Love of money betrays the cause

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, February 22, 2009

The protests against Jerry Lewis and his MD Telethon by disability activists is typical of a charity gone wrong. The same thing is happening on PEI with the abuse of disabled children by Rotary, Easter Seals and CBC Charlottetown. Well meaning groups have fallen behind the times and get stuck because the money is too good. It doesn’t have to be that way with Rotary on PEI and MDA don’t have to abuse children either. But money is a powerful drug.

When the the Muscular Dystrophy Association started fund raising with Jerry Lewis decades ago standards were different. We were called crippled children back then. We weren’t expected to grow up, get jobs, have sex and children. I’m not sure why. Does one bodily defect mean everything is broken? Fund raisers needed celebrities and the more flamboyant the more money was raised. Hence Jerry Lewis who is so nutty he doesn’t have a North American film audience. Too weird for us but the French love his slapstick.
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ANOTHER NEWSPAPER FAILS TO COME TO GRIPS WITH THE END OF TRADITIONAL MEDIA

By The Cournalist, Citizen Journalists of Santa Cruz, CA, USA, February 21, 2009
Some people just never learn.

In an editorial this past week, the Chicago Sun-Times touted its unraveling of Sen. Roland Burris’s shadowy fund raising for ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich as proof that traditional newspapers will endure.

The facts report a much different story. Newspapers in their current form are dangerously close to extinction. A perfect storm of paralyzed housing and car markets and a volatile economy have destroyed advertising revenue for papers across the country. The wild success of Internet companies like Ebay and Craigslist have only contributed to the mess. Newspaper ad revenue fell 14 percent in the first half of 2008, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Future outlooks aren’t so optimistic.
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The disabled are not freaks for your freak show

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, February 20, 2009
with a story from FREDA, Jerry Lewis humanitarian award demonstrations set for this weekend

Just like Americans with disabilities don’t want the Jerry Lewis TV freak show, we don’t want your stinking Easter Seals Show on CBC March 1, 2009. We don’t want to be your trussed up little moneys wobbling across the stage at the Confederation Centre so you can feel sorry for us. We don’t want your stinking money. It’s all guilt money.

“Oh look Martha, he’s so pitiful and cute. And he doesn’t drool much.”

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By Stephen Pate, NHN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, February 19. 2009
With story from Canada Press

This is not news – we’ve been predicting it for months. When you need to make tens of millions of dollars and your audience and advertisers desert you, tough times are ahead. The layoffs at Transcontinental have started as reported by CP yesterday, 1,500 employees across North America. That represents 10% of their workforce. The Guardian and the Journal Pioneer are asking employees to take an unpaid week of leave.

“It’s the first time we have endured such a drastic situation,” founder and chairman Remi Marcoux said Wednesday ahead of Transcontinental’s annual meeting. The Montreal-based company faced little impact and resorted to minimal cuts during recessions in 1981 and the early 90s. But the rapid deterioration of the economy this time has reduced spending by its customers, with commercial printing projects, direct mail projects and magazine ad placements cancelled or postponed.

Recessions aren’t new as Marcoux notes; however this one is deeper than we’ve ever seen, because few of us were alive during the depression. I hadn’t realized how bad things were until I watched Frontline program Meltdown on PBS. Did you know the world banking system stopped, as in didn’t function in September 2008? After the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings on September 15th, 2008, banks stopped lending or doing any business with anyone. Fear had entered the market. You can watch the story on line at Frontline Meltdown.
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By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, February 16, 2009
with stories from The Guardian

Some days The Guardian is so bad at reporting the news you wonder what’s going on down there. Today was typical and it gets my goat. The Editorial comes out squarely on the side of closing small rural schools. They report Wes Sheridan’s budget woes but won’t report a solution like stop the patronage waste. To make sure we get the real news, they devote 17 column inches plus 2 pictures to a really important story – dog licenses go up $5 in Stratford. It’s like reporting your house is on fire but not calling the fire department. Or that bizarre story with photo op of the homeless man but waiting for a reader to call Social Services. They just don’t get it at the Guardian. They’ve been feeding us pablum for so long they didn’t notice we moved on to other sources.
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Protect your right to free speech and freedom of the press over the internet

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, February 16, 2009with story from Canadian Press

Plans to review Federal Canadian regulation of internet and cell phone media is waste of time and dangerous to the economy. While the old economy of newspapers, television networks and cable are dying, the internet is supporting a whole new world of creative media. Government control only benefits the established providers who are boring young Canadians to tears.

