Ok . . . A friend and her two kids picked me up and we headed for Gagetown for the giant Canadian flag.
The snow was coming down very hard and it was slow-moving but we made it.
Her son and I began to mingle in the crowd and we met his Father.
I continued on . . .
I warned the young kid that I would be all over the place. I believe maybe the kid would be bored to death? Who knows?
It noticed a couple of booms on top of the hill.
The word was they were going to use a helicopter. But it was snowing way too hard.
Once there, I noticed many media people around who wanted to go up for a good shot.
Ron Shaw from ATV News is afraid so that was definitely out of the question.
CBC was there and the camera guy went way up there.
I was told that only real media would be allowed.
I quickly told the guy from Fred FM that I was a blogger and I just wanted a picture?
Well? The blogging part didn’t go too well.
I said - Are the Irvings and Fred FM side by side? ...lol
Wrong area for that line because I was surrounded with Irving’s employees!!!!..lol
I wish to let it known again. These workers are good people. I find them very friendly.
I was watching the situation very closely.
I noticed these two young girls playing around with their video camera.
They told me they were from the Journalism school at Saint Thomas!!!
I taught to myself - Great!! More Irving’s employees!!!!
These girls knew who I was and God knows what they discuss about me in their classrooms?..lol
Ok...never mind that!!! This is changing into an me me me blog!!!!
One the girls manage to hitch a ride and good for her.
Now? I knew that I wasn’t going to get in there but I had to think fast?
What to do?
Bingo! I came out with an idea!!!
I gave the camera to the driver and he took a few pictures. I pray that he wasn't a fan of the Irvings or the Government. That would be a long drop for the camera?..lol
I should have given the camera once the red flag were up but then again I wouldn’t have been able to take the pictures on the ground showing behind the scene.
I ran up and down the hill a few time and I’m beat.
Guess what? After all that running? I lost my smokes!!...grrrr.......TheFred crew did their job I guess?
Once inside, the place was pack.
I noticed people making speeches out front so I decided to walk up front to take a few pictures.
There was the scruffy blogger out front but nobody bothered me. < That happened later >
Afterwards, I noticed a room set up for the media.
I noticed Ron Shaw getting ready for an interview.
The Minister Gordon O’Connorgiving an interview and I took a few pictures.
I noticed the Lieutenant Governor and thanked him for the nice picture the other day.
I went outside but and an MP from the Army asked me who I was?
I told the guy that I was a blogger!!! Did you have media credential?
I didn’t have my little play toy media pass with me.
But I believe that everything would be ok but I was wrong. He added that he just threw out two drunken individuals from the building. I sure wasn't drinking!!!
I tried to go back in but a black guy gave the orders that I wasn’t allowed in.
They suddenly had the door locked with soldiers on both side.
I noticed plain clothes people giving me a dirty look so therefore I knew that something was up?
I said to myself - I better get the hell out of here!!!
A scruffy blogger could end up in trouble. Way too much security for this guy!!!
I might add that the if the Irvings can’t take care of me?
THE ARMY WILL!!!!...lol
I quickly located someone and was back in the city in 30 minutes.
It was a good experience and around 3,000 people showed up for the event.
They were lucky the soldiers were there and the snow was white!
I believe that we made our soldiers proud.
Good work!!!!
13 comments:
I apologizes for the terrible grammar in this one. I just read it and it's terrible.
You can tell that I was very tired.
I have to learn to re-read my blog before posting???
Grrrrrrrrr.........
For the record, journalism students at STU are not future IRVING employees!!! We think the Irving papers are shit and discuss the media concentration in our class on a regular basis. Check out our site. We do some good stories, and I think there will even be one on Tim Smith! So THERE!
http://www.studispatches.ca/en/issue.aspx?issue=11§ion=15
While things can surely be better at our provincial papers, I get a kick out of Journalism students who have yet to work in the journalism business slamming a media outlet. Folks, with rare exception, YOU will be fortunate to get your first job at a daily paper. You get to pay your dues at some weekly writing about how the local Town Council is going into its third reading on whether to run the community fountain this year...and THAT's your front page story. It's one thing for you to say they're "s***" but why are they?
With all that being said. I checked out your site and its actually not bad. Some nice angles on the French language issue that generally aren't covered in the MSM. In some fairness to the MSM, I'm guessing you had more than a couple of hours to put these stories together and the deadline probably wasn't the same day (although correct me if I'm wrong). Good luck to you but here's some free advice, calling the outlets you may very well one day want to work for s*** probably isn't a good way to start an interview.
True enough Spinks.....but in this case it's simply the truth....
The Irving Papers are absolutely the worst I've ever seen......"S***" seems to be a pretty susinct way of putting it....
At least give crazys marks for being truthful.....lol
But since your anonymous and on a blogsite, why not speak your mind?
