Angry calls, threats? Part of watchdog’s job
The first clue the man on the other end of the phone was a bit … upset was the volume of his voice coming through the line. “I’M GOING TO SUE YOU.” I pulled the phone away from my ear. No sense letting this guy wreck my hearing in addition to his obvious plan to wreck my day.
“Perhaps you could be a bit more specific,” I said sweetly. Drives them nuts when you do that and I was in just the right mood for some fun, given how this call had started.
“I SAID I’M GOING TO SUE YOU.”
"Yes, I heard that part. I’m just wondering what we’re ‘talking’ about [true, he was shouting, but one argument at time is usually best in any telephone conversation].”
“YOU PRINTED THE RESULTS OF THAT PUBLIC TENDER.”
OK, now I was intrigued.
COVERING VILLAGE COUNCIL
As the editor of a newspaper, I’d seen upteen advertisements calling for public tenders on everything from road work and plowing to trimming trees. It was the stuff that filled the spaces between the classified ads.
“You’re talking about the ‘public’ tenders that were opened at the village council meeting last week? The ‘public’ tenders?”
“That’s right. You published them.”
At least the volume was turned down a bit. Perhaps he was tiring.
Now, covering village council meetings in the 1980s and 1990s was hardly the glamour end of the journalism business. The meetings were always at night. They always ran long. And they were inevitably boring.
But since elected councils spend the public’s money, and the public has a right to know how its money is being spent, we had boots on the ground at their public meetings.
Notice all the "publics" in that sentence?
ROLE OF THE MEDIA
I gently pointed out to Public Tender Guy, who apparently didn’t want anyone to know what his bid had been for whatever job he was hoping to land, that public means just that. I reminded him of the definition of public and the role of the media as a watchdog of the public’s money, and we agreed to disagree.
The watchdog role of the media continues to this day. But it’s getting harder, much harder.
If you missed it, the owner of this newspaper, and 22 more in Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador, is in real financial trouble – seeking creditor protection kind of trouble.
That’s the sort of thing that can happen if your assets are in the $33 million range and your debts are two to three times that amount. There’s some debate over the numbers.
For now, the newsrooms are soldering along, waiting for new marching orders. For the region, any more weakening of the media is bad news.
BOOTS ON THE GROUND
It’s not that politicians – the spenders of the public’s money – are bad people. They’re not. But they get to say yes or no to who gets your money every single day. More for education? More for health care? More to help with housing? Better roads? It’s their call.
And politicians never make friends when they say yes to a request for money. Those getting it assume they deserved it. And those told no? That’s how politicians make enemies.
So boots on the ground at boring meetings where those decisions are made are a key part of the process. We need to see how politicians pick the winners and losers.
The problem is, the economic model that has funded the watchdog for generations is a mess.
Advertisers have fled to Facebook and the rest of the social media universe, plus Kijiji and its ilk, because they built a better mousetrap. There you can target exactly who might want to buy what you’re selling. Newspapers haven’t figured out how to compete with that.
AUDIENCE-PAYS WORLD
So now they need you to pay for your news to make up for the shortfall. And you will, if the news they publish matters to you. But only if it’s local, and you can’t get it anywhere else. That takes reporters.
But too many big chains bought up all the small town papers years ago figuring they could cut costs – reporters – and keep raking in the cash. It worked until it didn’t. Now they must adapt to the audience-pays world. Or face the financial consequences.
It’s not a pretty transition. And while the media recreates itself for a smartphone world, your money keeps getting spent, with fewer and fewer watchdogs to tell us about things like public tenders.
And Public Tender Guy? I never heard from him again. But he had made my day.