Dear Editor,
Re: Not long now for three old friends, March 26
It is clearly a sad day when any newspaper is shut down or severely diminished, be it a small community or larger city local paper.
Cost of production may weigh heavily as a cause of closing down a paper, but I feel a repetitive, one-sided political bias is a huge factor in the demise of papers. Often, 70 per cent of readers are ignored.
Years back, factual news events only were published and now political ideologies are hammered home. That was a time when I bought many newspapers daily to read. Now, sadly, I buy none.
Frankly, I am tired of hearing how broken Canada is when I enjoy the benefits of the greatest place to live. I enjoy the peace and stability offered here.
When I was younger, I delivered a huge paper, the Calgary Herald, directly to neighbourhood houses. Sadly, now it is the size of a flyer.
Guy Breckenridge
Foothills County
The Sun and Calgary Herald are just echo chambers of the UCP and PCs. They are owned by Post Media. Post Media is 60% owned by Chatham Asset Management LLC. Chatham is known for its close ties to the Republican Party.
Anything and everything has a spin both papers. They chased over 50% of their customers away by being so biased.
I agree! Sadly, the Western Wheel is a paper that promotes wildly biased political views. I realize that this part of Alberta is die-hard conservative, anti-Liberal, NDP or Green policies, but that doesn't mean EVERYONE follows that mindset. It would be nice to read FACTUAL, informative articles instead of a constant stream of one-sided "bash the Feds/Liberals/NDP." All the complaints about schools, healthcare, highways, etc, etc... that's not the town's responsibility, it's provincial. As long as people keep voting in provincial conservatives, none of that is going to get better. Sadly, John Barlow doesn't use his platform to do anything other than flaunt his love of Poilievre and bash the Liberals... isn't he supposed to represent ALL of his constituents?
I've found I am pleasantly surprised how unbiased the Western Wheel is. It does seem they give a fair voice to differing opinions (at least in the letters to the editor). That said, I have to agree wholeheartedly with your observation of Barlow's contributions.
But then there'd be nobody to listen to the hot air bags Sigy and Barlow!
They will hear us on Election day(s). People are fed up with this garbage and corruption.
It's nostalgic to think back to the good old days when newspapers only printed "factual news stories", but truth is newspapers were always biased, and their owners were always involved in politics. Newspapers depended on advertising for their revenue, and for local papers that included the classified ads. Once advertising migrated online, print newspapers were doomed. The reason the Calgary Herald was such a huge paper is because it was stuffed full of car dealerships and grocery store flyers.
Times change. News is not a priority for the youth of the past several years. Too many things absorb their attention- FB, Tik Tok, instagram, X, I grew up with discipline, love, and a simpler lifestyle. The changes may seem and advances in technology make living less complex, but the human factor now takes a back seat. See a familiar face on FB? Could very easily be AI. Good luck.
Sadly many youth aren't just using social media and ignoring news, they are relying on those social media platforms for their news and aren't seeking it from outside sources. During the threat of banning TikTok in the US, Reddit filled with people asking where to get their news now. It's a sad state of affairs - socials have been long reported as being algorithmic echo chambers, and if users aren't making sure they're well informed from other sources then this is a vicious cycle that will not only continue but get worse.