Dear Editor:
When an impatient Greyhound bus driver dumped my daughter in Guelph, Ont., he refused to let her get her bag. She was 16, in a town she didn’t know. She was supposed to attend a weekend track camp.
She needed her luggage for her short stay but the driver had loaded it in the wrong compartment. It wasn’t convenient for him to let her retrieve it. Besides, she was just a little girl and, working for a big company, he thought he could get away with it.
When I complained to the company, no one listened or apologized. If I’d wanted to pursue things, the only place I could have taken our grievance was the local newspaper.
That’s one of many reasons why Tim Shoults’ recent guest column in the North Shore News is so important (Who Pays For Journalism? One Way or Another, It’s You, Feb. 12 Other Voices).
Our local papers are a check and balance against unacceptable conduct by people in authority. I know, having served as West Vancouver’s member of Parliament. The paper was there to challenge government decisions and occasionally take me to task. Who else has time, expertise, or resources to investigate and report on an injustice, failed public policy, or poor allocation of taxpayers’ money?
Sure, the national media play a role but will never cover stories like that of a little girl stranded by an irresponsible bus driver.
Local media have other functions, too. Informing us of local events. Letting elected officials communicate decisions and conundrums. Creating a sense of community.
Shoults correctly identified that public money has been channelled increasingly to social media consolidators, such as Google and Facebook. As he pointed out, they don’t produce what we read. They just organize and distribute it.
We have fewer and fewer sources of reliable information. The propagation of fake news should make us all suspicious of the Internet. Those of us who rely upon Wikipedia for research should give our heads a shake.
Local newspapers support democracy. Readers can play a role in supporting both by communicating to the federal government our collective interest in preserving a robust network of local papers.
John Weston
West Vancouver
Editor’s note: Ex-MP John Weston is praticising law and government relations at McMillan LLP and McMillan Vantage. His book Seeking Excellence in Leadership will be ready by May 2017.
What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email by clicking here or post a comment below.
