Monthly Archives: May 2007

| Blogosphere, Media

Best of the Free Content

There’s a pattern emerging in the news media nowadays where “journalists” desperate for content and having no original ideas of their own look to blogs and summarize their content.

And then there’s those who simply copy entire blog posts verbatim, and assume that since they’re attributing the content they can do so freely. It’s like if I copied an entire book on my website, but since I credited the author it’s not copyright infringement.

Mama Fagstein (hi mom!) was the first to notice the Toronto Sun “quoting” me in its Best of the Blogs last week. Normally I’m all about being recognized in traditional media, but this one irks me for a few reasons:

  • They got the address of the blog wrong. Since they found the post enough to copy it in its entirety, you’d think they got that part right at least.
  • Nobody contacted me about it. I’m not saying you need permission to point to a blog post, but sending me an email would have gotten my last name, which they apparently couldn’t find with all their journalistic skills.
  • The story doesn’t have a byline. So I have no one to complain to.
  • They got my position wrong. I suppose I can forgive them for thinking “flicking brilliant” was praising the Liberal campaign. But nowhere do I say I “stand by” the campaign. The point of the post was to criticize the NDP criticism.
  • The one sentence of original content got two things wrong.

Not that I’m complaining or anything.

Here’s a bit of irony for you: An example of how to do things right comes from the blog of Toronto Sun employees, who put up a blog post mentioning my post about the Sun’s national editorial policy. You’ll notice they link directly to the post and quote only a paragraph or so of it. And they also keep it well-formatted.

| Media

National wire stories at the West Island Chronicle

Editor Albert Kramberger at the West Island Chronicle announces that the Transcontinental paper’s website will be carrying national news headlines from Canadian Press for the benefit of its readership.

Why bother?

Seriously, there are so many reasons why this is a pointless waste of money that I don’t believe I’ll be able to list them all. But let’s try anyway:

  • Canadian Press is everywhere. Metro and 24 Heures rely on it for almost all their content, and established media like the Globe and Mail, CTV and CBC use it to supplement their own online coverage. Even some websites not based here, like Breitbart and Yahoo! News use the service. This is because compared to the cost of actually hiring journalists, CP is crazy cheap, especially online. By now most people have found their preferred source of Canadian news and the last thing we need is another source.
  • For some inexplicable reason, they’re providing national news but not international news. Does Chronicle readers’ interest stop at the border?
  • Who goes to their local weekly paper’s website for national news? The website doesn’t even try to make itself into a portal for daily information, so it boggles the mind why anyone would use it as such.
  • Most Chronicle subscribers, if they’re even remotely interested in news from outside their community, also subscribe to The Gazette, The Globe and Mail or The National Post which provides these stories in their papers.
  • Further reasons are left as an exercise to the reader (read: I’m too lazy to think of more)

By the way, who the heck is this girl, and why must I see her on every page?

| Blogosphere, Public transit

Prochaine station … oh who cares?

With the Laval metro stations up and running, some young angryphones are griping about the lack of metro service in the West Island. Having spent 20 years of my life in Pierrefonds, and five of those regularly commuting downtown, I sympathize.

But there’s a good reason why the metro won’t be extended West from where it is now:Metro extension

That’s 10 km of mostly wasted tunnel travelling under uninhabited areas including the Taschereau rail yards, two highways, the Lachine industrial park and an airport runway.

At a cost of $150,000,000 per kilometre, the price of this extension to the airport terminal would cost about $1.5 billion.

Okay, you say, that’s big, but we can afford it, right?

Well, do you have $6,000 to spare? That’s how much each West Islander would have to pay the government to make this a reality.

Consider some alternatives, if you will, for that $1.5 billion:

  • Add 100 buses to the STM’s network for shuttle service to downtown points from various locations (Dorval, Fairview, Roxboro), and keep them running seven days a week for 40 years.
  • Create a high-speed rail link to Dorval airport and increase commuter train service on the Dorion-Rigaud line.
  • Multiply existing commuter train service 100-fold for 100 years.

My solution to this problem? Unsurprisingly, it involves increased commuter train and bus service to the West Island.

The 211 bus running along Lakeshore is insanely popular among southern West Islanders, because it’s a 7-day regular service bus that’s an express shuttle downtown. On the northern West Island, which is much worse served (except for commuter trains to Roxboro), the 470 Express Pierrefonds provides shuttle service from Fairview to Côte-Vertu, but only during rush-hour. Having an all-day shuttle from Fairview to the metro would save commuters as much as 20 minutes per trip.

I’m sure you can think of other express shuttle services that would serve the West Island well. And all of them put together would cost much less than extending metro service here.

UPDATE: More metro dreaming in this post, with maps.