Today on ABC radio, I heard Fiona Sewell interviewing a public transport advocate who was bemoaning the congestion that occurs on our roads, and I don’t disagree with his sentiments. He was particularly focused on the cities southern access and the seriously under-utilised rail corridor that follows the highway most of the way into town. His suggestion was that instead of spending money on the improving the road, the money should instead be allocated to the railway so that it can be duplicated and used as a suburban commuter service. Now this I have problems with.
Someone passed this on - classic!
While there has been a gap between my recent posts, Today’s Cairns Post moved me to write once again. Our dirty little tabloid has once again fallen for sensationalism before journalism. The front page today has our Mayor Val Schier on the cover, with the headline “Cash for Comment”.
Val Schier clearly stated that she knew nothing of any commercial arrangement that was allegedly brokered by the Council’s media manager until Sno Bonneau asked a question in Council at yesterday’s meeting. She has stated that she has no idea how the arrangement came about and would never have agreed to it. (however, this only appears at the end of the article, which is conveniently on another page!). She immediately asked the CEO to investigate the allegation and he reported back that NO money had been paid to 4CA and no invoices have been received. (this also buried at the end of the article)
16
Mar
Unbiased Mistakes?
Current Member for Barron River Steve Wettenhall
What’s going on here then? I was wandering through the election section of the cairns post website today, and I noticed that Steve Wettenhall has had a facelift – perhaps? Sure enough, looking at the page on candidate profiles for Barron River, one could be forgiven for thinking that the LNP candidate is in fact the current sitting member!
In all the candidate profiles except Barron River and Hinchinbrook, the photos of the candidates appear in the same order as the text summaries. And in most cases, the text has the current sitting member as the first entry. Only in the Barron River profile do we see that the LNP candidate has their photo promoted to the top slot – the only area profile to have this “mistake” happen…
On Thursday, March 12 the Cairns Post ran a story titled titled “Showdown on high-rises”
Tom Chamberlain seems to be doing a better job as the new council reporter than his predecessor Roger Dickson who trivialised almost everything. Yes it was the usual sensational headline: “High Rise Show Down,” but the content of the article at least gave a hint of both sides of the discussion.
What the article didn’t make clear was that Mayor Val Schier was not supporting 8-storey buildings. I understand she was saying that Cr Margaret Cochrane was pushing things in trying to force through a motion without giving councillors any notice. Wisely, they decided that they should actually have a workshop on the matter and really talk about where people coming to Cairns are going to live. Sounds like a good idea to me.
Let’s hope the Post will accurately report on their deliberations.
I received an interesting email today:
Dear Bert,
I love commenting on the Cairns Post web site and post quite often under a number of names. The moderators are quite slack to the point of approving comments that are blatant spam. Yesterday I put a comment in on the story “Schier turns weather expert”. Phil of Mt Sheridan (he’s a bit nutty I think) had gone off about how it was Val’s fault that Cairns flooded recently:
1
Mar
On Ya Bike
The Cairns Post breaks another major story
I never miss a Weekend edition of the Cairns Post. There’s always plenty of “interesting stories” in between the real estate ads and bikini girls. Yesterday though, there was a surprise waiting for me in the pages of the Weekend Post – two blokes had been caught by the police riding around Freshwater naked and I knew one of them! So, I gave “Matthew Kean Fenn” a call and he agreed to this exclusive interview for Not The Cairns Post
28
Feb
Good riddance
Mark Alexander has finished up as editor of the Cairns Post. How should we, the Cairns community, regard his mercifully short tenure?
Pretty poorly.
In the couple of years in which he has not contributed in any worthwhile way to this community, he has managed to take the Cairns Post even further downmarket. From being a fairly typical Murdoch rag, it now plumbs the depths of court and police rounds trash, weather/crocodile/drink-driving/pythons beat-ups, rumor, innuendo and scandal, squalid ’stories’ on bikini babes or would be models (always with titillating pictures), racist depictions of indigenous communities, or free plugs in the business section for its real estate mates. And anything that can express its hatred of women, or its determination to exploit them in the grubbiest possible way.
29
Jan
Holy Gavin Strikes Back
Well, for all those who were hoping for a fresh start to the year I am sorry to announce that the Reverend Gavin King is back. Preaching from his pulpit this week, his ramblings are no more relevant or substantial than those of last year.
Who does Gavin King think he is? I notice that he not calling Barack Obama “Uncle Obama” – but he persists on derogatory language when referring to our Mayor Val Schier.
16
Jan
Deep Impact?
The Cairns Post publishes a number of free newspapers in FNQ. One such publication is the “CAIRNS.com.au Free Visitors Magazine”. The aim of the paper, if the glossy Skyrail and Scenic Railway ads are anything to go by, is to try and sell tours to visitors. One un-attributed story in the December/January edition of this fine publication, which mentioned the wonderful crater lakes on the Atherton Tablelands, caught the eye of Not The Cairns Post:
Some closely spaced meteor strikes?
For those not familiar with the geology and geography of the Atherton Tablelands (are you paying attention mystery writer and mystery sub-editor?) they are a volcanic tableland. Lake Eacham and Lake Barrine are volcanic craters formed thousands of years ago. This fact is even mentioned on the cairns.com.au web site!
A very enlightening letter to the Editor today (Wed 7th January), where Mike Berwick states that he was mis-represented by the Cairns Post.
Remember that front page article of a few weeks ago with the smiling Council getting slammed by the Cairns Post yet again. The newspaper portrayed the previous Mayor of Douglas Shire, Mike Berwick as being critical of Mayor Val Shier. But the Cairns Post got it wrong and provided a one sided, biased article (shock horror – what a surprise).
Actually Mike says in the letter “While I have my disagreements with Val Schier, she has my full sympathy in this instance where she is expected to be loyal to a council, the majority of which is undermining her and what she was elected for.”
Good on them for printing a letter which is an admission of one-sided witch hunting by the Cairns Post. Pity that didn’t make front page headlines!