So as many Haligonians are, I am a loyal reader of the coast. And by reader, I mean glancer. I read the show listings, the bitches, the classifieds, and of course, savage love. I completely disregard the rest of your paper. Your writers are biased. There is a little thing called journalistic integrity, and non of your ‘reporters’ do so. You should have a disclaimer on your cover that it is an OPINON PAPER ONLY. You as writers should report the facts. You do not make back handed remarks or give your personal opinion when you know limited about the situation. You do not write articles that mean nothing just because they drink fair trade coffee with you on Tuesday. You completely neglect anyone in Halifax who isn’t (the dreaded word) “indie”. Your articles are crap, and Halifax deserves better.
This article appears in May 22-28, 2008.
I hate that word:Indie. It’s fucking Ghey !
I’ve felt that the articles have been going down hill for awhile now..I don’t invest my time in reading most of them now…too one sided, among other things.
i have been saying this for a while, i called tim on this, and he said “you start your own paper”pretty cowardly if you ask me. Instead of trying to listen to the people, Tim just decides that his opinion is what matters. I have called him out and asked him questions, but he doesnt feel the need to answer them. Instead, he just flexes his editorial power and ignores me like he is too busy. Amazing that he can call out politicians (not always by name), but when he gets called out on the biased shit in this paper.,….. we never hear from him.
I agree with Tim, if you don’t like the way this paper is written, you don’t have to read it. I’m sure they’re fine with that since they’re not getting money from you whether you read it or not. IJust because this paper is free doesn’t mean you have to pick up a copy. I don’t like certain opinions, or writing styles of people who post on this board, so I dont read them. If you want less biased opinions on things, read the Herald, read the Metro, read one of any number of papers online. I’m not interested in guns, so I don’t read gun magazines, if you’re not interested in the “indie” focus of the city, you don’t have to read the Coast.
Homie, Tim ignores you because you are not worth arguing with. He tried explianing his opinions to you in the games bitch and you ignored his efforts and explanations and kept harping on the same 2 or 3 talking points over and over again. And you are still doing it. It’s old. Give it up.
Yup. Don’t like it, don’t read it. It’s not the only paper in town. It’s not even the only free paper in town. If you want hard news with at least a pretense of journalistic objectivity, cough up the three bucks for the Globe and Mail. The Coast is entertainment.
I would think any publishing organization would realize that the quality of the material in the paper brings better advertisers and in turn more sales revenue. By appealing your editorials to a wider range of readers, your advertisers (who by the way fund your paper and your salaries) would reach a larger base. Maybe you should tell them your business philosophy next time you try and sell an ad and see how that goes. I agree entirely with the original post. People have been saying it for years, and everyday someone else is let down by the content of your “opinion” paper. But you don’t give a shit so why should we! It wouldn’t be so bad if it included a wide range of opinions, but we all know how that goes. Since The Coast apparently is projecting the image that they don’t care what their readers want so far as to actually TELL people NOT to read their paper….ugh good luck
To those who suggest reading The Herald or Metro:Obviously nobody reads the coast for global issue updates or economic break downs. Telling people to read real newspapers instead is just stupid. They are completely different kinds of papers, and just because the coast doesn’t write about ‘news’ things, doesn’t mean the can’t show a little integrity with what they DO write. They know they monopolize this particular market, so they run around and try to control the minds of the readers with their propaganda and one sided articles. The coast is always worth picking up for the original articles mentioned, because they can’t fuck up stuff like classifieds and an article written in Seattle. Keep up the good work, writers. Your fancy kings education and typical Halifax artsy snob attitude will never get you a real job. Oh, and why don’t I just point out now how often the coast posts their own job classifieds. Must be a shitty place to work.
To those who suggest reading The Herald or Metro:Obviously nobody reads the coast for global issue updates or economic break downs. Telling people to read real newspapers instead is just stupid. They are completely different kinds of papers, and just because the coast doesn’t write about ‘news’ things, doesn’t mean the can’t show a little integrity with what they DO write. They know they monopolize this particular market, so they run around and try to control the minds of the readers with their propaganda and one sided articles. The coast is always worth picking up for the original articles mentioned, because they can’t fuck up stuff like classifieds and an article written in Seattle. Keep up the good work, writers. Your fancy kings education and typical Halifax artsy snob attitude will never get you a real job. Oh, and why don’t I just point out now how often the coast posts their own job classifieds. Must be a shitty place to work.
