If I Had a Million Dollars I'd Start A Newspaper

IF I WASN'T SO DARN OLD, I'D START A NEWSPAPER

I WOULD MAKES NEWS-FINDING A COMPETITION AGAIN

     I WOULD. MOST DEFINITELY. IF I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS. I'D START A LOCAL NEWSPAPER, AND HIRE SOME REPORTERS LOOKING TO MAKE A NAME FOR THEMSELVES. WE'D MAKE IT AN EDITORIAL PRIORITY, TO FERRET-OUT THE STORIES THAT HAVE BEEN COVERED-UP, AND TELL YOU ABOUT THE CONTROVERSIES BREWING BENEATH THE PUBLIC RELATIONS, OF LOCAL AND REGIONAL GOVERNMENT. OF COURSE WE'D LIGHT A PROVERBIAL FIRE BENEATH OUR COUNCILLORS' COMFORTABLE TOWN HALL CHAIRS, MAKING THEM AWARE OF THE TRUE MEANING OF ACCOUNTABILITY. OUR GRAVENHURST ISSUE WOULD BE LOADED WITH THE RELAY OF NEWS EVENTS HAPPENING IN OUR TOWN. A GRAVENHURST NEWSPAPER FOR THE PEOPLE OF GRAVENHURST. IT COULD BE THE MOTTO BENEATH THE MASTHEAD, OR PRINTED IN BOLD LETTERING, JUST BELOW THE NEWSPAPER'S OFFICIAL TITLE ON THE FRONT PAGE. MAYBE IT SHOULD BE WRITTEN INSTEAD, 'WE KICK ASSES TO PLEASE YOU." OR "THE NEWS THEY DIDN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT!" I CAN SEE IT NOW. A NEWSPAPER ON A MISSION. POLITICIANS JUMPING BACK INTO THE RABBIT HOLES, STILL THERE FROM THE LAST TIME THERE WAS ACTUAL RIVALRY FOR THE WEEKLY NEWS. MAYBE I'D CALL IT "CURRIE'S BUGLE," OR THE "OLD BASTARD'S PRESS!"

     FOLKS, HONESTLY, I'D LOVE TO OPEN A COMPETING NEWSPAPER, BUT IT WOULD NEED A MONSTROUS AMOUNT OF MONEY TO SURVIVE, AND EMPLOY THE KIND OF REPORTERS WHO DON'T BELIEVE STATUS QUO EXISTS. TODAY, MORE THAN EVER, I MISS THE COMPETITION OF TWO "SHARK-BITE" COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS, BATTLING-IT-OUT EVERY WEEK, FOR THE BIG STORIES. THEY DIDN'T INVENT THE BIG SCOOPS. THE STORIES WERE THERE, FOR THE REPORTER WHO DIDN'T TAKE "NO" FOR AN ANSWER. LOCAL COUNCILLORS DIDN'T HAVE A CHOICE, WHETHER TO DEAL WITH THE PRESS OR NOT. OUR STAFFERS GAVE THEM NO OPTIONS, AND IF THEY WERE AVOIDING US, THEN IT WAS POINTED OUT TO OUR READERSHIP IN A FRONT-PAGER. WE FOUND THAT ELECTED OFFICIALS, GENERALLY, DON'T LIKE BEING PRESENTED IN THIS FASHION, SEEMINGLY EVASIVE AND PROTECTIVE OF INFORMATION, THAT SHOULD BE SHARED WITH CITIZENS. IT WAS THE PUBLICS RIGHT TO KNOW. WE WERE THE HUNTER-GATHERERS. I UNDERSTOOD WHY COUNCILLORS HATED OUR GUTS. I WASN'T INTERESTED IN BEING POPULAR, JUST GOOD AT MY JOB. A LOT OF POLITICAL BIG-WHIGS TRIED TO GET OUR NEWS STAFF FIRED, BUT NOT BECAUSE WE MADE MISTAKES IN OUR REPORTING, BUT RATHER, WE UNSETTLED THEIR STATUS QUO. THEY WANTED IMMUNITY. THEY DIDN'T GET IT. OUR PUBLISHER AGREED WITH US MOST OF THE TIME. FRANKLY, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE SAME ON MOST COMMUNITY WEEKLY PUBLICATIONS, ALWAYS VULNERABLE TO FICKLE ADVERTISERS, AND A CLOSE-KNIT READERSHIP, THAT AS A BODY, CAN END A WRITING CAREER QUICKLY. IT WAS ALWAYS A TOUGH BALANCING ACT, BECAUSE WE OFFENDED PEOPLE, JUST GETTING UP IN THE MORNING, AND HEADING OFF TO WORK WITH A KICK OF OUR HEALS. MEDIA PERSONALITIES AREN'T ALWAYS POPULAR. WE WERE POPULAR WITH SOME. THEY'RE THE ONES WHO BOUGHT US JUGS OF BEER AT THE TAVERN, FOR DOING A GOOD JOB AT THE PRESS THING. WE HAD JUST AS MANY FISTS DIRECTED AT US, WITH NO BEER-JUG ATTACHED, THANK GOODNESS. IT WAS A CRAZY AMOUNT OF FUN, BEING SHIT DISTURBERS. IT WAS WHAT THE TOWN NEEDED. AN END TO OBSCURITY AND CONVENIENT TRUTHS TO PACIFY THE MAJORITY.

