Ads More Informative Than Articles
Posted by auroracitizen on September 25, 2009
Recently the ads seem to be more interesting than the articles — and sometimes more telling about what is really happening in our town.
While our local media seems to be taking a “wait and see” attitude that doesn’t offend the current slate of politicians, the mainstream media has been more critical.
Then the Coalition for a Better Aurora placed the first of 2 ads that condemned the actions of Council.
Now on Page 15 of The Banner on Sept 22, we see an ad from The Banner that apologizes for running the ad titled “Statement from the Town of Aurora”.
It goes on to say “The Ad contained allegations of inappropriate conduct by Councillor Buck relating to her weblog. The Ad did not set out Councillor Buck’s position in response to the allegations. Councillor Buck denies the allegations made against her in the Ad and denies that she has acted inappropriately.”
Then it formally apologizes with “The Banner regrets any harm that may have been caused by the publication of the Ad.”
It would seem to be a logical conclusion that this ad was run in response to the lawsuit filed by Councillor Buck. It is interesting that a sophisticated media publication, with all their lawyers who defend freedom of speech etc, were so quick to see the error of their behaviour.
Even with the rights of Freedom of Speech and integrity of news stories that newspapers rightly champion and fight for, they have written an apology because (we hypothesize) they recognized that allegations without proof are inappropriate.
Council, in their rush to condemn should also have known better. If the news media see that the ad should not have been run, what will the result be for the Town when they have used suspect procedural manipulation to maintain the ad on our Town website simply to prove that they can.
Councillor MacEachern has again demonstrated her feelings towards Councillor Buck have caused her to lose sight of why she was elected. And the rest of the gang have just gone along.
The Banner has accepted responsibility for their inappropriate behaviour. When will Council?
Now we, the taxpayers, have to sit back and watch this Council continue to waste our resources.
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Aurora Citizen 
Anonymous indeed said
The Auroran has a similar ad in this week’s edition:
STATEMENT OF EXPLANATION
The Auroran accepted an advertisement from the Town of
Aurora and the ad, a quarter page in size, ran in the July
28 edition of the paper, on Page 13.
The ad was accepted in good faith, considering the Town
of Aurora is a good customer of The Auroran and a government
body as well.
The Auroran had nothing to do with the composition of
this ad. It ran as was presented from the Town. One would
assume the comments made by the Town were correct.
The ad alleged a town councillor was making remarks in
a blog that were “disturbing in that they were highly critical
and very disparaging of senior Town staff”.
The Auroran’s lawyer could find no such reference after
printing out copies of the councillor’s blog, and the councillor
in question has denied acting in any capacity other than
the one to which she was elected.
If the printing of such publicity release has caused harm
to anyone, The Auroran recommends you make such harm
known to the Town.
However, the publisher stands by his decision to print the
ad, and offers this only as an explanation.
Knowledgeable in Aurora said
White Knight said "Admitting being wrong and humility are not traits of the GOS".
Unfortunately, you first have to think you may be wrong before you can move to admitting it. The GOS does not think they have done anything wrong and in fact wait for next year when the campaigning begins in earnest they will be declaring at every opportunity that they did it all for us the taxpayers. Gag!
Elizabeth Bishenden said
I have to take exception to "we the taxpayers" in this post.
I think that every citizen should be aware of the problems with this Council, not just taxpayers. Everyone, taxpayer or not, should want the best value for dollars spent. Besides that, they should want an open and truthful Council for Aurora.
White Knight said
The GOS shredded Councillor McRoberts' proposal to remove the complaint against Councillor Buck from the town website so I would seriously doubt that there will be any acknowledgment of making a HUGE mistake. Admitting being wrong and humility are not traits of the GOS.
Anonymous said
Yeah, MorMac and the Morris Minors think they know more than Torstar's Bay Street lawyers.
Countdown to Nov 2010 said
I cut out the ad and have in posted on my fridge.
It will be a daily reminder of the pettiness of this council, and the wanton spending of tax dollars.
They should be ashamed of the spectacle they have made of themselves.