Yelping poodles snap at the big dog’s feet

You know you’re doing something right when your competitors are whining about you.

I’ve always taken a lot of pride in working for the best newspaper – and news website - in Canada.

I remember the first time I said to the person at the other end of the line that I was calling from The Star, as a summer intern in 1986. I couldn’t quite believe it, and worried that the guy I called didn’t believe it, either.

I still get a kick out of saying I am calling from The Star. Important people will come to the phone, and not because I’m a good guy. The Star is respected, even feared. Nobody wants to look bad in our pages.

Some people don’t like us, but a lot of them still read The Star religiously (and thank you, folks), judging by the comments they post to our online stories.

So it is understandable that some of our competitors cannot help but take potshots at us.

I am a recent convert to Twitter, where I follow the tweets of people in the news business. A guy who works for another paper sometimes tweets out critiques of something or other in The Star, clumsy attempts at cleverness.

He always includes links to our stories in his tweets. Anyone who clicks on them is guided into thestar.com. Adding traffic to the website is what the online news business is all about.

I love that guy.

It is considered bad form at The Star to write about other news organizations, and is seldom done. But since I am warmed up, I’ll pay tribute to the angry, buzzing bee who scribbles city hall columns (using crayons, I think) for a small Toronto daily.

She has carved out a niche as fomenter-in-chief of outrage over the alleged conspiracy to destroy Mayor Rob Ford, which she blames on sniveling, underhanded lefties.

She is superb at connecting the faintest of dots and never misses a chance to hiss at The Star.

I read her religiously.

As long as the poodles are barking about us, it’s okay with me.  

 

     

 

 

 

 

       

  

Comments

[Rich]

LOL! I couldn't agree more, the Star is definitely the best newspaper and one of the few that actually does investigative journalism any more instead of relying upon press releases and the political spin in them, at least that I've ever read. It kills me that so many complain about the Star not just printing the spin politicos give us in their press releases, apparently not simply reporting what the politicians want you to believe makes you a "socialist rag". The few times I've read the paper I'm sure you're referring to I was amazed at how often they report on articles and columns from the Star. All that does for those reading is confirm the Star is a much better paper. I simply cannot afford to pay for a subscription or for the planned paywall on the Star site since my health has been bad in recent years and my workplace insurer decided to cut me off my LTD benefits leaving me on OW until I can get onto to ODSP/CPP disability benefits, if it wasn't for my family I'd have to resort to food banks. I never before felt fortunate to have serious chronic illness until I needed social assistance, it makes me one of the "deserving" poor so I'll eventually get more money per month & perhaps will be able to afford my own small bachelor apt instead of just a room in a place with strangers having to rely upon food banks and libraries for internet access but it takes months to get on ODSP/CPP disability benefits. I really don't see what makes people with unfortunate lives, bad luck or just plain old victims of our economy, after all unemployment is critical to the success of our economy, just think about what full employment would mean, massive inflation for one, businesses unable to expand and having to pay very high wages to keep the employees they have. Full employment would be a disaster for the capitalist class in our society so unemployment is essential to maintain the very wealthy in the lifestyles they've become accustomed to. So why are we treating the unemployed who play such a crucial role in our economy as the "undeserving" poor to be punished at every opportunity & denied the basics of life my a welfare rate much too low? Poor people work far harder than the wealthy, the only difference they're working extra hard for basic survival instead of being paid outlandish wages to attend meetings where they regularly get free luxury food items. I used to work at a university as a non-academic employee doing tech work before I became too ill to continue working, thanks to my union if my health improves I'll have a job to return to. But I've seen the catering that the top executives get there for each meeting on top of their 6 figure salaries for attending such meetings. At the last such meeting I did some work for I figure there was at least $3000 or more in cheese alone, many very large wheels of the finest most expensive cheeses possible, plus all sorts of meats, salads and fancy deserts plus all sorts of high end juices like POM, $10/bottle and every other sort of non-alcoholic drink. I figure the catering for that one meeting must have cost at least $5000-$6000 if not more and they have such meetings monthly, their weekly meetings are also well catered though perhaps at a cost of $2000-$3000 per meeting. These executives got free food at their monthly meetings that cost more than 10 people get on welfare to survive on for the entire month, every week about what 5 people get to live on for an entire month on welfare. They do a tiny fraction of the actual labour a person on welfare does just to survive, try washing a load of laundry in your bath tub with dish soap sometime since you can't afford a laundry machine or even proper laundry soap let alone fabric softener. Its back breaking work. Anyways I'm off topic, its hard not to think of money all the time when you have none especially after seeing the lives of luxury executives lead just for attending meetings and writing reports even at non-profit institutions. If I could afford to pay for the Star I would, its the only newspaper website that I'd even consider paying for. I totally understand that a quality newspaper needs more than ad revenue to continue doing its work. I'll miss it dearly when the paywall goes up and I'm limited to whatever number of articles I can read for free, as it is I read most every article, except sports, entertainment, and business, reading about the problems of wealthy people is nauseating.