     We're not finding out much about our community these days, via the media generally. It's not that we're not story-producing citizens, because that is anything but the truth. The reality is, the days of serious investigative reporting here, and the allure of competitive scoop-getting, are distant, faded memories. It is a great loss here, because it is more difficult than ever to stay informed. You have to jump from source to source, to piece together the scattered crumbs of information you can garner from each, just to get a bare outline of what has been happening at home. In our history, this is an unfortunate time, and it has allowed our respective councils, to operate the way they choose, knowing full well, the media will be very kind and generous to them, except maybe the dailies, on occasion, when there's bigger fish to fry. The last time we saw this, was more than a year ago, when the Toronto Star exposed alleged irregularities with the refurbishing work at the Recreation Centre, published over several issues, and then never printed anything more on the matter (at least to my knowledge). Even when a police report, following a lengthy investigation, revealed there was no criminal activity identified. Have you ever wondered why the Toronto Star didn't make some effort to re-visit the town they bashed, and offer a wrap-up article to explain the reasons for front-paging us. If there are ongoing legal issues, don't we have a right to know about its progress? Guess not! I asked council, some time ago, to request the Toronto Star to offer a follow-up to their investigation, which would be the polite thing to do after all. A lot of citizens, and the town itself felt pretty embarrassed about the whole affair, and it did spark a lot of angry outbursts from the citizens, who leveled some pretty aggressive responses back to town……assuming that the allegations made were true. I still think the town, on behalf of the citizens who were tarred by the same brush, deserve clarification of the story, if not an outright apology. If the Star thinks this isn't necessary, then it's the reason we need a competing newspaper in this town, that would find it imperative, to find out about things like this, and defend our honor. Or has this kind of chivalry gone out of fashion?

     There have been many who have tried to open newspapers in this province, and some in our region, and it has most often been the launch of a money pit, once the initial rush and sentiment of "freedom of the press," is flogged and rejoiced. It always comes down to being able to stay afloat, and get enough advertising to pay the rent of the commercial property required. Unless the staff has offered to work for free….which is certainly more fashionable today, than it was in my newspaper years, the wave of deficit-building commences minutes after the ribbon cutting. There are only certain people on earth, who could open a weekly newspaper in a small market area, and make the necessary profit to consider the project even remotely successful. It's a huge shame, and the future looks pretty bleak, if you have your heart set on, knowing about the really big stories incubating out there in very fertile ground. These are stories the citizens of this town need to know. Situations that do make a difference to the welfare of our community. Current events, and major decisions, that will come to effect many of our lives, yet we are kept in the dark. News is breaking out there, but because there's no competition, or passion to be the best media outlet serving the area, soft news and general features, take its place. So where does the news break? Or, when a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Are you sure the fridge light goes off when you close the door? I guess you have to be in the forest more often, and possibly sit in the fridge to answer the question. I worked with the kind of reporting staff, who didn't find that an imposition whatsoever. I'm so pleased I had a chance to work with the local media, when there was a hunger to present the news; a feeling of responsibility to offer the public a chance to see what was happening within their local government, that if we hadn't discovered, would have remained invisible forever. We have the same interests in investigative reporting, and controversial news, as the readers of daily publications, and viewers of television news programs. We deserve to have the truth about what's happening here, not just the soft version, and the press releases that are a long way from breaking or even particularly relevant news.

     I remember, while I was working as a news editor for the Gravenhurst Banner, circa 1989-90, getting one of those breaking news front-pagers, that despite being quite negative, was a really nice reward for paying attention to what was going on in the community around me. I was driving back from Bracebridge, one afternoon, and I noticed a car had pulled off the road, and into a driveway on property, owned at the time by Magna International, on District Road 4 in Bracebridge. Magna was the toast of Bracebridge in those years, because there was a plan to build an educational facility to train future Magna automotive industry technicians. It was to be an extensive and expensive project, and the town was pretty excited about their new relationship, with this well known internationally respected automotive industry. It had made huge headlines in The Banner's sister publication, The Examiner, and the town hosted a big event to announce the new and exciting relationship. There was a huge "Welcome to Bracebridge" sign on the property, if you recall, promoting the future site of the Magna development. It was a good news story then, and as it turned out, the "scoop" of really unfortunate news, I was about to get.