Canadian Press reports “The federal broadcast regulator will begin hearings on Tuesday in Gatineau, Que., to review its policy of allowing broadcasting content to be unregulated on the Internet and cellphones. Predictably, there are those who want rules to ensure Canadian content on the Internet and there are others who believe home-grown content already has a presence on the Internet without the encouragement of regulations.”
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Bigotry against Acadians now squelching freedom of speech

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, February 15, 2009

Well well our friends at Cymbria Lions Club don’t believe in freedom of speech, expression, opinion and of the press. They closed their Facebook site today and booted me off. Probably because they know they’ve lost the battle to stop the French school. I wrote that up this morning Cymbria Lions Club on a losing streak and these Lions are not like Lions in the rest of the world – they get sore.
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Big money and control freaks

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, February 10, 2009

Newspapers don’t get it. We don’t want to be controlled by them. Web 2.0 is about community, feedback, dialogue – the stuff of democracy. Newspapers will fail. The Guardian is likely to fail because Don Brander the publisher and Gary MacDougall the editor hate freedom of speech. They banned my comments for months.

You’re reading them here. Are they scandalous? Lots of bad language? Filthy gutter talk? Calling for the return of communism? Naw, none of that. Just the news and opinions on the news. A man I don’t know called me a hero at the PEI Rural Alliance yesterday and told his son to shake my hand. “There’s a hero son. Stephen is only one on PEI who tells the truth.” I blushed. Don’t worry. It won’t go to my head. Too much hair up there to get light headed.
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Or is she a right-wing Fascist

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI Canada February 8th, 2009

Obviously Gail Shea can’t read, at least the Charter, because she doesn’t care about Freedom of the Press. Stompin Tom went to school in Skinner’s Pond and he can read. How come she can’t. She took down not only the West Prince Graphic article I posted on her Facebook page. Then she took down the story I wrote about it. Conservative Gail Shea Censors Freedom the of the Press

What kind of a country is this where the elected MP’s, sworn to uphold the law, defy the Charter of Rights and freedoms. You know that Stephen Harper is going to have to speak to Gail. First she forgot all her manners since she left PEI and went to Ottawa. Second she’s going to give him a bad name. Stephen is a big supporter of Charter Freedoms like the press and free expression. I think I’ll send him and email and cc all the other MP’s.

They’ll
want to know
About Gail
Without fail
Hope she doesn’t
Go to jail
with no bail

File under: Get your news by Pony Express

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, February 8. 2009

The reason that newspapers are dying is they just don’t get it. They’re not hip, cool or into the modern era. I was doing a little research and discovered that the Halifax, Nova Scotia paper the Chronicle Herald didn’t post it’s writer’s and editor’s email addresses. Aren’t they the ones who laid off staff last week? How do they get their stories, Pony Express? Perhaps they use snail mail. No, faxes are the way to send in stories. Yeah, by the time I dust the dirt and papers off my 1985 model fax to send them a story, my life will be over. In the same club of dinosaurs are the Moncton Times Transcript and all the CanadaEast.com papers – St. John, Fredericton Daily Gleaner. Right up with modern times in news gathering. Also in this dubious club of nearderthals is the Montreal Gazette. Sell your shares while you can.

