By Dominique Tassell
What a week. I don’t think Emily and I have stopped working for about 16 days at this point. But we had an absolute blast at the Apple & Grape Festival.
One of my favourite parts was stopping people at the festival for photos or meeting them at events, and hearing them talk about how great our region is. Because yeah, it is.
I’m really proud of this issue, and how we’ve highlighted some of our fantastic local women and their stories. We were absolutely inundated with suggestions of local women we should interview, and couldn’t possibly fit them all in this week’s edition. We’re currently brainstorming ways to include them in the paper, or possibly even our magazine Southern Living. We might have to do a part two next week, at the very least.
Emily and I attended the March 4 Justice over the weekend, and I have to be honest, I was incredibly frustrated by the lack of other media there. The absence of one outlet, in particular, stood out.
This outlet published an article last week that included details so graphic I almost threw up when I was sent it.
Now, I know sugarcoating the truth helps no one, but I’m of the mind that respect for a victim always ALWAYS comes first. And I just don’t believe they would want those details out there just yet. At the very least, I would want to know they were okay with them being out there before I published them.
To publish intimate details of an alleged rape case but not show up to the event advocating for women is, in my opinion, disgusting.
Do you think you represent our community well? Do you think that court lists and polls about the best real estate agent in the region represent our community and their concerns? Because they do not. It is an absolute disservice to our community.
Honestly, I don’t think it’s one single journalist’s fault. I know they have click requirements and subscription requirements, and they get sent the polls to be rolled out across all their titles. I know they’re probably on their own, which is actually seemingly unusual for this organisation. I feel sorry for them.
It points to a larger systemic issue in that organisation, that’s coming from its core. They are not for news or the community, they are for money. And it’s doing far more harm than good.