     I had a hunch there was a problem, and that the person on the property may have had something to do with real estate. I didn't confront the gentleman on the property, and instead went home and contacted Magna directly. What I found out was, with one call, that plans had changed, and a large whack of the acreage was going to be sold-off immediately. When I phoned Mayor Jim Lang, to get his opinion on the piece, there was some dead air on the other end. I dare say, I ruined his day, because this was to be a multi-million dollar deal, with a long term commitment to stay in the town. It wasn't much of an interview, and Jim offered an apology, that he would have to get more information, first-hand, before he could carry on an interview. I respected the tough spot he was in, as a mayor, and truthfully, I thought he handled it very well, considering the body blow he just received. Magna hadn't informed him of their decision, which made it a tad more difficult to adjust to, after all the initial welcoming fuss. Hey, stuff happens. Magna did what was right for them. They sold the property. Of course, it's still sitting empty. The town did what they felt was appropriate, welcoming the new investment, and in the end, I did what was necessary to get a story on the front page. Jim did not want to talk to me about this story, but he was such an experienced local politician, that he bit the bullet and did what was expected of him, as the town's spokesperson. I hate to say this, because it was kind of a negative story, but I liked having caught this scoop, before the competition press. They would have sooner or later. As they say, I was in the right place at the right time, and pondering, while I drove, about the urgent need for a really big story for the next edition. I got it! A scoop in both papers.

     Competition in the media business is never wrong. It might be inconvenient for those who hustle ad copy, and for those managers who want to see hardy profits, but competition always makes us better at what we do, in the reporting wing of newspaper employment. Our writing staff at the former Herald-Gazette, wanted to earn respect in the news enterprise, so that they could take a meaty portfolio to the daily press, and be taken seriously for city desk reporting positions. Quite a few reporters got their wish, and made it to the national stage. Look at former Toronto Sun columnist Paul Rimstead. He started out, working as a newspaper stringer, for the Orillia Packet and Times, as a teenager, chasing ambulances and fire trucks, to get a first hand story from the scene of breaking news. It is said he even had a press plate hanging off the handlebars of this bicycle. It's also rumored to be true, that the firemen used to put false addresses on their chalk board, in case Rimstead want to follow them. He got suspicious, and started asking others about the fire or accident scenes, and inevitably he'd wind-up exactly where they didn't want him. Paul didn't take "no" for an answer. For us, back in our newspaper days, Rimstead was a god, let me tell you, because he told it the way it was……and if you didn't like it, he'd gladly tell you to read someone else's column instead. He had a huge fan-base when he wrote for the Toronto Sun and its sister publications in Western Canada. He started off just like us. In his case, persistence and the news smarts, gave him the big break, we hoped would happen for us. While he is best known for his columns, it was his early hustle and perseverance, that got him noticed. He went from chasing fire trucks in his home town, to being one of Canada's best known and adored columnist - story tellers. This is what was endearing about the being a full fledged member of the press. A paid writer. You didn't have to tell any of us, what the holy grail was, or how you earned it…….we just had to read Rimmer, daily, to remind ourselves about the worth of hard work, and commitment. He wrote stories not to impress the subject he was interviewing, but to convey the way it was, and in some cases, those interviewed vowed never to talk with him again, like east coast boxer, dubbed "Canada's Fighting Fisherman," Yvon Durelle. Instead of writing a flattering editorial piece about Durelle's successes in the ring, he wrote it from a contemporary point of view. Life after the ring, worts and all. He didn't bypass Durelle's claims to fame, like the time he floored champion boxer Archie Moore four times, before getting knocked out himself in the 11th round. Rimstead didn't ignore Durelle's victories, and his boxing prowess, but he found a tragic side the public wanted to know. I'd always liked Yvon Durelle as a boxer, and the Rimstead article didn't change that whatsoever. I just knew much more about the man, than I had before.

     As I have written about previously, the sign of a wickedly solid newspaper issue, for me, was when the switchboard lights were dancing, about an hour after The Herald-Gazette hit the newsstands, in and around town. I'd walk in, and the front desk clerk would be traumatized by the number of hateful calls, wanting to tar and feather the editor. Not because we were wrong with the story, but because we ran the article at all!  They would have preferred the news to have remained ink-free. I remember one lady phoning, and reaming me for a full half hour, about a story we had on our front page. The only problem, as I read along with her, to make sure we were, as they say, "on the same page," it wasn't until she quoted the "dumb-ass" writer, that I was able to respond, with a chuckle, 'Lady, you've got the wrong paper." We had the same council story, and a lot of the quotes were the same, but they weren't from the same pen. You might think the lady would have offered an apology, because the difference of opinion, wasn't about our story. Well sir, she began berating me, about something we had done, the week before, that pissed her off. Oh well. It was part of the job, to take these complaints, and we did, and sometimes included them in the next week's follow-up story. You can bet we'd get a second phone call about that too. Once you call a newspaper office, to comment on a story, you became part of the news profile. We may not have used your name, but the comments were fair game.