News Corp. has reported a loss of $6.42 billion in last quarter

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, February 8th, 2009
with a story from ADWEEK

I don’t know how bad your week was but Robert Murdoch’s News Corp. has a corporate migraine after bleeding $6.42 billion dollars in 3 months. To add insult to injury, the company’s assets officially lost $8.4 billion in value. Hit me once. Hit me twice. Ouch. “Speaking to analysts during News Corp.’s FY Q2 earnings call, chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said the results “are a direct reflection of a recession that’s deeper than anyone could have predicted,” adding that the global economic climate is the worst he’s seen since the company was formed 50 years ago,” reports ADWEEK. The recession is killing ad business but it’s readers that are driving the car away from traditional news sources. People just don’t watch TV like they used to and they don’t read newspapers. News Corp media properties include familiar names like 20th Century Fox, FOX and Star TV, National Geographic cable, Fox Cable, BSkyB, Sky Italia, Wall Street Journal, NY Post and Times of London. The bad news is everywhere in the advertising and media business.

In a swift move this morning, Conservative MP Gail Shea removed a West Prince Graphic article from her Facebook page

by Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, February 6, 2009

Conservative MP Gail Shea, Egmont (West Prince, PEI) moved quickly this morning to restrict Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech on her Facebook page. The story Spinfree: Federal budget a failure for Shea was first printed in the West Prince Graphic and Eastern Graphic. Written by publisher Paul MacNeill, the story criticizes Shea for failing to deliver much needed benefit to her home province.
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On Blogs, bloggers and the media

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown,PEI, Canada, February 6, 2009

There’s a new kid in town The Island Voice Tribune written by Chris Dumont from Charlottetown. I’ve never met Chris that I remember. Blogger’s don’t usually meet. We write. Let’s see if he’s a Facebook friend. No Chris is not on Facebook. That’s strange. Chris has been blogging just since January 2009. I Googled him and he posted a good comment on the Guardian, as opposed to troll comments, about Speaker Casey on July 6, 2007. I like his blog. He’s got cool gossip that’s often right on the money. He has edge. Edge is good. As soon as the CBC find him, or he pricks their thin skin, they will put one of their star reporters to build him up and smear him down. The Guardian will tolerate him until he takes a shot at them and then he’ll have to re-join the pack of anonymous cowards on the comment boards. It’s all hubris with the media. Cool blog Chris. Keep it true and radical. And now some music courtesy of the Eagles, of course…

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By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada February 6, 2009

As the old time broadcasters and newspapers feel the pinch from the BIG SHIFT, they are scrambling to be sweet, awesome and then cool. George Stroumboulopoulos is working CBC Charlottetown sort of deal. So we get a new face but it’s not cool, or anything more than Mother CBC telling us things. If you want to comment, got to sign in and all that foolishness. At the Guardian, Gary MacDougall reigns like a queen bee over comments so who gives a rats ass. They post your videos but only what they want. CBC only post their videos because they own the camera right? Or they have a dumbed down contest you can join to be Senator Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man for a week. Who cares? Still the Guardian is a good place for a rant with the trolls but after awhile you drift away and start your own blog, take a video with your cell phone of your friends being radical and post in on YouTube. Everybody downloads it and re-mixes it with their stuff and posts it again. It’s simpler and if you want the news, it’s out there but who believes it anymore.

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, February 6, 2009

Now that newspapers are falling on the rocks of hard times and technological change, out come the fat-cat bleeding heart publishers and owners begging. They’re begging for your tax dollars, subscription dollars, any dollars you will part with under the theory your local newspaper works for you. That is a pretty bold lie. Newspapers are some of the richest businesses in the world and can be owned by crooks like Conrad Black. Money usually attracts thieves. The Guardian when it was sold 7 or 8 years ago to Transcontinental was making about $5 million a year in profit. Yes, profit money that went into the jeans of the owners. Don’t feel sorry for them because they don’t care about you. Just your money.
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By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, February 5, 2009

