The New Wark Times‘ article, dated November 13 and entitled “Artistic drawings on Sackville’s Sports Wall of Fame may not be scrapped after all” reported Councillor Black’s following comments:
“Please don’t let yourself fall into the swampy mire of news blogs, improperly moderated social media sites or non-town affiliated Facebook pages that thrive on conjecture, misinformation, populist opinion and falsehoods,” Black said.
Bambi would like to echo a wise comment by her fellow Sackville citizen Mr. Les Hicks (appearing at the bottom of the article above):
“… his advice to instead contact “the people who can make a difference, your elected officials and competent town staff.” I have three issues with this statement. First of all, his ‘swampy mire’ comment appears that it could be directed at The New Wark Times, a news source that to my knowledge has always strived to report the ‘facts’, and in the rare instance where there has been an inadvertent error, I have read Bruce’s written apology for the error along with a correction. Secondly, I have personally contacted members of the town staff and town councillors by email expressing my concerns about various decisions that were made and apart from one reply from a councillor (not councillor Black, by the way) I have received no acknowledgement of my concerns or replies explaining the reasons that certain decisions were made. It seems that factual reporting by reporters like Bruce is the only way to keep up with decisions made by town staff and councillors”.
Bambi has been a regular commentator on the New Wark Times for a very long time. Whether she comments on this news blog or not, she would like to weigh in here:
1. We are lucky to have Mr. Wark in our community. He cleverly and professionally reports news from our town. Bambi admires his professionalism, senior journalism/rigour, passion, and of course humility (yes, he even apologizes for minor inadvertent errors, as mentioned above).
2. Bambi enjoys reading every article by Mr. Wark. She has taken the time to comment and she has enjoyed doing so. At times, she may have been perhaps too direct. She has for sure succeeded in “triggering” an anonymous “Wrayton” who has accused her of being racist twice (just for loving Canada :)). At times, she may have expressed an opinion that may have been perhaps a bit hard to swallow by Mr. Wark himself. Despite this, only once, he did not allow her to reply to the anonymous “Mysterious yet impolite Wrayton”. ALL the other times, he has posted her comments (and her spouses’ comments). Some of these comments could have even been perhaps “risky” for him, who knows? Bambi is referring to the legal saga between her spouse and the Town of Sackville that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. Bambi will forever be grateful for Mr. Wark for being an independent journalist. Bambi knows from her own sister how much it is necessary for journalists to be honest in addition to being rigorous. Mr. Wark is all this at once, in addition to being humble. Indeed, he even published Councillor’s black words above :).
3. Mr. Wark allows us, the citizens of Sackville, not only to be informed but also to have a platform where we can comment (rare in our current times!). Readers can express their concerns, appreciations, frustrations, or simply raise questions. Mr. Wark gives voice to all the citizens, even to those with whom he may not personally agree on some or most matters (Sally, Bambi is thinking of you here :)).
4. To Councillor Black, Bambi would like to say the following: between “populist opinions” (to use his own words) of her Sackville fellow citizens who write blogs or comment on them and the “hypocrisy of elitism” of some of our politicians, Bambi prefers the genuine opinions of regular people. They are usually grounded in reality and filled with pragmatic wisdom. They teach us a lesson, if we want to listen. They can inspire us, if we want to learn. They are valid just because they are the voices of citizens at a particular point in time. Yes, those same citizens whom politicians may forget that they are representing them all. Bambi is not talking about Councillor Black (she hopes he knows that). She is talking in general, even if she may have other examples in mind. She is saying this, recognizing that this observation is valid not only for Sackville but also for Fredericton, Ottawa, Beirut, or any other part of the world.
To conclude this post, thank you Mr. Wark for your amazing journalism. Please keep it up!
