As more frequent visitors will notice we've been doing some house cleaning. All the old posts have been deleted, although I'm sure the Google has them somewhere in their alternate universe, and the focus is changing once again. Exit Zero, Dispatches from the Newfoundland Diaspora, has moved into a pre-production phase and hopefully you will see it in the human world before too long.

The blog was never meant to be ongoing single subject rant as is the want of most blog operators but rather a place display and comment on whatever projects I was working on at the time or the latest work. Some you know me as a commercial photographer, others as a journalist and producer and still more for my IT work. So, this is where this blog is headed.

"Where's the politics", you ask. Well, frankly, its gotten predictable and boring in Newfoundland and Labrador so ...WHO CARES!  Let's leave it to others to battle it out in the matrix. Does anyone one else find it sadly ironic that we now have the greatest global communications system in human history and the first thing people say to each other is "SHUT UP" ? So much for building community and understanding through communications. I have been using computers and the Internet since DOS 3.2, Apple II and CompuServe BBS and two descriptions I've heard remain true. "...it's CB radio for people who can type." and, "No one knows you're a dog on the Internet." ...and a third is a comparison to the Special Olympics, that's best not repeated in public  ..which, surprisingly, has some cross-over in the news media and subject for a future post.

I'll be re-posting some of the old articles, that are relevant, over the holidays and all the photo galleries will be moving to my main website at www.greglocke.com. Check the portfolio link.

The other changes coming in the new year will be a redesigned and cleaned up primary website with new portfolios and services for clients and look for a new downtown exhibition and working studio suitable for portrait, product and technical/scientific photography.

Have a great Christmas ...or whatever holiday you are celebrating :^)

If you don't travel the local blogs and have not heard...

The release of an ongoing email exchange between Newfoundland and Labrador premier Danny Williams PR person, Elizabeth Matthews, and journalist Craig Westcott are all the buzz in St. John's media circles this week. (I'm not sure anyone else noticed, though) Westcott has been blackballed by the premiers offices for interviews for the past couple of years and now is being shut out of government advertising for his fledgling Business Post newspaper due to his "negative attitude" toward the premier and his government policies.
When all the spin and personalities are removed it seems to come down to the cruel realities of being an experienced self -employed journalist (or a business owner in general) in a small town who must not only report news and events but is also called on to do SIGNED commentary and editorials ...something the local daily does not. Any business owner who is outspoken is taking a risk but what do you do when your business IS speaking out?
Blackballing journalists and publications is not new in Newfoundland. Former premier Peckford withheld advertising to the now defunct Sunday Express for their reporting. The press and media in Newfoundland has always been divided into those who kiss the seat of power and those who don't. The reality of the small ad market is that government advertising is a major percent of ad revenue for any media. Reporters and media owners judge themselves accordingly.

For the whole sordid tale check out Email Trail and Danny's Thin Skin at Geoff Meekers media blog at the Telegram website.

Is it possible to separate reporting and commentary work in a small incestuous market for a journalist? Can a reporter write editorials? They should be able to but probably not in a small village...but you got to make a living.