Private “I” James Petrie is threatening NJN Network with a lawsuit if we don’t withdraw the story Private “I” wants dope on Immigrant Scam. We have no intention of withdrawing any story. The story is based on the facts, both as reported in the Guardian and in personal correspondance with the writer. Get real Petrie: you can’t reveal your game, begging us to be you water boy and then sue when we reveal it. Petrie is nothing if not verbose: his reply to our little 134 word story took a jaw-dropping 470 words to spit out. We have Freedom of Expression and Freedom of the Press in this country and nothing in the story is wrong. Get yourself 2 lawyers. Fill your boots as we say in Kings County PEI. Get 4 if you like. This could get to be a free-for-all, with all these people suing, investigating, Auditor Generalling, stonewalling, Swiss banking, Mercedes driving and golf club luxury home buying.

As representative of big money and big goverment, we’re not so sure

Ed: the former Star publisher forgot about less is more.

John Honderich
TORONTO STAR

Whither serious print journalism?
Five years ago, such a question might have intrigued only news junkies. Today it should concern us all. That same five years ago, newspapers were still flourishing. While the Internet was making its mark, there was no talk of print Armageddon. Yet today the industry is in turmoil. Cutbacks and layoffs are the order of the day, and some are questioning whether newspapers will be around. Indeed, some aren’t. Some are only online; others don’t publish Mondays anymore.
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Newspaper closings are an epidemic

Ed: that’s sad news about the Halifax Chronicle Herald. My dad wrote sports there in the 40’s. The reporters drank and played craps against the wall after midnight while the proofs were printed . That was the newspaper business back then, just like in the movies. I wrote a music column for the Halifax Mail Star, the afternoon paper, in the 60’s. I earned $5 a column and all the records I wanted plus free tickets to live shows. Those were great days, long gone now.

AP

A drop in advertising amid tough economic times is exacting a toll on Canada’s newspapers, with the Halifax Chronicle Herald giving layoff notices to almost a quarter of its newsroom staff while the Globe and Mail revealed details of a previously announced plan to cut 10 per cent of its workforce. “It’s a terrible day,” Dan Leger, the Halifax newspaper’s director of news content, said Tuesday. “It’s an absolutely horrible day.
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By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, February 4th, 2009

The Guardian is fighting back with a top secret spy mission. My son sent this Facebook message from an undisclosed location,

“Some chick from the Guardian that I’ve never heard of tried adding me as a friend on Facebook. I removed her and asked why she was adding me, never answered. I can only guess she was hoping to dig up info on you for a story. Can’t remember her name, but she was young…around my age or younger. Anyway, just seemed fishy to me.”

I guess I’ve been getting under Gary MacDougall’s skin along with the Robert Ghiz Liberals and UPEI. They’re going to do an expose on me.

God, I wonder what someone can’t find out just by asking. Of course research at the Guardian is always a little dodgy. Press releases from the government are printed without question. They refuse to print stories about disabilities unless Myrtle Jenkins-Smith approves them. Gary is friends with friends of friends. I’ve published over 1,400 articles. There are 56 pages of Google references to Stephen Pate including my famous cousins the PGA golfer and the other one who’s a cyclist. Surely enough material even for a slow reporter.
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File under: why the CBC was called Compost in Kings County

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, February 3, 2009 with an out of date story from CBC

I’m sure glad I watched CBC Compass tonight to find out the newspaper business is in trouble. Wow! Is that news. Let me check my 2008 archives. Yes I did a story on Will newspapers survive the recession / depression? What was that date? November 27, 2009 yes that was it – 69 days ago. I wish I was earning those big CBC salaries so I could sit on my fat arse all day and write up obituary columns. I’d pass it off as news. I’d be waiting for a government press release to tell me what to report. How does our public broadcaster have the nerve to be so out-of-date. Even the US media are reporting the story. For the love of God, what have PNP bribes done to those people? Of course if you get a couple of hundred thousand dollars in free money, well it goes to your head. Makes you giddy or lazy. Old news is no news.

