Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Podunk Below the Masthead Monday, March 9, 2009

The Inlander fire continues to dominate the front page of the Daily News, as the Daily catches up to last Friday's breaking story on the arrest of four suspects in the downtown blaze.

FOUR ARSON SUSPECTS NABBED FOR INLANDER HOTEL FIRE-- While they were scooped by their competition at the weekly thanks to that publications on line portal, the Daily News did provide some background on the arrests last week of four suspects in the spectacular downtown fire.

Elsewhere in the paper, the Mayor sticks to his guns when it comes to selling off the Bronto Skylift, that despite the use of that piece of fire fighting apparatus to combat the Inlander blaze.

Stating that "it has uses as it did last night, but it is far between and seldom", Mayor Mussallem is still convinced that the cost of operating and maintaining the fire truck does not make much fiscal sense, he still hopes to sell off the 21 year old piece of equipment and replacing it with a more efficient platform from which to fight fires.

Also in the Monday paper was a review of some of the questions have been raised in the Hazleton's, after an altercation between a hereditary chief and a member of the local RCMP detachment after a traffic stop regarding an expired insurance coverage.

The Gitxsan Chiefs Office is seeking an independent inquiry into the incident which saw 61 year old Simgoyet Luus (Chief Ray Wilson) sent to Prince George Hospital having suffered a number injuries including a broken jaw, facial injuries and a fractured skull.

Other items of interest were an examination of the state of the eulachon in local waters and another editorial page review of the progress of the makeover of the Daily News. In it the paper outlines some of the negative feedback that they have received from subscribers, asks for a dialogue between readers and management.

While they work out the twists in their agenda, they ask for subscribers not to "kill" their subscription over it. Taking a yes we can from the camp of President Obama, they ask for the "party faithful" to remain onboard as the Daily News reinvents itself.

On the photo front, the submitted appearance of Liberal candidate Herb Pond on the front page at a PAC event and another submitted photo in the sports section of some young Liberals celebrating Terrace's success in the Hockeyville competition has spawned a bit of a debate locally about the appearance of political bias in the local paper.

Perhaps that might be one of the comments soon to be expressed from the subscription base.

Total pages in Monday's edition (12)

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