6 — Sunday, September 27, 1998 — North Shore News north shore news VIEWPOINT Biack’s right 'ULD anyone be talking absut David Black this week ’ if he had told his newspa- _ pers to write positive editorials and articles about the Nisga’a deal? ‘Probably not. The owner of 80 community papers made news this week with the revelation that he has directed his edi- tors to challenge the deal. Not surprisingly, critics have had a _sfield day with what they perceive as - manipulation of the fifth estate. ~~ They say Black’s actions typify the “danger of corporate ownership of _ papers, though he is one man, not a ' “corporation. _ say Black’s actions are a heavy-handed attempt by a newspa- per publisher to impose ‘his will and iefs of the editors. ‘Black doesn’t like the Nisga’a deal you said it my ¢ Cuff handing back an unopened copy nal and management review of West er it had been edited for orga ‘Vancouver’ | municipal structure case. (From a Sept. he, 23 News story.) Celi » you keep looking at it (the tick- u don’t believe it because youve been pla SON eae E he N ; Wiring a a,$1. 23 (Nes nt Archie B Baker, on a 17,000 sq. ext door to him in West Vancouver. x inger/: ynigwrrite: Roy Forbes, on son sop 2 25 News This Week sory), — like many British Columbians — and he has told his workers that this is the “company line.” The NDP government has cried foul, yet do we have any choice in the hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent to advertise how great the deal is for everyone? It is the right and the privilege of a publisher, or for that matter any business owner, to use his products to upport his view, Critics of Black would be wise to recall, another B.C. newspaper pub- lisher who used his paper to challenge and eventually topple a government that he regarded as not holding the interests of B.C. citizens at heart. Then again, maybe that’s why there has never been anything named after or erected to former B.C. pre- mier Amor De Cosmo. FREEDOM OF sretcn? 1 Dib NOT INTEGRITY? “a on ying _Nisga’a land claim ¢ Cats. Teyou try | to hug 4 cat and: hold it, it’ and d songurit Publisher has some ght JUST how big a villain — if at all — is David Black, publisher of some 60 BC community news- papers, who wants all of them to dump hard on the treaty? Mr. Black — no rela- tion of Anglo- Canadian ' newspaper czar, Conra Black ofa asked his editors to write and.run < only editorials and opin- ' jon pieces that attack the treaty, including an cight-part series of arti- ‘cles by respected B.C. .” dand claims critic Mel Smith; author of Our Home Or Native Land? The publisher’s announced action has not only sent our boy premier ballistic, it has also had civil liberty types and media _ Moralists everywhere shaking their heads a. * in stern disapproval. :-. By every textbook definition of jour- : nalistic probity Mr. Black’s edict seems, of “ course, outrageous. Bad enough when sleazy foreign dictators throttle freedom of the press. But for editors in a democratic socicty to be muzzled by the boss who signs their paycheques surely has to be the eth- ical equivalent of chicks being eaten alive. by their mother hen. Or so you might think. But maybe this is the one case in a thousand where we should think again. To begin with, boosters of the Nisga’a deal — yet to be ratified by the B.C. leg- islature and the federal parliament — are doneae onoteseenersccoesccssenercsccevecenncees still poing to get lots of exposure in the Black newspaper chain. Straight news stories, even if favorable to the treaty, are not affected. Nor are readers’ letters, the best read section of any paper. If half the population of Terrace writes in saying how happy, they are. for the _ Nisga’a, the Terrace. ” Standard will print, uncensored, all their _ epistles it can find room for. But the biggest expo- . sure of the pro-treaty. case will come in the: multi-million-dollar._- advertising campai ign just launched by the Clark government to soften public opinion into acceptance of the deal. Much as Black detests the ads as “clearly not accurate, clearly full of half: truths,” he will run them. ~ * Cynics may say he can’e afford nog, to, This may be true, But even if he. were:in 4 position to ban the ads, thac'in itself would be a gross distortion of freedom of information, iven the huge areas ‘OF B. GC: blanketed by his papers. So in view of the 8 weight of Victoria’s pro-treaty advertising -— plus favorable | news storics and readers’ letters — he. claims an opposing editorial stafid in his: : . papers is essential in order to achieve a fair “balance.” Black sincerely believes the Nisga’ ‘a: treaty — promoted by Glen Clark asa * “template” for all the other 50-plus treaties still to be negotiated — spells the ruin of this province by providing-a AMENT Hid a model’ for seg the other 9 sweetening the World.a méssage 1 is a dicey place.to do't ’ Personally,’ | age ; ‘British’ Colu thi . “been'eq since then. beloves Better: Ninety it ... Ditto that rthday gi - wish happy Fotis Se; North Van’s Brian’ McCreadie:: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must include your name, full address & telephone number. VIA e-mail: trenshaw @ direct.ca Werth Shore News, founded in 1969 #5 an independent subwbca newspape? and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the Excion Tax Act. ‘*. >cAlished each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by Nortn Shore Free Press tana Resounes Menage = Comptrolie 985-2131 (133) siege Delay Ma Manager General Office Manager Valerie Stephenven Classified Manager Promotions Manager 905-2131 (105). - Photography 985-2131 (100) 906-0222 (202) 985-2131 (218) 900-6511 (207). Entire contents © 197 North Shore Free Press Ltd. Ait rights reserved. :