So the Journal Pioneer is at risk. That was hard to figure. The paper is so thin you can read a newspaper through it. It reports less news than the Guardian, supports the fervent “You’re From Away” campaign right smack dab in the middle of the tourist season and general is not COOL. Well dead is out and cool is in. Catch our re-write of CBC – the rest of the story they never report. I think the Pioneer is testing the waters for local support.

Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, Feb. 3 2009 with story from Media Memo by Peter Kafka

When a Wall Street Bull tells you to sell a stock, you don’t hesitate and Pali Research analyst Rich Greenfield just put out a sell recommendation on Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. News Corp owns TV, film studios, MySpace and newspapers. “Greenfield has cut his recommendation on the company from a “Buy” to a “Sell.” His logic: ‘While we have long viewed Rupert Murdoch as the most visionary CEO in the media sector…we are increasingly surprised/frustrated with his lack of strategic direction related to News Corp’s television station, newspaper and book publishing assets.’” It’s the same story everywhere: newspapers are a bad investment because they have no profit model in today’s economy.

Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, Feb. 3 2009with story from Associated Press

How can newspapers with millions of dollars in overhead, corporate rules about what to say and sluggish organizational structure compete with millions of people generating information at source? They are going to change and only the swift will survive. None of my 5 adult children subscribe to a daily newspaper. That’s a whole generation who get information on a cell phone, iPod and maybe a computer. It’s not about newspapers: it’s about the fact people get their information a whole new way. There are hundreds of stories about newspapers falling on hard times, laying off staff or worse going bankrupt. The newspapers have decided to fight back with Pollyanna stories about how great things are. The Guardian has gone on the offensive and we’re being treated to a thicker paper with more stories. Yesterday they bragged about having millions of readers on their website. It’s all whistling past the graveyard.
Associated Press By JAY REEVES

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Several newspaper executives launched a public relations campaign Monday to counter what they call “gloom-and-doom” reports of the industry’s demise. Sure, they admit, times are tough. The economy is bad, the Internet has sucked away advertising dollars and people are losing jobs. But the 100 million people who read a newspaper the day after the Super Bowl outnumbered the TV audience for the game, the group said in an advertisement that appeared Monday in more than 300 daily newspapers, including The New York Times and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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Easter Seals is PEI’s best televised freak show, get your cheque books ready folks

Stephen Pate, PEI Disability Alert, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, Feb. 3 2009

This is the third in a series of articles on child abuse in the annual Easter Seals Telethon sponsored by CBC and the Charlottetown Rotary.

CBC should decide if it has humanitarian values. If so educate your staff. Otherwise, get out of disability pubic relations stunts and admit you’re just a cynical news organization. Don’t hide behind our skirts anymore to raise your public goodwill. The Easter Seals campaign to raise money for the disabled is an abuse of the public and the children involved. A photogenic, disabled child is suited up like a monkey in the circus and run around the country to deliver a positive message of “can-do”‘isms despite the real problems in his or her little life. Once the campaign is over, the money banked, the child is abandoned by Rotary and CBC never to be seen again. As a national public institution, CBC is cynically using the children like that dope-on-a-rope Jerry Lewis and his offensive MD Telethon. Does the fact this has been going on for 30 years make it right?
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From Media Daily News, January 31, 2009

Late Friday saw more grim news for big newspaper publishers, with dual announcements of more staff cuts from A.H. Belo and the Los Angeles Times. The news came not long after allegations of misused funds at the Rocky Mountain News-Denver Post joint operating agreement (JOA). A.H. Belo said it will lay off 500 employees at four of its daily newspapers, including the Dallas Morning News, or about 14% of the company’s total workforce of 3,550. Following 500 cuts in summer 2008, altogether the company has slimmed its workforce by about 25% in less than a year. Also on Friday, the Los Angeles Times said it will lay off 300 employees, including 70 newsroom staffers, or 11% of the editorial staff. The rest of the cuts will fall on the paper’s production and distribution operations.
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Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, Feb. 1 2009

Have you noticed that the week after the Guardian announced cutbacks and layoffs, the paper doubled in size? For the first weeks of January it was thinner than air. All of a sudden they’ve got the wind in their sails again and we’re getting something to read in them mornings. That’s the way to do it. Don’t give up the ship. If a newspaper wants to die earlier than later downsizing the coverage is the way to go.

