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No more bloggers included in civic-news round-up at the Fortress on 12th

December 9th, 2010 · 11 Comments

As of Dec. 1, an electronic news summary that goes out to councillors no longer included reports on bloggers, as has been the practice in the past. (See the full message on the next page.)

Kind of odd, as it’s not really that hard to keep track of the four blogs that cover the city the most intensively.

Too many doses of annoying, temperature-raising information? I have heard that some blog posts have generated so much angst that various councillors or staffers have made vows not to read any more just to keep their blood pressure down.

Or is it that the powers that be figure that everyone, from the lowliest staffer to the city manager, is reading them obsessively anyway, so why bother? We don’t know as no explanation was offered.

But Councillor Ellen Woodsworth is planning to ask why next Tuesday.

Here’s the memo that went out.

From: Donovan, Thomas
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 8:46 AM
To: Donovan, Thomas
Subject: TODAY’S HEADLINES (Wednesday, December 1, 2010)
Today’s Headlines

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Community Services :

Vancouver Opera to kick off season with opera version of West Side Story Globe and Mail

Safe injection sites will open with or without permission montrealgazette.com

Park board may close washrooms and cut cleaning Vancouver Courier

City councillor floats downtown public square plan Vancouver Courier

Planning talk; Grandview-Woodland is next in line to receive a community plan Vancouver Courier

Governance :

Survey finds a quarter of Vancouver city employees lack confidence in city hall Globe and Mail

Low morale among city workers, survey finds Vancouver Sun

Less than half of employees think City of Vancouver well-run, survey shows Georgia Straight

City workers happy with jobs, less happy with brass METRO VANCOUVER

Vancouver gets a failing grade from city’s employees QMI Agency

City workers not a happy bunch CKNW AM 980

Transfer payments Vancouver Courier

Mayor & Council :

Mayor Robertson an acolyte of global green plutocrats Vancouver Courier

Olympics :

Steep discounts likely part of Olympic village strategy, marketer says Globe and Mail

Policing :

Former gang associate appeals to students to choose a better path Vancouver Sun

Fired Vancouver Cop Pleads Guilty to Drug Trafficking Vancouver Sun

Sun helps launch anti-gang video contest for B.C. high school students Vancouver Sun

Jim Chu: Vancouver’s top cop CTV NEWS

Cop pleads guilty to drug trafficking The Province

Outrage greets officer’s conviction on assault charge The Province

Cop found guilty of Kits assault QMI Agency

Former police officer pleads guilty QMI Agency

Sustainability :

Some landowners using community gardens to get a tax break Special To The Sun

Transportation :

TransLink targets fare cheats The Province

Yesterday’s Headlines

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

City Services :

Trees destroyed in Vancouver (Segment features Mayor Robertson) GLOBAL NEWS

Policing :

Drugged driving GLOBAL NEWS

Hearing ordered in Vancouver police beating case ctvbc.ca

VPD veteran charged with assault; Ex VPD officer admits to drug dealing CTV NEWS

VPD assault hearing CTV NEWS

Blogs will no longer be included in these summaries

Categories: City Hall Talk

  • Diane

    I don’t know, Frances, maybe it’s a case of “if we just ignore them they’ll go away”?

  • Morven

    This is the modern equivalent of being “banned in Boston”. Then that was a surefire indication the play/book was worth reading.

    Now, all this new policy does is tell us that the city communications officers just do not understand what makes citizens interested. Now the conspiracy theories will flourish unchecked and we will believe, correctly or incorrectly, that the city is out of touch.

    An indirect impact is that communications between senior staff and elected officials falls even more into the arms of the senior officials.

    Political analysts call this capture of the elected officials by the unelected officials.
    -30-

  • Bobbie Bees

    Sadly I think this is the end result of ‘too much of a good thing’.
    Too many bloggers, some intelligent, some not so, venting their spleens.
    It’s nice of Frances to state that there are only four bloggers that need to be paid attention to, but I’m pretty sure that the bloggers not included in that holy quad will have something other to say.

