Is the Penticton Herald biased in its political reporting?

[beam-me-up-morrison]

Julius Bloomfield had a column in The Herald for the past two years about Green Party issues. Ashton should complain about that one.

[southy]

Ya know ... I find it real interesting Beam-me-up that you are newbie to Castanet. Your only posts other than this thread are directed to the David Perry thread. This tells me you are new here simply for political reasons. You didn't like my post about DA which would suggest that perhaps you are in support of DA which in a democratic society is all good. I for one am not in favor of DA being re-elected ... my right! Kinda hoping that you will come out and tell us where and for who you really stand for?? In other words Beam-me-up .. don't play the hit and run. We already have enough of those guys on this site. By the way I will argue with you on the front page issue. I don't care if the other two got exposure it's how the DA story reads and the photo. Freedom of the press I guess. Go figure. But please Beam-me ... tell us more. You sound like an interesting guy.

[Julius Bloomfield]

Hi all, I must say I'm interested in this thread, my experience with the Herald is that they have tried to be fair in past elections whether they be federal, provincial or municipal. They get a lot of heat from the public at times depending on the views of the writer, which is good because it keeps them in check, and they get a lot of pressure sometimes from political groups vying for top spots and good news stories, which is not so good but is a realism of our system. To be fair and correct, I got a front page story, so did Katie, so did Dan, hopefully they will do ones for Jukka and Vic but please remember, your decision to vote and who to vote for should be based on the platform of those running, not on the newspaper reports. Finally, I congratulate you on showing enough interest to post here, there are still a lot of people that show little interest in the political process, which is a great pity. Thanks for reading.

[Jamesie]

I agree with you to a certain extent, Julius. I subscribed to the Herald for twelve years, but cancelled by subscription this summer. I felt that the paper had become extremely biased in its local reporting, pushing for example the pro-prison stance and anything the chamber ever dreamed up. They have also seemed to become the official Dan Ashton mouthpiece. Every once in a while James Miller tries to pull back a little and writes an editorial that could be construed as being impartial, but whether he gets berated for that by Andre Martin, or whether he simply does it just often enough to have something to point to when people complain about bias, I don't know. In addition the paper of late has also become extremely devoid of substance.

It is a pity, I think it is a great luxury for a city and region our size to have our own local daily. (Two to chose from would be better, but I understand that there is no way the market could sustain that). So I will probably resubscribe, but I have seen a paper that I really liked gone badly downhill and become very biased in favor of Ashton, Pearce and cronies. Of course the paper is a private enterprise and if you don't like it, don't subscribe. But journalists do have a civic duty and if you are the only game in town, I think that you do have a moral responsibility to report the news in an impartial fashion, and give all sides of the argument a say, as the Herald always did, until a few years ago. Your front page article and Katies were tokens, they would not get away with it if they had not done that, because those were newsworthy local stories in themselves. Anyway, I feel you are right about the Herald if we dismiss the most recent history, but unfortunately that is where the Herald is at now.

[twobits]

Hi all, I must say I'm interested in this thread, my experience with the Herald is that they have tried to be fair in past elections whether they be federal, provincial or municipal. They get a lot of heat from the public at times depending on the views of the writer, which is good because it keeps them in check, and they get a lot of pressure sometimes from political groups vying for top spots and good news stories, which is not so good but is a realism of our system. To be fair and correct, I got a front page story, so did Katie, so did Dan, hopefully they will do ones for Jukka and Vic but please remember, your decision to vote and who to vote for should be based on the platform of those running, not on the newspaper reports. Finally, I congratulate you on showing enough interest to post here, there are still a lot of people that show little interest in the political process, which is a great pity. Thanks for reading.

Well said Julius. Some of the posters here have such a great dislike for Dan that I think they would percieve any press as biased. He is after all the mayor and one has to expect the mayor to appear frequently in the local rag???
If there is any unfair advantage in this campaign to date it is how prolific some candidates are in plastering signs everywhere. To me this is buying a coucil seat with deep pockets. Is there really a need to place four signs within 10 ft of each other at the hospital exit? Is there a need to put 6 signs on 20 ft of guardrail on the industrial ave bridge?
There needs to be limits put on these signs. Ban them from public property. Private property only and maybe that way we could gauge some level of public support rather than who has the largest budget. And in a dream world, people would vote based on platform and not a smiling portrait burned into their retina's from over exposure.

Edit to add- Julius, if you should be successful in getting the big chair would you continue interacting here? Dan Albas was a frequent visitor here and it prooved very popular even with people who didn't really support him.