In 1981 they predicted what we have today. Reading the paper still feels good but the waste of paper and flat format is a passing thing.

Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, January 29, 2009

If the newspaper business is in trouble, the trouble won’t go away. People want information, more than ever before but they don’t trust newspapers to dish it out. The following article was published by an ex-employee of the Gannett chain, a large publisher of local papers, USA Today and TV stations. Sounds like our Transcontinental which owns and controls the Guardian and Journal Pioneer. Newspaper chains are about profit. Local news comes from local ownership. What we have on PEI is controlled news, what they want us to see. If we try to get close to the truth, we get slapped back because orders from far-away publishers are more important.
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By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI Canada, January 27th, 2009
with story from The Guardian

Although she doesn’t live in the trailer park which is the subject of the IRAC hearings, “Stephanie Hoganson, who lives on Harley Street in Charlottetown” apparently is the photo pic for the Guardian. Hey it works in Toronto for those commuters why not PEI? Good luck to the residents of Idlewheels Trailer Park with their appeal. If it works out for them, it will be a triumph of people over profit.

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI Canada, January 27th, 2009
with story from The Guardian

Yesterday we reported with some disbelief the PEI deficit had disappeared Hocus pocus poof says Wes Sheridan. “The press release by the government is both preposterous and ill-timed at once.” Later The Guardian reported $42 million deficit comes in at $3.6 million. 17 of their readers didn’t believe the story, some with more colorful words. Read the rest of this entry »

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI Canada, January 27th, 2009

Bailouts are a dime a dozen these days. GM needs one in the US but doesn’t in Canada. Americans generally sneer at Canada for being “socialist”, especially the right wing commentators. The New Hampshire, student paper at University of New Hampshire, reports that France is supporting newspapers by giving 18 year-olds a free newspaper subscription. Read the rest of this entry »

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, Janaury 26, 2009

CBC News is nothing more than a press release venue for the government. Friday’s story Summerside Raceway gets promised federal cash was all boosterism for Minister Shea, the federal government, Mayor Stewart and the horsemen. Not one word was uttered from critics of gambling on PEI who don’t want another casino. Nor did we hear from those who feel 100 horsemen is not an industry deserving of massive government support. Of course, if CBC reported that then its political reporter John Jeffery might have to report on his friends in politics.
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By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PE, Canada, Janaury 23, 2009 - CBC reports this morning that 2 people have been laid off and others offered a shorter work week at the Guardian. We knew something was coming. We learned a long time ago when people get cranky, money is usually the first problem. The behavior at the Guardian has been bordering on schizoid. We reported in Guardian bans disability advocate, sells newspapers with disabled child , “What is causing the schizoid behaviour at the Transcontinental, Guardian and Journal Pioneer these days? Are they falling on hard times: desperate men do desperate deeds? Read the rest of this entry »

Are we just a publicity stunt?

Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, January 23, 2009 – There’s lot of and disability publicity with the CBC these days over the Easter Seals but we think it’s phony. Phony because CBC doesn’t give a flying fig about Islanders living with disabilities. CBC dislikes disability stories: they’d rather report on vandalism of a $300 fishing shack. They didn’t report the Statistics Canada story in June about 4,300 Islanders still needing a wheelchair or other assistive device. They didn’t report last June that UPEI took away accessible parking. CTV and The Guardian reported it but it was beneath Compass to cover the story. They didn’t report Stats Can story in August that unemployment is 50% higher among the disabled. We spoke to CBC station manager Henk Van Leeuwen about the lack of coverage but nothing happened. Now that CBC wants the publicity from Easter Seals we’ll get all kinds of disability stories which is pretty self-serving. The disabled are the PR stunt of the month at CBC like flying turkeys on WKRP. Note to CBC: there are 4,300 stories on PEI about people with disabilities, interesting ones that are more important than burning a fishing shack. You can get a story a morning. Ask Laura Meader, she did a great one two years ago. It took her one hour to find Doris Worth.

