tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1836424929140738524.post3832061234097099110..comments2023-10-29T12:58:50.292+00:00Comments on The Ginger Liberal from Medway: Medway Messenger's review of Citizen JournalistsChris Samshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06042471123646388825noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1836424929140738524.post-13350065043662168582014-03-10T14:11:36.469+00:002014-03-10T14:11:36.469+00:00I am broadly in agreement with at least the majori...I am broadly in agreement with at least the majority of this. I too have 'horror stories' I could tell about deliberately slanted (and, frankly, dishonest) reporting of Council meetings in the 'Messenger' in years gone past. Indeed, just about everything in the David Jones post could easily be placed on the other foot, as I have personally witnessed all of it around the other way – and could quote chapter and verse on it.<br /><br />The terminology for the new category is definitely ripe for debate – but the principle is right, and in accordance with Government views on making these meetings more open than they have ever been before.<br /><br />The orchestrated behaviour at recent Council meetings resulted once (and perhaps the lesson has now been learned) in the public being ejected from the meeting. This was correct, in accordance with the Rules that all parties on the Council agreed to years ago, and indeed must apply to any meeting of any organisation with public access: just put yourself in the position of being elected to represent a quarter of a million people, not just a claque with their own agenda.<br /><br />Thus the Citizen Commentators (a bit of a mouthful, but quite a good term!) are a good idea; and it is only those with a personal and/or ideological interest in dominating commentary and reporting in this new age who will be opposed. It is not for nothing that those folk are so often collectively known in some quarters as 'the dead tree press'. Perhaps one should remove the 'tree' from that phrase...John M Wardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06251285057595626917noreply@blogger.com