Talk of the Town

Talk of the Township of Langley this week included more overt attempts by the media to shape public opinon. First a local editor controlled by the slate focused his laser on people the slate love to hate as he covered the campaign financial disclosures. Instead of praising their honesty, he singled them out....no surprise. What was shocking was this man's inability to resist dragging an older pillar of our community into the whole campaign donation discussions. What was his motive for this? Clearly it was to discredit this person. Shameful.

Next, a Vancouver-based princess complained that that bootlickers were required to be dispatched from her centre of the universe media palace, because the ToL requires people to appear in person to review the campaign financial data. A commendable smart data security feature that requires people who wish to view the data to sign a register. Apparently the princess objected to having to work for her story.

Again the editor of the Langley Mimes could not resist another opportunity to take a cheap shot at slate opposition councillors, so his Friday edition included another round of campaign finance attacks that now included some inuendos about the ALC and a former mayor. The silliness reached a zenith when a long 1997 development story was weaved, only to find that the candidate receiving the money wasn't even on council in 1997! What was his point with all this nonsense?  Again, discredit people and drive public opinion against them. The slate was left untouched and even praised by Friday. One member of the slate insinuated that donations were not solicited. Well, we have proof that people were contacted and a run for mayor was seriously entertained by this person who failed in the attempt to raise the booty.  

Our Editorial Board has been talking to many members of our community this week (as always) and we can tell you that a certain editor and his newspaper may suffer greatly for their partisan press tactics. It is now very apparent that the South Asian community is VERY upset that in the campaign finance reporting,  they feel their developers have been singled out. Also, some big advertisers are reconsidering their budgets to this particular rag and changes may be afoot. If this editor and his paper continues down this trail, we may see him and his newspaper online next to the Langley Record, imagine that!