WE MOVED TO

NJN Network.com

That’s easy!

Click on over and change your bookmarks when you get there.

Oh give me land, lots of land under starry skies above, don’t fence me in…

Most of the financial reporters must have just fallen off the turnip truck when they are amazed the markets fell on Barack Obama’s Inauguration Day. Stock Markets rise rise on speculation and fall on news. Stock prices will be higher prior to major events if they might be better than expected, like a annual or quarterly report, prior to an election or change in the prime. Once the speculators have made their quick buck, the market falls back. Rarely fails to happen.

Will money supplies ease up?

Canadian Press from Yahoo Finance By Julian Beltrame, THE CANADIAN PRESS Sun Jan 18, 11:49 AM

OTTAWA – The Bank of Canada is all but certain to again take an axe to interest rates Tuesday, but as economic woes deepen and money markets tighten – despite aggressive central bank action globally – a sense of the very real limits of monetary policy is emerging. Canada’s central bank has already sliced 1.5 percentage points from its so-called trendsetting rate since October – three points in the last 13 months – but the economy continues to slide, and arguably, credit for companies and consumers is as tight as it has ever been. As well, Canada’s chartered banks are balking at obediently following the Bank of Canada’s tune, as seen last month when they passed on only two-thirds of Governor Mark Carney’s dramatic three quarters of a percentage point cut. Read the Yahoo report

by Stephen Pate
NJN Network
January 18, 2009

After the fracas of last week and the past two months, we are happy to report the Guardian censor has gone on holiday. We hope it’s permanent for the sake of freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Yesterday, all 4 succinctly written comments went up and received all kinds of reader flack. Today a comment on Campbell Webster’s column went up immediately. We are impressed. As reported last week, the Guardian had been refusing to post our comments, or printed them and pulled them off again. Evil Guardian censor rears its ugly head. Quoting from the article we said, “Free speech is not encumbered by some editors’ vicissitudes. With his views on censorship, MacDougall could get a job in Communist China or Premier Ghiz’s office.”
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By Stephen Pate
NJN Network
January 17, 2009
with stories from Associated Press and Fox News

Associated Press AP reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. “Less than two years after it was bought by a private equity group, the Star Tribune has filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. “We determined that the filing was necessary to reduce our operating costs, restructure our debt and create a financially viable business for the future,” Publisher and Chairman Chris Harte said.”

Newspapers are caught in the transition to a new business model and the recession / depression. We don’t need newspapers to get the news. We get it from TV and increasingly from the Internet. On the Internet news is free and we can read it when we like and read what we like. It’s interactive since commenting is encouraged.
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By Stephen Pate
NJN Network News
January 15, 2009

The Globe and Mail carries a Canadian Press story New vehicle sales dropped in November, Statscan reports “New motor vehicle sales fell 7 per cent in November to 129,044, the largest monthly decline since August, 2005.Statistics Canada attributes most of the decrease to lower sales of passenger cars. Prince Edward Island recorded a small increase in the number of new motor vehicles sold.”

In a recession or depression, cash is king.

PEI car sales have not dropped and that is lagging the rest of Canada and certainly North America in feeling the effects of the recession / depression. Our economy is, to a great extent, based on government spending and Federal largess. So much of PEI’s middle class incomes are related to government jobs both direct and indirect.
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By Stephen Pate
NJN News
January 11, 2009
with research from TechDirt

The newspaper we read every morning is at greater risk of going out of business than we realize. Social media is the rage among young readers, many of whom never buy the Guardian or any paper.Increasingly, readers young and old get their information from on-line sources. You are no longer cut-off from the world if the paperboy gets sick.

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