Raise the Hammer

I agree. I have no doubt RTH makes The Spec, and CHCH/E Channel uncomfortable. If this was a commercialized website, ie we took in advertising dollars for banner ads -- we do have 10,000 page views a day -- we would've had an offer from Torstar to buy us out. It's been their business model for years in this market. Goldbook, AdBag, Brabant, 701.com, and others have all been bought out by Torstar.

The problem is RTH, HMag, Mayday, CATCH and CFMU makes them nervous in an area they don't know how to deal with. They can't buy us out, they can't take away our advertising revenue, so their only option is to become more accountable, more fair and provide a larger diversity of opinions.

Hey, it sounds like we're filling in for what the CBC/Public Broadcasting is suppossed to do and we all know how lousy Hamilton is covered by our National Public Broadcaster and how negatively The Spec and local Radio were about plans of a CBC/Radio One Hamilton signal.

Could you imagine how much news fodder a CBC Hamilton Radio station would have with just the Balfour Bldg. The mainstream media (or lack of it) has kept the lights off in this city for too long. Most of the things we write about on RTH wouldn't be an issue if we weren't kept in the dark and were allowed to take part in the 'process' or at very least be informed of the 'process'. So the The Spec would have to add 4 more pages, and not everyone would read it, but this should be their responsibility. CATCH wouldn't have to exist if the City had it's own meeting minutes transciption service, like other cities do. And The Spec offers one maybe two different opions at most(McIntyre and Dreschel) on City Hall meetings. And even then The CIty far too often goes incamera to even keep issues in the dark.

There have been many reasons why Hamilton has stalled for the last 30 years and I can lay blame for one of those reasons at our media and the level of ignorance most people have.