BLOGPOWER
Can you believe it? BLOGPOWER!
A Henderson column in answer to what I and a few Internet Bloggers have written about the Mayor.
What this tells me is that the media will have to change. It is recognition that the public is looking for sources of information other than the traditional media. We are demanding not only instant news (check out Google News that browses 4,500 news sources and updates continuously) but more interpretation of what is going on and from various points of view. Just as importantly, it also means that Bloggers who can publish at any time and who may have independent sources will have more and more people looking at their Blogsites.
Remember during the Gomery inquiry, when the Court banned publication of testimony, Bloggers in the US revealed what was said to let Canadians know what was going on. That could not have happened only a few years ago. The same for the tsunami…videos of the disaster were being shown on Blogsites world-wide. I was able to post the entire Dennis DesRosiers speech that has provoked such controversy since the amount of space that I have available is virtually unlimited and costs me nothing compared with newsprint. Why there is even BNN, the Blogger News Network.
And it will be different for politicians too. It will no longer be enough to cosy up to one’s favourite media outlet or reporter. There are just too many Bloggers around for that. Blogs are easy to start and can grow quickly by word of mouth. Blogs are not subject to the rules of the Press Council or the CRTC. In fact, politicians will have to become Bloggers themselves. Howard Dean may not have become President but he revolutionized politics in the Internet age.
What has interested me about what I do is the number of people who have written me, from University students to names that would be instantly recognizable given their reputation in town. Most have enjoyed what I write, they say, since it provides an alternative to the local media. They do not necessarily agree with what I write but say that it provides a different perspective. In addition, I have been provided with information to use that probably would not have been revealed otherwise.
Let me deal with the column since it is a remarkable one. I am NOT here to attack Gord Henderson. I enjoy his writings and I would compare him with Pierre Berton when he was a columnist with the Star and Scott Young at the Globe when I lived in Toronto years ago. I truly wait for his writings 3 times a week and I find him to be a very perceptive individual.
With Eddie Francis, however, he wears blinkers. Eddie’s independent mind is praised as a virtue yet there is no recognition that this is a most secretive regime that makes a mockery of the concept of open and transparent government. Gord (and Eddie) has not understood that those who backed him and worked hard to get him elected him are his biggest detractors. It is not because they cannot get access to him but because they believed in him and he let them down. Eddie is the person who was going to work hard for Windsor that we did not get.
I was told that polling shows that his approval rating is low. The Mayor in Toronto was near 70% I read recently and that was viewed as a disaster. Eddie only received 53% of the vote against a candidate who had the baggage of the Hurst regime tied around his neck and whose handlers made some terrible electoral miscalculations. Had the campaign gone on for another couple of weeks, Bill Marra might be the Mayor today since Eddie’s campaign lacked momentum after the first week. Imagine what will happen this time unless some drastic action is taken if a credible candidate runs….Eddie will suffer his first big setback. We will see what will happen with candidates running when the little boy finally cries out that the Mayor is wearing no clothes.
There are a few interesting gems in the column----a badly divided Council, the Walker overpass delayed for a year, no agreement with the Province on Phase 1 of the Border deal yet. Whose fault is that?
I don’t want to go through the column point by point but there are some comments that need a different perspective:
A Henderson column in answer to what I and a few Internet Bloggers have written about the Mayor.
What this tells me is that the media will have to change. It is recognition that the public is looking for sources of information other than the traditional media. We are demanding not only instant news (check out Google News that browses 4,500 news sources and updates continuously) but more interpretation of what is going on and from various points of view. Just as importantly, it also means that Bloggers who can publish at any time and who may have independent sources will have more and more people looking at their Blogsites.
Remember during the Gomery inquiry, when the Court banned publication of testimony, Bloggers in the US revealed what was said to let Canadians know what was going on. That could not have happened only a few years ago. The same for the tsunami…videos of the disaster were being shown on Blogsites world-wide. I was able to post the entire Dennis DesRosiers speech that has provoked such controversy since the amount of space that I have available is virtually unlimited and costs me nothing compared with newsprint. Why there is even BNN, the Blogger News Network.
