It depends who is doing the name-calling
In the world of the blog, we sometimes get so self-absorbed in our writing that we forget that we are simply emulators of a model that the world calls the “newspaper”. Especially since we don’t always have to present news, and our editorial direction is ours. But in the real world, newspapers do exist, do have to fight for readership and do have to live in a world where the dollar rules supreme.
One of our two local dailies is in a strike situation. Or is it a lockout? Depending on which sign you read, the employer and the employee have “right on our side”. The facts point to a rather one-sided situation locally. Lets’s see: locked doors, security guards, a parallel newsroom in another province, a media octopus with “feed” available from all corners and all sources. Guess we have the employer team on that side of the dispute.
On the other side: no paychecks, an “alternative, free” newspaper distributed by people at bus stops, their own laptops to write copy. Guess that must be the other team. The underdogs, for those who keep score.
Today, the employer took the employee to court, for “disloyal concurrential activity”. Seems that handing out a free newspaper is competitive in the same way that OSS and Microsoft have a line in the sand. The judge has rejected the suit, pointing out that locking the doors and setting up a parallel newsroom in another province that incidentally, doesn’t have anti-scab legislation might be even more “disloyally concurrential”.
Meanwhile, the other newspaper keeps ticking along. Did I mention that the current editor of the paper on strike used to be the editor of the other one. But they are competitors. I can’t wait to see chapter two, or is it match two, in this most literary of battles. Meanwhile, bloggers can enjoy the freedom for every cent that it costs them.
