Last night, after the issue was brought to light, I recieved a call from Daron, the reporter, who spoke with Jason earlier in the day. He did not say anything about what I brought up but asked me about the Blog Awards, which I answered to the best ability. Sorry Megan I didn’t know your Cell phone was working down there. I told him about this blog and we talked about it a little. He told me he wouldn’t mind meeting up sometime in the New Year and then the conversation was done.
The reason I mention Daron’s name is because he posted a comment on my post last night and is going to clarify himself there. I fully respect him for coming forward rather than trying avoid all this. I think Daron is an excellent guy, I met him back in the summer. He does an excellent job covering Yellowknife Entertainment scene. It is very unfortunate that he got caught up in this mess I kept feeding. I hope we can sit down for a coffee sometime in the new year.
I held off informing everyone that I spoke to Daron last night, for only one reason. The discussion that is happening. This topic which we are talking about is not only related to Yellowknife, but also North American and the UK as a whole. How does traditional media deal with new media, how can they work together; it is a topic that interests me very much and something I am constantly reading about. As the conversation that was happening was related to our community of Yellowknife I wanted to see where it would go, and I am very pleased with the response.
Please join in the discussion and also check out the fluff piece in Wednesdays edition of the paper about the NWT Blog Awards.
Nooooooo…I was supposed to be the fluff story. How dare you take me spotlight! hehehe kidding, kidding.
The blog awards are for all of us, just like the monthly blogger meetups are for all of us. Anybody can talk about them. We don’t have a leader. We’re like the Borg. 🙂
PSST Megan: the borg have a queen. She made an appearance towards the end of the Voyager series
/trekkie moment
😀
OK, I have been following the blogs and subsequent sniping that resulted from Kyle’s post about the newspaper.
While I appreciate the work you put into your blog, I would like to point out a couple of things that bother me.
Namely, you heard a vague rumour about the paper and ran with it with no attempt to get the other side of the story. In addition, you have dissed a business in town for no reason and have published no correction or apology.
While established news media are far from perfect, they will typically get the other side of the story and own up to their mistakes and apologize for them.
Blogging and Twittering seem to encourage people to throw out unsubstantiated opinions with impunity – then everyone piles in, regardless of the accuracy of the information. This is the dark side of instant information and is particularly problematic in a small town and business community that relies heavily on word of mouth.
Blogs are a valuable part of the information ecosystem. But this situation is a reminder for all of us to think twice before hitting post.
Thanks for that Liz,
I told Daron I wouldn’t respond, but I can’t help it at this point. The absolute unsubstantiated crap and all out fabrication that has resulted from this misunderstanding is a solid reminder why real news agencies are still needed.
At first it was amusing that Kyle could have a moment of glory and feel important for a few hours. Eventually I thought it would die away. However, it seems the NNSL haters have decided to propagate the BS that Jason started. Not only that, there are some near libelous statements in regards to at least one of our employees on another blog. Really, it’s that I can’t stand for and is why I am breaking my silence.
First, yes, there are other organisations we don’t go out of our way to promote. I am not going to deny that. To be clear, Kyle is not one of them. That being said, to say we have never mentioned competitors adds to the long list on inaccuracies (and we have mentioned them in a positive light, not just negative.)
Jason and Daron had a misunderstanding; Daron confused Yk online with a different publication in town. The publication he believed it was does compete with us for ad revenue, not news content. So, even if kyle’s blog was what Daron believed it was, it wasn’t news content that was the concern but ad content.
Essentially, there is nothing remotely correct about what has been posted in any of the blogs I have read or any of the tweets I have seen. You have all taken a game of telephone and turned it into a hate fest.
Since I don’t bet on any of your self respect, I am going to assume this post will be attacked and the level of nonsense will continue. I guess it’s a good publicity stunt for Kyle to promote his blog. It seems many NWT bloggers don’t care who they end up hurting at the end of the day as long as their agenda is met.
But to be clear, the intensity of the attacks, especially now that it has evolved to include individuals is bordering on malicious. If you want to continue in this vein, I suggest you do something you admit you don’t do, research.
Flame away. I am going to avoid responding again. This is all I had to say.