[Julius Bloomfield]

the question of signs is another reality of our system, my signs went up today, I asked my sign volunteers to be respectful of location and try not to add to the mess, but the fact is that signs make a difference, especially to the non-incumbent. Perhaps we will one day adopt the rules of some countries where election signs are restricted to certain locations, other countries even restrict them to certain billboards put up specially for elections.
As for this forum, I find it useful for getting honest feedback. Most people I meet are very polite and do not question certain aspects of my campaign whereas here the anonymity allows us to be blunt, which is extremely valuable in a campaign. It would also be very useful after the campaign, so yes, I would continue to post here. As you can see I joined a couple of years ago but have never posted until now. I have been a frequent viewer on some threads and a constant viewer of castanet for news, only now have I decided to get involved in the posting and frankly I enjoy it.
Thanks for reading

[XT225]

the question of signs is another reality of our system, my signs went up today, I asked my sign volunteers to be respectful of location and try not to add to the mess, but the fact is that signs make a difference, especially to the non-incumbent. Perhaps we will one day adopt the rules of some countries where election signs are restricted to certain locations, other countries even restrict them to certain billboards put up specially for elections.
As for this forum, I find it useful for getting honest feedback. Most people I meet are very polite and do not question certain aspects of my campaign whereas here the anonymity allows us to be blunt, which is extremely valuable in a campaign. It would also be very useful after the campaign, so yes, I would continue to post here. As you can see I joined a couple of years ago but have never posted until now. I have been a frequent viewer on some threads and a constant viewer of castanet for news, only now have I decided to get involved in the posting and frankly I enjoy it.
Thanks for reading

I saw one of the latest signs (believe it was yours) on Calgary Ave today on a wooden power pole. I believe the rule is that they have to be on city property (or private if the landowner permits it) but NOT on power poles. This is highly discouraged even for yard sales and is illegal under city bylaw. Please inform the people working for your campaign of the rules re sign placement.

[southy]

Yup ... and I just saw another meaningless DA story in the Penticton Herald/Okanagan Sunday (page 2 - News of the week) ... picture and all. Not that I'm going after DA .. just getting tired of how this publication continues to support certain individuals.

[beam-me-up-morrison]

Dan Ashton press conference photo in Sunday paper.
Julius had a follow-up photo the week of his announcement.
Julius also had a Herald weekly column for well over a year, although I doubt he was planning on running for mayor at that time.

As for earlier post about Gary Leaman being pro-mall, anti-downtown.

Let's look at present council members with vested interested in the downtown:
Andrew Jakubeit (wife owns The Grooveyard.. cool place by the way)
John Vassalaiki (owns numerous buildings downtown including The Element)
Mike Pearce (law firm is downtown)
Dan Ashton might still own downtown property, not sure (can check that by reading his declaration on the City Website for candidacy)

So with that logic if Leaman shouldn't run because he's associated with the mall, what about all the downtown people?

[fluffy]

I don't see a lot of political bias in the reporting in of things at the Herald, for that I can always go to the Editorial/Letters pages which are all about opinion as they should be. I do notice that they sometimes tend to latch onto potentially scandalous subject matter but that's what sells, right?

[okanagansoftware]

"The five incumbents for sure. Helena, Jeanine, Gary Leaman (ran second for mayor in '08) and maybe Jason Cox."
I think definitely Jason Cox, as the President of the Chamber of Commerce, it seems like a natural next step, and I would think he knows the city, it's businesses, and the challenges we are faced with quite well.

[Jamesie]

"The five incumbents for sure. Helena, Jeanine, Gary Leaman (ran second for mayor in '08) and maybe Jason Cox."
I think definitely Jason Cox, as the President of the Chamber of Commerce, it seems like a natural next step, and I would think he knows the city, it's businesses, and the challenges we are faced with quite well.

Welcome to the board Jason :)

[Jamesie]

"The five incumbents for sure. Helena, Jeanine, Gary Leaman (ran second for mayor in '08) and maybe Jason Cox."
I think definitely Jason Cox, as the President of the Chamber of Commerce, it seems like a natural next step, and I would think he knows the city, it's businesses, and the challenges we are faced with quite well.

If you like the establishment, the cronyism and the old boys network, Jason's your man. Otherwise stear clear. He is also one of the sore losers who wanted to try for the Conservative party nomination, but lost out against the people who were prepared. Don't misunderstand, this is not a fresh face!

[okanagansoftware]

I'm new to the city, been here less than a year. I don't know anything about any old boys networks, but I do know that as a small business owner, there needs to be some positive change one way or another. I like it here, and would like to see this city become an alternative to Kelowna for small technology companies.

[Jamesie]

I don't see a lot of political bias in the reporting in of things at the Herald, for that I can always go to the Editorial/Letters pages which are all about opinion as they should be. I do notice that they sometimes tend to latch onto potentially scandalous subject matter but that's what sells, right?

In general I think (but cannot know for sure) that the letters represent a reasonable cross-section of what they receive. But as soon as there is a contentious issue (the prison being the most recent example) on which the owners/publisher/editor take a stance, the letters pages become much less representative. The prison, because it was such a hot item, was a good case in point, where there can be no doubt that the letters were being cherry-picked. We have comparable numbers, from several polls and from the letters to the Western. The Herald was running every single pro-prison letter they got, but publishing maybe only half (guessing here), or even less of the anti-prison letters they received. That gave a skewed sense of where the public stood if you went only by the Herald, as was borne out by the poll.