Tagged: sam-katz
Sam Katz & Friends vs. Gordon Warren
- by admin
A few people have asked for my opinion on the recent article published in the Winnipeg Free Press concerning local blogger Gordon Warren, who is being sued by local media group Direct Focus Marketing, as well as Sandy and Robert Shindleman, owners of Shindico,Non-Winnipeggers interested in what I'm talking about can read the Free Press article here, but here's a snippet to give you some background:
The injunction was sought by Direct Focus Marketing Communications Inc., its owner Mark Hofer and the firms’ employees – all whom were named by Warren in a recent blog post on a move at city hall to sell off and lease out civic golf courses.
Direct Focus had been hired to conduct a media campaign to promote the sale of John Blumberg golf course and a 20-year lease for four other civic course. The campaign appeared to be spearheaded by an independent community group calling itself Responsible Winnipeg, but it turned out that group was the creation of one of Mayor Sam Katz’s political advisory bodies.
In case you missed that last bit, let me spell it out for you: our mayor ran a campaign without using City of Winnipeg logos to try and further his own political agenda and someone called him on it.
Important to remember: they're not going after him for libel, they're going after him for defamation of character because what Gordon Warren is saying is true.
Anyway, onto why you're here. You asked for my opinion, here it is:
I haven't read the blog posts in question, because due to the recent ruling they're unavailable on his blog, but from what I can tell everything Warren has been doing -bringing light to a shady political campaign, criticizing our mayor and his friends, and generally being politically active online- is completely within his rights as a Canadian citizen, and should be protected under Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
But you know what really bugs me about this whole thing?
We have people publishing much more malicious, hateful and half-true stories in our local tabloid, the Winnipeg Sun, every day. I'm speaking in particular about Tom Brodbeck, who uses his articles in the Sun and his blog (which I refuse to link to) to shamelessly criticize anyone who politically opposes him and his masters. I have heard more vitriolic commentary coming from this one "journalist" than I care to remember, yet to my knowledge nobody has taken him to court on Greg Selinger (our Premier)'s behalf -which is exactly what is happening with Warren. Sam Katz isn't suing him, but all of his buddies are.
A lot of people are saying "what did Warren say that was so upsetting?" and I think we're asking the wrong questions. Instead, we should be asking ourselves "how is suing someone over talking shit about you on the internet a reflection of your character?", "are these the kinds of people that we want running our city?" and, perhaps more importantly "is this how we treat people in our society who expose their dirty little secrets?"
**Alyson Shane is a blogger chick from Winnipeg and not a journalist. FYI.
