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A good news news story story
I got an email the other day from Chilliwack Times reporter Tyler Olsen regarding a story his paper published last Thursday about some local optician who set up shop in town after getting out of jail in Ontario. Turns out he broke a bunch of eye-related rules back east and is now pissing off the locals in Chilliwack.
Tyler writes:
Hi, thought you might be interested in this story. Of note, is the fact that this guy advertised in our paper prior to the story’s publication. Nevertheless, the advertising folks and Nick Bastaja, the paper’s publisher, never tried to kill the story. And my colleague Cornelia Naylor made it worth their effort by writing a real good, fair piece. It’s too bad that it’s noteworthy when a community paper has enough integrity to actually publish a somewhat-negative story about an advertiser. Still, given how much advertising influences editorial decisions at some papers, it’s worth bragging about.
Here’s how that story starts:
A former Ontario optician who was fined $17 million for contempt of court, served one year in jail and was stripped of his Ontario optician’s licence for repeatedly flouting his home province’s health legislation has set up shop in Chilliwack.
Now local opticians say he’s breaking the law here too.
[UPDATE]: As Lachlan notes in the comments, the guy has an argument to make about the eyewear industry as a whole (which the story touches on).
Do you mind?
Some very insider news and talk from Merritt to Hinton and everywhere (fine, just one place but I need to have a life too so quit complaining) in between, rounded out by a series finale and a scary story.
The Merritt News’s John O’Connor asks in an editorial if the proliferance of on-line reading isn’t decreasing our ability to concentrate. It’s not a new idea, but one that’s always worth questioning, especially because it concerns how we do our jobs. [Foreign source alert: if you're bored and interested in the topic, you can read this take on the subject from the Atlantic Magazine].
The Invermere Valley Echo welcomes a new reporter, Madison. No full name is given, on-line at least, but she seems enthusiastic from this introductory column. Welcome.
Even further east, the Hinton Parklander reports that one of their former reporters, Birgit Stutz, has published a book about her involvement in a dramatic horse rescue (yes, we are talking about Alberta here).
“I was approached by an agent from Harper-Collins after the horse rescue two years ago,” said Stutz.”An agent sent me an email out of the blue. I thought it was a scam, it seemed too good to be true.”
Though she intended to ignore the email originally, Stutz responded at the insistence of her husband and was soon set up with co-writer Lawrence Scanlan.
Rochelle Baker of the Abbotsford Times writes about a South Asian man turned away from a Christmas party that wasn’t allowing “East Indians” in the door. The man, Ken Herar, writes a column for the Abbotsford/Mission Times, meaning he was probably exactly the type of person the organizers wanted to keep out. Or not.
And Cornelia Naylor of the Chilliwack Times wraps her multimedia series on local musicians and the instruments they play with a story on a timpanist (someone who plays a few really large drums). The video, like all the others in the series, is terrific. And here’s a photo gallery.
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Have I made an error? It wouldn’t be the first time. Leave a comment and I’ll duly update the post.
Seen something else I should know about? Want to write a post? Have better photos than the Creative Commons Flickr pool ones I use? E-mail bclocalreporter(at)gmail.com.
We’re making inroads into our census of B.C. community newspapers, but there are still a lot of blanks in the Journo-lust Spreadsheet. How many journalists work at your paper? How often do you come out? Who’s your publisher? Participation is free! The benefits unlimited! The exclamation points boundless!
Photo courtesy of Jim Barter via Flickr.
Musical movies
Chilliwack Times reporter Cornelia Naylor is midway through a multi-part series profiling the players of the Chilliwack Symphany Orchestra, and, in particular, the instruments they play. Each of the first three segments of the series has featured photos, a story and a video. The videos, have been especially good; this type of story seems tailor-made for the medium.
The first three videos can be found here.
Part one focused on a violinist, part two on a trumpet player, and part three on a celloist (the photo for which is stunning).
The pieces are running each Friday.
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Great football photo by Blair Sheir of the North Shore News. Also from the NSN, a great guest column/poem by Kate Zimmerman titled, wonderfully, “Now is the winter of our web content.“