And it will be different for politicians too. It will no longer be enough to cosy up to one’s favourite media outlet or reporter. There are just too many Bloggers around for that. Blogs are easy to start and can grow quickly by word of mouth. Blogs are not subject to the rules of the Press Council or the CRTC. In fact, politicians will have to become Bloggers themselves. Howard Dean may not have become President but he revolutionized politics in the Internet age.
What has interested me about what I do is the number of people who have written me, from University students to names that would be instantly recognizable given their reputation in town. Most have enjoyed what I write, they say, since it provides an alternative to the local media. They do not necessarily agree with what I write but say that it provides a different perspective. In addition, I have been provided with information to use that probably would not have been revealed otherwise.
Let me deal with the column since it is a remarkable one. I am NOT here to attack Gord Henderson. I enjoy his writings and I would compare him with Pierre Berton when he was a columnist with the Star and Scott Young at the Globe when I lived in Toronto years ago. I truly wait for his writings 3 times a week and I find him to be a very perceptive individual.
With Eddie Francis, however, he wears blinkers. Eddie’s independent mind is praised as a virtue yet there is no recognition that this is a most secretive regime that makes a mockery of the concept of open and transparent government. Gord (and Eddie) has not understood that those who backed him and worked hard to get him elected him are his biggest detractors. It is not because they cannot get access to him but because they believed in him and he let them down. Eddie is the person who was going to work hard for Windsor that we did not get.
I was told that polling shows that his approval rating is low. The Mayor in Toronto was near 70% I read recently and that was viewed as a disaster. Eddie only received 53% of the vote against a candidate who had the baggage of the Hurst regime tied around his neck and whose handlers made some terrible electoral miscalculations. Had the campaign gone on for another couple of weeks, Bill Marra might be the Mayor today since Eddie’s campaign lacked momentum after the first week. Imagine what will happen this time unless some drastic action is taken if a credible candidate runs….Eddie will suffer his first big setback. We will see what will happen with candidates running when the little boy finally cries out that the Mayor is wearing no clothes.
There are a few interesting gems in the column----a badly divided Council, the Walker overpass delayed for a year, no agreement with the Province on Phase 1 of the Border deal yet. Whose fault is that?
I don’t want to go through the column point by point but there are some comments that need a different perspective:
1) MFP: an experienced lawyer/mayor, not someone just called to the Bar, would have sought a legal opinion. He would have made it public by now if there was no chance of success about possible ways to recover damages from those that may have put the City’s position in jeopardy in this file. OR, he would have started a lawsuit if there was. Instead taxpayers have to pay out an extra $68 million. No wonder we have fiscal problems.
2) The Border: not one word about the City not being at the table any longer, about the waste of almost a year and millions of dollars arguing about a short-term solution that he knew was dead in the water 6 months before it was revealed and which was never the City’s real position but merely a “starting point” and an “option.” Oh, by the way, what is the City’s Real Plan? When will Eddie share that wisdom with us
3) 3-1-1 is here but whatever happened to the election jewel, Citistat, which was supposed to come first. Its lack of implementation conservatively has cost us $30-40 million in savings. No wonder we have fiscal problems
4) Anticipation: Go check Carly Simon’s lyrics about anticipation. Look at the choice of words used rather than real actions being taken. It is “about the things to come”-----“anticipates a solution,” “It’s been delayed a year concedes Francis,” “a deal which will enable,” “in the 2006 pipeline,” “hopefully.” What has actually been achieved over the past two years that makes us confident that something positive will happen in year three of this Mayor?
5) Inherited disasters: It has been 2 years already. Blaming Hurst and OMERS for everything bad is wearing thin. Speaking of OMERS, well you read my BLOG about that.
If the column had just been Gord’s report card on Council or the Mayor, I would not have bothered writing. It is the Blogger reference that fascinated me. The column is recognition of the power of the Blogger. It is now apparent that the Mayor and Mr. Henderson’s employer have something new to think about.
Bloggers are ubiquitous! And that is a good thing.
posted by JoeBlog at 6:50 a.m.
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