The Coast is worth the cover price. And not a penny more. It does make for entertaining reading if only to see what the loony fringe is up to. And Shoptalk (when T.C. writes it) is worthwhile.
Sorry Miles, while people like me and you can see through the bullshit that gets printed in this press, many take the stuff printed in the coast as news or the way things acutally are, almost as though “if it is printed in the Coast, it must be real since this is a paper for the people by the people”. While i commend Tim on his fact researching, his articles that he publishes for the most part, are opinions diguised as reporting. The fact that there is no disclaimer to this, many people mistake these articles for the type of stuff that is supposed to be unbiased and strictly factual.If you want to think that I am voicing and opinion Miles, that is up to you. The actual thing i am doing is calling him on the fact that articles such as the one he reported on the Commonwealth games are nothing but a giant peice of propaganda to support his is stance on the Commonwealth Games. In truth, i love his reporting style. Tim is an excellent writer, but the fact that this shit he writes is VERY clever and misleading is horrible to a city. A person that has a similar stlyle to his, but makes it clear that the articles you are reading containing ample facts, was that of David Roddenheiser. Unfortunately, the editor over there, made the headlines out so that he looked like a dick. Another is Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun sports sections. Informative, and intelligent, much like Tim seems to be. However the lack of annoucing that he is making his long assed articles an opinion, and biased, the articles are a poision. Print media is VERY influential and if used correctly, can make a lot of people think a lot of shit is true and fact.
I love peoples logic when they say, if you don’t like it don’t read it. I know the coast is free and that for the most part it is an entertainment publication, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t strive to be a more rounded and less one-sided publication. Furthermore, I would imagine that the Coast is not solely funded by the advertisements that the publish and that the Coast receives generous funding from the government of Nova Scotia. Therefore, like the CBC, the Coast is somewhat of a ‘public broadcasting’ medium if you will. Why should the Coast cater to a few ‘indy’ art scenesters when those people represent only a very very VERY small community within Halifax. Its the same thing with CFAT (center for art tapes) and for AFCOOP etc. both are heavily funded by the government yet are extremely elitist and give little back to the community they take from.This notion of ‘if you don’t like it don’t read it’ is moronic and I am so tired of hearing this type of argument.let me give you a couple of examples of how stupid this argument is.First example; You are a vegan and a vegan restaurant opens up in Halifax and becomes the only vegan restaurant within 600 km’s of Halifax. You decide to go and try the vegan food. After you order your food and it is served to you, the owner of the restaurant runs across the restaurant jumps onto your table, pulls down his pants and shits all over your lentals and rice and says “enjoy your meal you goddamned wooly hippy.” Now if this happened to someone you knew I don’t think you would say ” well, if you don’t like someone shitting all over your food, then don’t eat there.” You would probably say “why the fuck is this asshole taking our money and shitting on our food?”Second example: A group of art-hating fascists take power of the Nova Scotian government. Their first order of business is to eradicate anything considered “art” turning Nova Scotia into something that resembles the Khmer Rouge. Now would you say “if you don’t like fascism then get out of the province”? probably not.I know these are extreme examples (extremely stupid!) but its just such a fucking cop-out to say if you don’t like it, don’t read it.If the Coast is catering to a very small market within the Halifax community then they should be pressured to change. It is obvious that the Coast caters to a small few and it is obvious that many people in this city don’t like what’s written in its pages (editorial and reviews) And because of this, people should be criticizing it and people should be trying to change it. (although there are much better ways than in a bitch column!) I mean seriously, do you think that a recent immigrant to Halifax will pick up the Coast, look through the pages and think Halifax is anything more than a bunch of ironic cloths-wearing guitar-strumming over-privileged white people who look like they smell bad?If you don’t like what I am saying, then don’t read it.faaaaack!
janet, that was a great post, however, if you read back a few posts where someone crucified the post for its music listings, Tim Bosquet actually suggested that “i get my own paper”. Almost suggesting that he can print what he wants because he is the editor and he can do as he pleases. Did you read that article giving marks to the politicians. Take notice of the man’s style. He gave marks based on the shit that he thought was important. He has done this sorta thing before. If you came to halifax and read that article, this looks like a horrific city council and many areas are serviced by fools. Some of the marks that he gave were TOTALLY off kilter, but hey, none of us can contest it. Why? He wont publish shit that conflicts with his POV. Most of the articles are slanted with his personal views. While the Coast isnt a newspaper, it hardly tries to be fair.
ya know… if the Coast is so bad, you can always go and read the Metro…. now there is some quality journalism, if I do say so myself! 😛