Still More Censorship At The Nanaimo Daily News

Well, the thin-skinned 'dunderheads' that run the local broadsheet, the Nanaimo Daily News (formerly part of the failed Canwest/Global, now part of Postmedia) are at it again! It doesn't appear that they are satisfied with their ability to control the agenda with their partisan and selective 'reporting' and their selecting/editing of 'Letters to the Editor' but now they are also censoring comments submitted in the 'Sound Off' section of their on-line presence. I submitted the following in response to their article "Social housing in nanaimo..." on Sunday, May 15th and it has yet to appear in any form on the on-line comments section. One of the favourite 'tricks' of the media in trying to control their agenda is to turn 'Off' the ability for readers to provide comments to their articles. Although the 'Comments' section is 'moderated', even at the most strident newspapers, this is used to filter out inappropriate comments (racist, homophobic, hateful, etc.). It seems to me that if Mr. Cowan can't take the heat for his actions/words, he should stay out of the kitchen!

Of all of the many other equally important issues which have been covered by your newspaper over the past years, e.g., Conference Centre, Cable Bay development, HST introduction or electronic/internet voting why choose this one to "go the extra mile with" and attempt to provide some measure of clarity (although that wasn't exactly how it turned out, was it?)? BTW, one number incorrect, e.g., 26 vs. 36 would be a 'typo' whereas two numbers in the same sentence incorrect, e.g., three stories vs. four, would be an ERROR. It also doesn't help that you chose to use the word 'arguing' to characterize what you were attempting to stimulate by your front-page spread. Just so you know, I received my copy of the Nanaimo Daily News containing this story for free, which is just about what I feel it is worth!

Isn't it about time that we held the exalted 'Fifth Estate' to a high standard and require them to inform us in a non-partisan manner and, if they aren't up to the task, then let's spend that daily $1.50 on something that will provide a better return.