    I enjoy bloggers. To me it’s like going down to the local coffee shop and listening to the opinionated old guys in the corner debating politics. Always something interesting will be said. Always a new view or a new angle. But definitely not something that I would use as my sole source of news and information.

    Sure, I put bloggers one or two notches up from the corporate media, but still, it’s one person’s view and opinion.

  • Max

    If you can’t CONTROL the messenger, IGNORE the message.

    I’m waiting for quotes from Gregor’s Little Green Book to start being sent to staff as Dr. Ballem educates us on Council’s good work.

  • The Fourth Horseman

    Gee, this thread is a little, er, “threadbare”.

    Come on Frances. Let’s get the traffic numbers up. Change the title here to read:

    ‘No more BIKE bloggers included in civic-news round-up at the Fortress on 12th’

    …and let’s see what happens in the comments section. 😉

    Judging by the msm headlines generated in this sample media monitoring brief, maybe adding bloggers would just be considered piling on!

  • Julian Christians

    What size of audience do you think is reached by the blogs, compared with the MSM? If the blogs are reaching a relatively small audience, it’s not too surprising (or offensive) that they are left out – I assume the point of the round-up is to help councillors (and staff?) keep on top of what messages people are getting about city hall.

    Also, the spin from certain blogs (not this one, of course) is so predictably critical (or in one case, glowing) that there is little to be learned from reading them, unless one wants to learn new forms of hyperbole and indignation.

  • Frances Bula

    @ Fourthie. Thanks for the suggestion on how to get the traffic up. But I believe if I put Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, lol cats bloggers no longer in included in civic-news round-up, I’d get even more traffic.

    Anyway, I get the feeling people are going into pre-Christmas anti-vitriolic mode, which always seems to slow the typing fingers.

  • Deacon Blue

    If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, it makes no noise. Strictly speaking, that is philosophically true. However, in real life we all know the sound waves ripple out anyhow.

    These are the challenges of the electronic age: Engage or disengage? One would have thought that local government would embrace blogging, maybe even create its own sites to solicit input. It wouldn’t be a perfect sample, not even a representative one, but it could be a vital arm extending the reach of democracy.

    It makes perfect sense to lop it off.

  • The Fourth Horseman

    Frances,

    I have another possibility to add to your list!

    I am told by my old friend Les Wiseman (now teaching journalism at UVIC–gee, I wonder if he gives a course on interviewing the likes of the Ramones and Zappa. Great stories!!) that a certain…uh…female “journalist”, just rewarded a plum posish in an anchor chair, pulls huge ‘Q’ numbers—and is herself the subject of innumerable pictorial downloads from the interweb.

    Shurely, If you post pictures of this lovely lady– interviewing a cat—I believe your comment numbers will rise exponentially. Meowww.

    Yeah, all this “peace on earth” stuff really is a drag on the comments section. It’s that, or your readership is already heavily into the ‘nog…

  • jesse

    We all know the real action is in the comments anyways 😉

    It probably doesn’t do well for morale to hear how pissed off some of the media are. Bloggers wear their hearts on their sleeves.

    PS is The Tyee a blog or not?

  • Glissando Remmy

    The Thought of The Day

    “City Hall hucksters are predicting the return of Halley’s Comet by the end of this year. They figured out, if you don’t look at it, if you don’t read about it, and if you don’t think about it, then, it will eventually go away.”

    Of course, one should take the Halley’s Comet Pills into account, they work like magic, same way they did in 1910. Three times a day, with food.
    Step right up, ladies and gentlemen. Buy your Halley’s comet pills now before they are all sold out. Protect yourself and your loved ones from comet sickness with this amazing remedy.

    Your blogging troubles will vanish. your browsing technique will improve. You’ll be able to Twit during Council sessions undetected.

    If not for the people of this city, then do it for me. Call now: (604) HALLEYS.

    We live in Vancouver and this keeps us busy.