Editor, The Times:
Reading the seemingly desperate requests by the mainstream pay-to-read press to faithfully consume their product, I, one who graduated from journalism school in 1994 and consumed the fourth estate for the last three decades, must admit I’m not really concerned about their potential demise.
The most significant reason for my apathy is that I find notable neglect in critical coverage of the detrimental environmental effects directly caused by fossil fuel extraction and consumption, including those created by Alberta’s oilsands.
I’ve found that if not for the online National Observer and The Tyee, there’d be little or no investigative journalism on these greatest of polluters, who are yet so often held totally unaccountable.
Thus, regardless of some important social issues normally covered, I’ve found that ‘the liberal media’ phraseology has become increasingly depressingly inaccurate.
Another matter for me is the consistent unwillingness by the daily newspaper professionals to critique their peers at other outlets, even when the latter behave unprofessionally (a.k.a. compromised conduct).
Perhaps it’s a profession that’s become motivated more by a buck and a byline—i.e. a regular company paycheque and a frequently published name with stories—than a genuine strive to challenge the powers-that-be in order to truly comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable in an increasingly fiscally inequitable existence.
Frank Sterle Jr
White Rock, B.C.
