Raise the Hammer

Cityjoe: Just to clarify...

-The paper is not delivered by Canada Post, so it's not a 'piece of mail'. It's delivered by Metroland contractors; mine is carefully placed on my front landing by neighbour kids. If you don't want to have it delivered, contact Metroland. Ask for it not to be delivered. I bet they'll comply; over the past year, I've been in touch with them over delivery problems...and there are some very competent, very nice people working in that company.

-What the Group Managing Editor (Cripps) decides to publish in terms of his own column is up to him. And I would defend his right to do so. (Just as I would defend my right to slag him off when he's behaving like a knob.) What the Editor chooses to publish as far as reader letters is that person's decision. These functions are aspects of editorial purview and I have no desire to go down the road that has pressure being applied to 'conform' or 'reflect community standards'. Again, this is not a paper you purchase, so really, in that sense, you don't have a 'vote'...other than writing here, or to Cripps, or just getting Metroland to stop delivering your local paper.

-As far as getting in touch with advertisers... Yes, you could. But to me, there's something just not kosher about taking pro-active measures to shut someone up. I don't want to live in that kind of a world. I want all voices to have a chance to be heard...and in turn slag them off in my own inimitable way...and if Metroland feels comfortable with the editorial slant of its community editorial teams' output, then they're comfortable with it. (Maybe someone should forward them all appropriate articles? I'm just sayin'...)

-I had more than my share of Letters to the Editor published over the past year. And I know that I raised the bar discussion-wise quite a bit and ruffled some feathers in the process, and for that I have to doff my hat to the Stoney Creek News. However, I doubt I'll ever have any more printed...mostly because we seem to be at loggerheads on several issues...and I do not believe that the SC News takes the right stance in terms of what news it delivers and how it delivers it...and they know it. This, however, is an ideological wrasslin' match, and I have an advantage: I'm a blogger, and nobody tells me what I can and cannot write, nor how I write it. (Ask Al Merlo.)

-The Metroland community newspapers have a mandate, an agenda, and it's certainly their right to tell their stories the way they want. Do I agree with what they produce, is it something I'd want to be associated with as a writer? No. But that doesn't mean I want to change them, or get them to realign themselves. I want a publication to be what it is, what its owners and editorial staff wants it to be. If that's not what I want...well, I can always read something else...and self-publish. As can anyone. Look; we're talking about newspapers that are distributed with grocery fliers (as well as having ads in the papers themselves), publications that are most definitely not in the 21st century as far as online presence. Web-savvy. (And why would you need to publish a hard-copy newspaper anyway? Unless you were generating most of your revenue by piggybacking your delivery with the revenue-stream known as 'flyers'. Which, I have to say, is about as credible as the Ti-Cats 'needing' the revenue from parking in order to survive as a business.)

-Mark Cripps does what he does because right now...it's what he does. Given is somewhat-notable past, I suspect he's a little frustrated with his lot journalistically these days, and his columns don't disguise this frustration.

-I believe the best thing we can all do is to keep discussions like this going. Engagement is always preferable to anything akin to silencing, at least from my vantage point.