     Wednesday mornings were always entertaining, especially if you liked excitement. I used to get a kick out of the advertiser appeasements that had to be made, when some business took exception to our brand of journalism. I remember having to visit an advertiser, with a reporter and the newspaper manager, to appease a business implicated in a column. The guy verbally pounded us for a half hour, for being irresponsible journalists, who as far as he was concerned, didn't deserve to have our (low paying) jobs. We sat there getting madder and madder, especially when the manager gradually sided with the businessman. So the writer, responsible for the column, took each issue raised, point by point, and on every point raised, the owner had to concede, the story had correctly represented what had happened. In five minutes we were able to refute each "shoot-from-the-hip" claim, that the paper had published inaccuracies. Even though we had nothing to apologize for, we were forced to do so anyway, just to keep the advertiser on side. This was the part of the job I hated more than anything. We'd have advertisers call us, threatening to pull out their ads because they didn't like the aggressiveness of our stories, or that we were picking on one of their friends in the community. Being editor was complicated by a lot of small-town factors, friendships and family, that got in the way. We didn't respect those connections and conflicts, as the reason to back off a story. So you will appreciate, our jobs were on the razor-thin line constantly. The respect for the credo of our profession, out-weighed the fear we'd get fired. The readership was our ace in the hole, because they wanted the "kick-ass" stuff, and although we were a conservative newspaper, through and through, we still found a way to live a little dangerously. Our attention to detail, and accurate reporting, kept us in trouble, but not because of errors we had made. We just kept telling the truth some folks despised.

     I remember on one occasion, when our ad manager convinced me to go and do a story about a struggling restaurant, that had been complaining about our paper's negativity. That made me angry by itself. Why the hell were we capitulating to a business, because we were doing our job reporting the news? It was our reality, when we let advertising staff intervene, where they didn't have any business to do so. I was two months behind in my rent, I had two pairs of underwear and three shirts, and two pairs of pants, both with distressed crotches. I had enough money for two suppers, and some baloney and mustard for lunch time. So when I was forced to attend this restaurant, to make the guy feel he'd won some moral victory, by golly, I wrote like John Steinbeck. It was the best restaurant review ever. Emotional, stirring, made you want to cry, then laugh, and then get in your car, and head to the place for dinner. Before the article was published, I took my lay-out knife and removed my byline, in the lay-out room, as was my right. The article was published, the customers flocked to the restaurant, and then the advertising department started getting calls. Bad ones. Terrible ones in fact. "How could you recommend such a horrible place," the callers yodeled to the receptionist. "The food was terrible. The service was awful. I'll never go there again." The business had only been about two weeks from closing, when I was sent out there, to do the review. I'm not a culinary expert, so forgive me for my weaknesses, to criticize a hamburger and fries. I paid for them by the way. Well, it was the last time I was ever asked to do this kind of business story, and that was fine for me. I offer a belated apology to all those customers I set up for a dining disaster. I was making a point.

     I read at least two publications every evening, three or four on the weekends, because I have never lost the interest in counter-point. Each paper offers a slightly different perspective. Sometimes, especially with the opinions of columnists, it can seem a night and day difference in editorial positioning. I like that. I feel well served by a critical press. I feel there are enough eager reporters, lusting after scoops and front-pagers above the fold, to keep me up to speed on the good, the bad and the ugly of what's going on in government, on the crime beat, in business and international affairs. Plus I watch every news program I can get without cable (I won't pay for it, because I'm cheap), and although the collateral damage, is that my wife thinks I'm obsessed, and ignoring her, I feel enlightened about the events of the world in which I live. I come from a family tree of avid news watchers, dating back to the small role we played in the Revolutionary War, as United Empire Loyalists.

     While they may not wish this to fall within their domain, because of the huge responsibility it represents, the Greater Gravenhurst Ratepayers Association, is our reporting mechanism today, in their coverage of Gravenhurst Council. They keep members informed, and have been highly successful, communicating council updates, and related municipal news, with eager ratepayers. In the case of the recent Terrence Haight bequeath news, from the town's committee network, thanks to a sharp eye, ratepayers were advised of the unusual move by council (to pay down the debt), before the newspaper published the first "Letter to the Editor," on the subject. I hate to put too much pressure on this important community group, but their astute study of council business, is imperative, to keeping us all "in the loop," and in a position where we can react, in a timely fashion, to situations we may not be comfortable with, as citizens and ratepayers. They should be heartily congratulated for the work they have done, since their inception, being our eyes and ears, covering the business affairs of Gravenhurst Council. No, we couldn't live without them, if we truly value being adequately informed.

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