Local Press Part of Problem, Not Solution

OPINION

This week Editor Frank Bucholtz of The Langley Times too yet another opportunity to back his buddy, Township Mayor Rick Green. This is the same editor that announced in his Opinion piece back in 2008 that Township voters should really pay more attention to local property tax issues. Throwing former Mayor Kurt Alberts under the bus just days before the municipal election.

Well Mr. Bucholtz your latest rant and other press focus on the fireworks as you see them and the sensation headlines. Truth is, you haven't graced Council Chambers for much of anything, but you appear in the press to speak with authority.

The fact is, Cllr. Grant Ward spoke against wasteful 1/4 page advertising for Mayor's Forums, when a Council meeting notice garners a few inches and is much more important. So while Editor Bucholtz is so concerned about local property taxes, he is willing to white wash Mayor Green's story. Why on earth would the good editor fight a larger Township ad in his newspaper? Don't they make more money from the larger ad with Green's smiling mug? AND Bucholtz must have been really livid when some councillors suggested putting the discretionary ads out to tender and giving that to the lowest bidder.

The budget and taxes is an important issue and is as important as the other issues The Times listed. The Times fails to remind readers that Green was elected to cut the budget and do all kinds of new things, all part and parcel of his election platform. The headlines that this week's Times and Advance ran certainly got the attention of lots of readers. But they failed to address the real issues and that was that Mayor Green had direct say into the ad's content, design and size. He also authorized the expensive 14 months of such advertising, all while voting against the budget and booming his rhetoric about why he couldn't vote for the budget. Well Mayor Green, those budgets you voted against were the ones that paid for your advertising bills. Advertising with a campaign picture certainly geared to boost your position for the next election that two years ahead you have already announced your candidacy for.

The local press should really start providing balanced coverage of factual events. Their attitude and coverage impacts this community and all of the whining that has resulted from Mayor Rick Green's administration. Green is very good at painting himself as a victim along with his cohorts. But Green is directly responsible for the division in the Township of Langley and for his lack of any concrete results. Time to call a spade a spade. Editor Bucholtz and others need to consider the welfare of our community over advertising sales, hypocrisy and sensationalism.

You Be The Judge

“On the Freedom of Information that you talked about, there was a description…ah.. and I believe it said drop-in - the words drop-in was circled or squared or something and I said larger. That is correct, the words were larger. I did not have anything to do with the size of the ad.” --Mayor Green

You see the document for yourself above (click to enlarge). The Langley Advance (click) reports the entire ad was circled and The Langley Times (click) also reports the entire ad was circled. You be the judge.