Comments on The Burd Report: Another negative comment about visitors

Bob Spooner articulates sports only. He never did ...

2010-08-11T21:45:25.428-04:00

Bob Spooner articulates sports only. He never did a lot than pushing issues from the staff. People are just waking up. He also protected all his old pals from the "sunset clause" on committees. Bye bye Bob !!!

For what it is worth, I met two Cobourg residents ...

2010-08-10T12:29:25.729-04:00

For what it is worth, I met two Cobourg residents in the Dutch Oven this morning. They both told me that last week they had each sent a letter to Northumberland Today complaining about Pete Fisher's article fanning the flames of prejudice and bigotry in Cobourg.

I have sent two letters on the issue and both remain unprinted. I have just sent a third. I'm not hopeful.

Northumberland Today appears to be too thin-skinned and self-righteous to publish negative comments about its journalistic practices, but nevertheless sees fit to print this kind of bigotry, “Our park and beach both stink with garbage and outsiders…”

Here are the current stats relating to Northumberl...

2010-08-10T10:48:01.200-04:00

Here are the current stats relating to Northumberland Today's imbalanced reporting/editorializing about the 'outsiders' and Victoria Park.

Below are the printed pieces that portray visitors to Victoria Park in a negative light.

Tuesday, Aug 3, No citations issued for violations in parks, Cobourg official admits, by Pete Fisher.
534 words

Tuesday, Aug 3, Memo to Town Hall: Don't create bylaws if you can't enforce them, Pete Fisher
747 words

Friday, Aug 6, A disaster waiting to happen! By Anita Steins.
577 words

Friday, Aug 6, Council members should work in parks, by Steven MacLaughlin.
159 words

Monday, Aug 9, Visitors leaving trash, not tourism dollars: Spooner
1031 words

TOTAL WORDS: 3048
========================

Below is the sole printed article that casts a positive spin towards the visitors"

Monday, Aug 9, There’s No Place to Blame, by Carol-Anne Caswell
187 words

Now that is quite a spread. 1031 to 187. Is Northumberland Today accurately reflecting the general attitude of Cobourg residents towards out-of-town visitors?

Summer after summer, Northumberland Today prints article after article that places blame for the ills of Victoria Park, on 'outsiders' aka 'visitors'. Not once has Northumberland Today gone for the human interest angle, gone for the 'feel good' story of wonderful families from other countries, other cultures, how they got to Canada, what enormous challenges they had to endure to establish a life in Canada, how far they have come to enjoy Victoria Park and endure the inhospitality of Northumberland Today.

Kindly allow me to get largely irrelevent here but...

2010-08-10T07:15:01.966-04:00

Kindly allow me to get largely irrelevent here but Spooner's ridiculous comment about Tupperware got me thinking: RibFest is about pig meat, right? Much in the same way Rotary is pretty much about demographic non-diversification.

Many of the world's cultures and religions distain the eating of pig meat -Judeaism, Islam and others.

If all you're pushing at RibFest is dead pig, well, it seems to me your core audience is going to be as demographically non-diversified as the membership of your club -that is to say people who, like members of your club, do not in any way distain eating pig meat.

Okay, okay....it's a stretch, I know. But Birds Of A Feather and all that, eh?

Me? I can never resist a pemale-on-a-bun whenever I'm at The St. Lawrence Market so I'm hardly one to talk, am I. Ergo, you can call me whatever you want -just don't call me a Rotarian.

The Northumberland Ribfest website proudly proclai...

2010-08-09T23:23:23.261-04:00

The Northumberland Ribfest website proudly proclaims that Northumberland Publishers is a "Media Partner". Northumberland Today huddles under the lean-to of Northumberland Publishers.

A newspaper should not only be impartial, but be seen to be impartial. The credibility of Northumberland Today is questionable, especially in light of the fact that its park photographer avoids photographing and reporting on the very real damage done to Victoria Park by Ribfest, preferring instead to foment discontent against outsiders who have done no reported damage to Victoria Park.

The agenda that Northumberland Today follows is the one set by the commercial enterprise of Ribfest, not the agenda expected by Cobourg citizens -- reporting the news with impartiality.