You're not anonymous when you say "I'm part of a STU Journalism class and WE ALL feel the same way." They can do that but man talk about limiting your future job prospects. While I admire a bright outlook, all of the STU students aren't going to be working at The Globe and Mail or CBC upon graduation. They'll be lucky to be at one of those "s***" papers.
I'm often pretty critical of individual stories done by media (or often CBC as a whole) but I'm not planning on working there. The dailies have a far different job to do than the national papers so you're going to get some hokey local news from time to time because that's who they're catering to...the local market not elitist readers. I'd like to see more from the dailies too but future journalists just calling the papers s*** seems odd to me.
With all that said STU is doing some neat stuff, although Egocheck 101 may be in order next semester.
Great reporting Charles, very thorough and way to think on your feet. No journalist for any newspaper or TV station would have handed their camera to crewman in that situation, very smart thinking. You'll make a journalist yet! Unlike the other media, people don't have to wait around and get the media spin and then have it gone.
The 'we all' is a catch all, by saying that Irving doesn't know who is saying it. The egocheck is thinking that Irving gives a *&^%. Anybody here think Irving starts the day with a big Wal Mart hug? You do your job and shut up, that's all they care about.
Irving papers are far from being crap, they are very effective in what they do. You think its a coincidence that Nova Scotia has an NDP almost ready to form government and NB's is non existent?
Irving papers control may be waning, but the net has a long way to go to challenge them. It isn't local news that makes them 'hokey', its what passes as local news. More importantly its what never gets discussed. To be fair, most mainstream media except a couple of standouts are turning to the US model where "they are interested in politicians, but not interested in politics". The vast majority of people couldn't name three pieces of legislation that is being tabled at any given time.
Keeping people distracted from political decisions is something Irving does very well. Go take a look at the coverage of last years budget. As mentioned by some other poster, Irvings didn't even run the pie chart that shows government revenue, no doubt because it shows that a measly 2.5% of the budget comes from corporate take, something like 40M.
The Irvings are very good at what they do, in fact I'd say they are the original poster child for media concentration. KC was onto this long before Rupert Murdock and the american government thought of it. Control the press and you control people's minds. They are very good at what they do, which is represent Irvings interest, what they obviously don't do so well is represent everyone elses, specifically when they conflict.
The front page stories in Fredericton are not children smiling at the park or old ladies walking down the road. They are homeless people freezing to death in alleys and the going ons at the Legislature. I know that working for a local paper is hard, and believe me I understand how hard the "real world" can be. But to say that the Gleaner is doing the best they can is a crock. Its a family friendly rag that avoids the issues in NB's capital city.
With that being said, It is the Gleaner that is Quote "shit." The Aquinian, the TJ, and Here are much better papers. I don't think this comment will kill my fellow students job prospects. I also don't expect to be Peter Mansbridge, but I'd rather work at McDonald's than work for the Gleaner. So with egocheck 101 in mind, would you like fries with that??!
If the Gleaner had more frontpage pictures of homeless people perhaps something would be done about it. Legislature coverage is usually pretty superficial, I'm assuming that's a typo above.
For the student above, that's interesting about McDonalds because a restaurant in New York publishes their own newspaper, it was for customers while they waited for food, but soon it progressed to more than that. So training at McDonalds might not be a bad idea.
There's some good points up above and I firmly believe media concentration is one of the reasons blogs are growing. There's a desire and need to hear other voices.
But "Crazys" it seems like a waste of the 4 years you've spent at STU studying journalism simply because you consider working for a certain paper beneath you.
Consider this, if it's so bad than get in that newsroom and offer up a different perspective and pitch some different ideas that just might see ink. At the very least you can hone your craft. A few of your professors have worked there so I'm certain they would have some sage advice. You can always learn something as a journalist no matter if its working for the Globe and Mail or even the Daily Gleaner.
That seems odd to say go work for somebody you absolutely hate. There are online webzines that have far more readers than Irving and freelance journalism is growing as well. Get online and find the opportunities, writing can be done from anywhere and freelance gigs can pay the rent if you work at it. A group of students with some web savvy can get online and really start some stuff. Not to be too indelicate, but the days of a 'website' are behind us. THere is audio and video possibilities available for nothing, STU journalism students could literally be running a website opposing Canada east.com very easily.
Not even having a dedicated domain name is just guaranteeing nobody will see your stuff. Your videos could be hosted at Google, and podcasts could be going on at least weekly. Journalists today have to know not just how to write but how to record, how to video, and how to webcast. Irving can't teach anything, but the internet shows tons of possibilities.
Schooling is one thing, but its experience people want, its 'whats in the can'. While at school at least you have the equipment, enjoy it while its free!
I've only seen a couple video stories on the site. Podcasts are definitely a good idea. Thanks for the suggestions and advice guys.
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