that goes for me as well....

Let me be perfectly clear, Campbell/CKNW/CTV are scared of me and the bloggers, in fact Gordon Campbell asked CKNW to keep me off the air!
Tiger Wood stories gather millions of readers, is it news? No...But people flock to it...

The only reason Global or CTV put AGT or Klassen on air is because......

The BC Liberals/and the junior Liberals(NPA)....Own the media and are attempting to control who is,or isn`t in power...

How would the media explain to the public that we don`t own BC Ferries, or tell Vancouverites that the NPA athletes village deal will cost them $300 million tax dollars...
Or how does the media explain that on behalf of the province, Campbell inked longterm deals to pay $160 dollar per megawatt hour to his IPP party donaters when the spot market is $30 dollars(Billions in losses guaranteed)...
Big media has given Campbell a free pass.....

And I don`t care....As for who reads Ross K or the Straight Goods...

Well Palmer has sponged many a story from me, Smyth reads me, all of CKNW,all the politicians and the PAB....

My facts, my stories are reported days or weeks later in the media, by then watered down and nuetered..

Big joke media who have exonerated Kash Heed/John Les...

When I and other bloggers have nailed their balls to the wall with proof of guilt...

Canwest/The Vancouver sun/The Province/CKNW...They should bow their head in shame!

Anonymous said...

Ross,
I did not receive your email. Contact me directly at jefflee (at) vancouversun.com.

And yes, I am the real Jeff Lee. At least the one you are referring to.
Cheers,
(The real) Jeff Lee

RossK said...

Thanks Jeff.

Was called to pre-busking dinner.

E-Mail is on its way...

.

Anonymous said...

wow its great post..

Anonymous said...

Hello

Definitely gonna recommend this post to a few friends