Yesterday I wrote about the awful reporting featured in Saturday's October 3, 2009 edition of the Windsor Star, our daily regional paper. Anyone who takes the time to read the statistics will know this paper has monopoly-like control over the news given to our residents.
In my post of yesterday, I pointed out several blatant errors in the story written by famous reporter and super snooper Dave Battagello. He also gave the story a special tilt, just for good measure. Normally I wouldn't bother to comment at such length, but snoop was over the top. Battagello weaved a fairytale about a hoard of senior city employees being forced out of city employment. He pointed the finger at Mayor Francis.
The story was so bad, his list even included people who were not city employees, and some who were not forced out.
Assistant chief honcho Marty Beneteau should have done the right thing. We all make mistakes, and I am being kind here to Battagello: a real apology, retraction and correction was in order. But what do we get from our near monopoly news source?
It appears as if opinion writer Chris Vander Doelen (I confess to knowing and liking Chris) was dispatched to do some damage control. In today's October 6, 2009 edition, Vander Doelen calls the Battagello list "padded" and gives an example or two, or maybe seven, of some folks who were not forced out but left for various reasons. He also tries to give some balance to the Battagello fairytale. But you know, a fairytale is a fairytale.
I thank Chris for his efforts. But this looks like a poor attempt by Windsor Star management at an apology, retraction and correction. What a way to run a ship.
I repeat what I said yesterday: the Windsor Star is the most negative and harmful institution we have in our entire region.