Back in the nucleus-gelling days of The Reform Par...

2010-08-09T21:44:11.006-04:00

Back in the nucleus-gelling days of The Reform Party Of Canada, Bob Spooner showed up at a rally at The Lions Club in Port Hope. Heady days those were -sometime in the mid-80's if memory serves.

Anyway, all the usual suspects were there; Al Mathews, Ron Dabor, el-Gordo -the lot I think.

Somewhere around here I still have the hard-copy headline of The Port Hope Evening Guide wherein Bob Spooner is quoted as saying (something like) "Majority of crime in Canada committed by Jamaicans": Spooner.

Like I said, heady days indeed.

See, the thing is this; in a lot of jurisdictions a statement like that would spell political death. But not in Cobourg. In Cobourg it ended up spelling 'Deputy Mayor'.

I'm sure others remember the headline as well as I do. I'm sure too that it's in the NorthumberlandToday.com archives somewhere. But, because of the attention-deficit wouldn't-say-shit-if-they-had-a-mouthful kids running that mess, nobody's going to throw it up in Spooner's goofy face. Nobody. And, frankly, if they did, Pete Fisher would write it up as a Badge Of Honour.

Spooner rules, folks. It's as simple as that.

Hell, come to that, it's almost as simple as Spooner himself.

Loved the Russell Peters video. Does a good job re...

2010-08-09T14:19:47.705-04:00

Loved the Russell Peters video. Does a good job reminding us of the vast cultural differences at play here.

Of course low income families often bring their own food too, so it may not just be the dreaded Outsiders commiting the sin of not spending enough money to satisfy the ever greedy business class.

It will be a relief to have Spooner gone from local politics, he's beginning to sound like Mel Lastman in his declining years.

As to Spooner's idea to send citizens special parking stickers with their tax bill, I always find it revealing that politicians at the Town and County level have trouble accepting that tenants are citizens too.

All their schemes to provide the community with special stickers revolve around sending them to home owners and nobody else.

Tenants pay taxes too, how do they get their stickers Bob? Or had you forgotten about them?

And I want to know what's in the Tupperware containers we should all be happy with. In addition to a cheese sandwich, I sure hope it's not that weird salad with marshmallows in it. As to the cheese, it had better not be a cheese slice either, I want the real stuff.

Bob Spooner will remain ignorant because of the wh...

2010-08-09T13:31:54.831-04:00

Bob Spooner will remain ignorant because of the white trash journalism of Northumberland Today. Nothing more could be expected from the anorexic pen of Pete Fisher -- he doesn't have the balls to interview a single 'outsider.'

The female editor of Northumberland Today, and her two female reporters haven't the ovaries to think outside their white-trash-attitude box, and realize that there is a wonderful opportunity to engage these so-called outsiders, to find out where they are from, how did they get to Canada, what do they think of Cobourg, of the park, of their lives in Canada. A human interest story, but sadly, Northumberland Today prefers demonizing the outsiders -- how pathetic is that?

Northumberland Today displays journalism as shabby and slovenly as the dress code displayed by its reporters.

How old IS Bob Spooner now? Regardless of his chro...

2010-08-09T12:11:40.209-04:00

How old IS Bob Spooner now? Regardless of his chronological age, his dubious powers of observation, coupled with his complete inability to articulate an argument anymore (well, could he ever do that?), reported dutifully by the local adverrag, Northumberland Today, has managed to put even more egg on the face of Cobourg councillors. I mean, really, do you boys and girls WANT the tourist dollars, or do you want to continue to allow dinosaurs like Spooner to pine (out loud) about the good old days when local beaches and parks were for local people, and (apparently) something called "Tupperware and cheese sandwiches" was King of the picnic basket. You elected folks have to make up your mind about tourism in one of Ontario's most beautiful communities. A PUBLIC statement from council affirming Cobourg's open arms policy for everyone, published in said NToday, would go a long way to putting a gag in the mouths of those localists who want Cobourg-only recreation facilities, AND lower taxes. Alas, even such a public re-commitment to tourism would not improve the babble that emits from Bob Spooner's yaw.