I never delivered papers cuz

I never delivered papers cuz I thought it was a mugs game especially at collection time at the end of the month.

Vancouver Sun and Province

Ah yes, Rafe was one of THOSE kids who delivered the Province....and he is old enough to remember the News Herald as well...and the Sun's pink five star final that put the paper to bed at the end of the day...

Just a point to make...I am glad Mark Edge wrote about Pacific Press when he did...but its not perfectly accurate in a few places...But there are wonderful stories which will never be told now, things that happened in Editorial, in the cafeteria upstairs in the Sun Tower...stories about the move into that building in the late 1930's.... stories that now cannot be told by those who lived through them, only by people like me who heard them from those folks....

But I am glad that Rafe wrote about it....and think others should too.....

So somebody reads 'Rex

So somebody reads 'Rex Morgan'... good to know.

Preaching to the Converted Rafe

For years I would only read the Sun if I found one lying around in a coffee shop. About a year ago, I stopped doing even that when I happened to pick up a copy with a Harvey Enchin column that basically said even if "rumours of corruption" were true we should all be happy about the BC Rail deal. I'm no expert on the media, but I presume that was run by the editorial staff and therefore represented, more or less, the official view of the paper, so I'm not sure how anyone could take anything Canwest says seriously.

Paul Abbott

Canwest; the canary in the corporate news shaft

Thank heaven for Canwest. They provide an important bench mark one can use to measure quality in the fourth estate.

Besides, what would I do without my almost-daily Sudoku and crossword?

And the budgies get so excited when I redecorate their cage with a fresh picture of Dave Obee.

Free Press!

I remember as a young girl having a paper route or two while selling papers at the corner. I would have helpers and it was a blast as I can remember very clearly shouting at the top of my young lungs, gloden locks flying in the air and eye bright with the excitement of selling the Free Press, get your Free Press here. There is nothing Free about Canwest Press or information that comes out of the Province or the Sun or any global venture, there just isn't.

A bit of Nostalgia

Mr Mair's latest article induces a bit of nostalgia. As a teenage sub-manager for the Province, I earned a whole $6/week.

The job required opening the neighbourhood paper shack at 4:30 AM (six days a week), ensuring carriers were available for each route (if not I had to deliver the papers myself), coping with angry parents who were awakened because their child/carrier had not arrived by 6:10 AM, emphasizing that all papers were to be on customers doorsteps by 6:30AM, arranging sales canvassing once a week, and preparing promotion posters.

One of the more troubling tasks was collecting unpaid subscriptions. There were adults who refused to pay because a delivery was missed, adults who admonished collectors for showing up at dinner time, and those who asked you to come back the following day (but they were never home).

I also consider the editors and columnists in those halcyon days were much fairer and wiser than the current crop of excessively biased writers. The paper's overuse of right-wing OpEds today is another distortion of reality.

When was the truth ever synonymous with the Sun or Province

As a young boy growing up in the country, which back in the 50's was Coquitlam but is now urban sprawl, I had two separate experiences with the printed truth.

1958, I believe, there was flooding on the eastern edge of Coquitlam and it was hilarious to see a couple of guy rowing down the Lougheed hiway laughing at the posted speed sign.

That part is true, but the lie comes from the Province paper when a couple of news people and camera man push and dragged a young lad's horse (with him on it) out into the flooded road to take a picture of the Sun paper being delivered even in a flood. That horse hated the water and made it back to high ground and all the way home the moment the reins were let go.

The second lie also involved a horse, and another neighbour and a small yapping dog. The neighbours also had an abandoned well on their property with a wooden cover that did not support the horses weight when said horse waundered out of bounds.

Down the well went the horse and all around the lip of the well the dog was yapping obnoxiously at the horse that so often tried to kick the dog into next week. With the horse being helpless the dog was in its glory.

The fire department were on their way, as was the press. News in the quiet 50's must have been hard to find, I guess, but the Vancouver Province arrived in time to set up a photoshoot. The stage was set when they managed to get that yappy critter to grasp a good bite of the horse's main and the picture and story was that the dog, all 7 pounds, had kept the horse's head above water until help arrived.

These two pieces of fabrication in my young life were enough to make a cynic out of me as far as newspapers were concerned. I have never invested a moments notice of either paper since. All right, I read the weekend comic section if they were laying around, but investing any money was out of the question.

So, how much has changed? I don't know because I don't read the papers.

Fabrications of events

Oldstyle, fabrications of reality by the newsmedia have always been with us; however, in today's world the distortions seem to be a lot more prevalent and deceptive.

Until only a couple of years ago, Griff's lumber piles at Schoolhouse and the Lougheed Highway floated around everytime there was a heavy rainfall. With the current upgrade of the multi-billion dollar Port Mann Bridge replacement, I doubt the flooding problem in here will be allieviated, particularily between October and June.

The Cactus Club on Griff's old site doesn't get wet now, but it is on the cusp. I also expect access and egress to this location will remain a challenge for many years to come.

Hydrostatic pressure as in this area, when natural water flows are blocked off, will probably haunt the local inhabitants in perpetuity.

Raif Mare

Of course you hate the Province Rafe. When you were an MLA they spelled your name wrong at least twice a week. You've never forgiven them

entering the dotage

"What about the fact that Canwest B.C. supports the nauseating government and truth challenged premier we have in Victoria?

Well I say what the hell, c'mon folks, be fair! Somebody has to!"

Rafe, I think the point more is... what media doesn't? Vaughn Palmer's new-found cojones notwithstanding, even the local papers have been a wasteland of neo-liberal thinking for the last few years. Any business that makes the Georgia Straight look progressive is an out-of-control truck heading off the bridge into nowhere.