By Pepper Parr
April 21st, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
Part 1 of a series
Media has always had a role to play in the way a public is informed.
Like any commercial sector, and media is a commercial sector, it has had it low points and its high points.
Media brought about the downfall of US President Richard Nixon when the Watergate story was told.
Media failed terribly, and to some degree is still failing, in the United States with the way it reported on and failed to report on Donald Trump.
Media has excelled with its reporting on the war in Ukraine and how different countries around the world have responded. That the South Africans have gone mute is more than disappointing.
The way in which media reported on the tragic death of Princess Diana and the response from the Royal Family changed the way the British public reacts to their monarchy – that institution is undergoing a tectonic level shift and may not exist at all a few decades from now.
The advent of the internet stripped away the revenue base of print media, many have just sold their presses and disappeared.
Online newspapers began to appear.
The Gazette came into being when a group was trying to establish a radio station for Burlington, not being fully aware of how complicated it is to get a license to broadcast over the public air waves.
I was asked to help with the writing of a business plan and convinced those involved that a radio license was not possible but there was an opportunity for an online newspaper.
At about that time, ten years ago, John Boich and Walter Mulkewich co-authored Shape Burlington which took serious exception at the way city hall handed out information and advocated for public support for a new newspaper.
Shape Burlington cracked the ice that was blocking so much information but it didn’t open the flood gates.
The Gazette grew organically – take that to mean slowly. We covered the building of the Pier and covered the attempt on the part of the owners of the Air Park who were secretly dumping tonnes of fill on land without the proper licenses with the intention of creating more runway.
It took several years of court cases, a libel suit against the Gazette and two citizens before the Air Park owners threw in the towel
Eventually the courts cases ended and the Air Park owners decided they had had enough and walked away from the libel suit as well.
The Gazette was the first online newspaper to be accepted as member of the Ontario Press Council – an organization that became the National Newsmedia Council
Media matters.
Fully understanding just what it is and how the different players are expected to play the game is a different story in Burlington.
The Gazette has worked with five different city managers. The relationship with three of the five worked well.
It was my practice to reach out to a new city manager, do an interview and help where I could as they settled into the city. Jeff Fielding was a dinner guest at my home; I took him to the top of Mt Nemo – he was amazed.
The other guy from the Region
James Ridge: Ten years in the Canadian Army in the Discipline side of the service where he attained the rank of Major were not the ideal background for a job that calls for collaboration and an ability to accept different points of view.
James Ridge was different. That first call to him in Vancouver went well enough; he talked about his dogs and the plans he had for he and his wife to drive across the country while their furniture followed in a moving van – for which the city paid. That is a common practice.
Before Ridge left Burlington he banned me from attending at City Hall on two occasions – one was a life time ban.
The reasons for the banning was set out in documents that I have yet to see. There is litigation. More on that at another time.
When Tim Commisso was hired, first as an interim City Manager and then hired as THE City Manager the relationship was iffy but reasonable.
Tim Commisso had years of experience on the administrative side of the city before he went to Thunder Bay – then returned to Burlington to become the city manager..
I have never met Tim Commisso.
Traditionally media and administration meet personally to exchange greetings, get the measure of each other and set out the rules each intends to follow. Being the senior level Commisso was the one to do the inviting.
My approach has always been to make sure that those I deal with, elected or appointed, understand that I am not there to be there friend. I am there to hold them accountable and do what I can to ensure that everything is transparent.
Given the current mess where a member of Council is the subject of an Integrity Commissioner report that recommends she be docked five days’ pay I am not sure I can say that we are doing just fine with the matter of transparency and accountability.
One perseveres.