Chris Puglia
I’m not clear that a correction is actually called for here.
Liz, perhaps you could provide more information about what the paper considers competition and how they cover the things/people that fit into that category.
Hey Kyle, Last Feb, I too was critizised about in-correct “reporting” and was asked to retract and correct it. Here’s what I responded:
http://thegaywhitenorth.blogspot.com/2009/02/correction-retraction-why-would-you.html
I agree with both NNSL Editors’ (Liz and Chris) above comments: There is a real need for established media to exisit.
Blog: Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer
Newspaper: a paper that is printed and distributed usually daily or weekly and that contains news, articles of opinion, features, and advertising
(definitions from Merriam-Webster dictionary)
It seems to me that blogs are the opinion, usually of one person, posted online, whereas newspapers attempt, to the best of their ability, to report objectively on “news”. That is not to say there are not inaccuracies, great writing, strange opinions, etc, etc, in both, but their purpose is quite different.
I can understand how this could potentially be a larger issue, in bigger cities, but in YK? Granted, news is scarce to be had, but it seems to me that the two accomplish very different things for different groups of people. I read Kyle’s blog (and others as they link them), but that in no way prevents me from wanting to read the paper.
I can’t speak for “the paper,” only the managing editor or the publisher can do that.
In my eyes, the competition for news is CBC and CJCD. I know that NNSL used to run lots of photos of Carol Morin from CBC 😀 – but she does have great fashion sense. And I have certainly seen CBC buy ads with the paper. The only other competition is yktrader as it has classifieds.
Mostly these businesses aren’t newsworthy to NNSL unless they go on strike or something!
NNSL.com has 60,000 visitors a month, FYI. Blogs aren’t on the radar as competition.
That’s why the correction would have been nice.
The bigger issue to me is how people don’t realize that they are hurting committed journalists with hurtful comments and their, news should be free mentality. People seem to want everything for free these days.
What about Daron, giving up his weekends for arts coverage? Or Elizabeth camping out at the courthouse for the emotionally taxing Bulatci trial?
I would defend journalism whether I worked for the paper or not. These people are dedicated professionals who deserve credit for all their hard work.
p.s. To clarify, I mean Yellowknife competition, since I haven’t examined other markets.
Liz, I’m totally with you when you say that journalists should be compensated for their work.
I also agree that journalists often work hard on difficult matters. But so do we all. I work with people who deal with things that would make you sick. I volunteer my time at my job every evening and weekend. So do most people I know. Working hard doesn’t give them a free pass. It wouldn’t give anyone else a free pass if the newspaper thought that person screwed up, would it? Don’t the folks at city hall work hard?
I believe Daron when he says that he confused YKOnline and YKTrader. So YKTrader is considered the newspaper’s competition and therefore rarely covered? How does that really change anything? It’s just a different website. It still raises all of the same questions and concerns.
I think everyone works hard in this city.
Journalist choose to be journalists; just like everyone else in every other profession choose that profession. Trying hard with no results is not as valued as producing good results; even if it’s with little effort. Like Yoda would say, “No try. Do, you must!”
I want to add: I am not singling out one particular person but rather the company as a whole. It is its culture and way of doing business that I critique. Even if every single employee wanted to interview YkTrader, they would not be permitted to. And for what purpose? What is NNSL trying to get? Or maybe NNSL is trying to protect something? I don’t know the answer. Only NNSL can answer.
NNSL is entitled to have whatever policy, procedure or rule it deems fit for itself.
And I, have every right to have an opinion and to express it…especially when I think my opinion serves public interest.
@ Chris…Like Homer Simpson says, “I like my beer cold, my TV loud, and my homosexuals ffflaming!” Consider yourself flamed, cutie pie. 😉
Holy cow! So the newspaper people can come on here and attack Kyle and say he is attacking them? He is an 18 year old student, and the newspaper has a large number of well educated people. And you are ‘expecting a retraction’ seriously. I have been a loyal reader (buying the newspaper on a regular basis) and supporter of the local newspaper, but this takes the cake. Expect a letter to the editor.
Kyle keep doing what you are doing, work hard and try your best, based on what I have read on your blog, you DO NOT need to apologize for anything.
Long time reader, first time poster.
S