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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2004-03-25, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2004. PAGE 5. Other Views You can call me an escapist Lord knows there's an Everglades worth of strange and wierdling places in the state of Florida. but few more so than a veritable Twilight Zone near the town of Lantana known as Tabloid Valley. This is where, believe it or not, most of the lurid scandal sheets that grace supermarket checkout counters across North America come from (it must be some kind of tax dodge). The National Enquirer comes out of Tabloid Valley. So does the Weekly World News. Or at least it did. It's hard to say what will become of the Weekly World News now that Eddie Clontz is dead. Clontz was editor-in-chief of the Weekly World Ness for nearly 20 years. He's the guy responsible for the Elvis-Never-Died stories. He also had a hand in such classic exclusives as Space Aliens Back Bush For President and Bat Boy Found In West Virginia Cave. I met Eddie Clontz in the offices of the Weekly World News about 10 years ago. But it wasn't easy. I wanted to interview Clontz for my radio show, so I asked one of my old pals, an ex-tab reporter by the name of Harold Fiske, the best way to go about it. "Good luck!" said Fiske. Clontz, he told me, was a reclusive and deeply suspicious guy. Rumour had it he kept a pearl-handled .45 automatic in the top drawer of his desk. Reason? . . Death threats. From die-hard Elvis fans, mostly. For a hard-nosed, foot-in-the-door newshound. Harold Fiske could be incredibly ingratiating. Over the next few days he called in some favours, twisted a few arms, greased a palm or two, and the next thing I knew we were in a Hertz-rent-a-car, bombing down the 1-95 for a face-to-face with Eddie Clontz. The city slickers are taking over the Ontario government and some country folk are worrying they will get ripped off. More than one-third of Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty's cabinet ministers are from the city of Toronto, although it has only one- fifth of the province's population. This is shaping as a divisive issue. The ministers from Toronto also are among the most powerful with the strongest impact and include those responsible for health, education, economic development, justice and building infrastructure and chair of management board with a finger in everything. McGuinty's finance minister, number two to the premier, and his transportation minister also are from ridings that border Toronto, so it has become difficult to walk down a street in the Toronto area without bumping into a Liberal minister. The former Progressive Conservative deputy premier, Jim Flaherty, who represents an area lust east of Toronto and is running to succeed Ernie Eves as leader, has complained that lecause the Liberals have eight ministers from Toronto, they inevitably are putting that city's nterests first. He claimed they found more money for schools • in Toronto, but not elsewhere, and 1emanded Education Minister Gerard Kennedy be fair to parents outside Toronto, tnd remember he is the minister for the entire province. The Liberals have countered that more noney is needed where there are more :hildren who are poor, recent immigrants and lo not speak English as their first language. The offices of the Weekly World News are deep in the middle of the Florida boonies and at first glance seem utterly devoid of human life. There is no secretary or doorman or security guard in sight. What there is, is a closed-circuit camera mounted over a locked door with an intercom on the side. -I thumbed the talkback button, leaned into the intercom and 'said: "Arthur Black here to interview Mister Clontz." "STAND AWAY FROM THE DOOR!" said a large voice which I presumed to be God's. Befuddled, I stood there stupidly and repeated my mantra. The voice became noticeably agitated: "SIR! STAND AWAY FROM THE DOOR! NOW!" I backed up, raised my hands in the air and smiled weakly. I guess I convinced them that I wasn't a vengeance-bent Elvis fan „because the door hissed open and suddenly I was in the air-conditioned Inner Sanctum of The Weekly World News. I don't know what I expected - a bunch of grimy, boil-blighted trolls scuttling around with cigar butts sticking out of their mouths maybe — but it wasn't like that at all. The office was clean and neat, the equipment was state of the art, the desks were tidy and the people were well-dressed and exceedingly normal-looking. Hell, it looked like a lrandon branch office of Mutual of Omaha. Except for Eddie Clontz. There was no mistaking Eddie, or the fact that he was in Bob Runciman, a veteran Tory and former minister, has complained McGuinty's cabinet does not represent all areas of the province. Runciman, from eastern Ontario, said the government already is showing bias by making decisions that favour Toronto at the expense of areas without ministers and especially small- town and rural Ontario. The Tories have an axe to grind in claiming the Liberals favour one region over another, but hints of similar concern are corning from others. Mayors of 13 rural and semi-rural municipalities ringing the Toronto area this month formed a "countryside alliance" to put forward a united voice to the government on their worries. These include development gobbling up green space, massive commuter traffic overloading rural roads and changes to the character of rural villages. Chambers of commerce in northeastern Ontario also have formed a group to lobby the province for help with job growth and economic development, tobacco growers are complaining trendy Toronto ministers do not even consider their view and there is grumbling the Hamilton area of five ridings charge. He was middle-aged but tit, like a retired NHL-er. He had a brush cut and black button eyes that never blinked. His desk sat so that he faced the office door and I couldn't help noticing that his hands stayed close to the top desk drawer. If I had been a demented reader bent on violence, Eddie could've plugged me before I got to his In box. I was disabused of a lot of my tabloid notions that afternoon. I learned that the tabs, despite their surface sleaziness are as cunningly thought out, written and published as any edition of the New York Review of Books. I learned that tabloid reporters are not rabid, red-eyed right-wingers or raving alcoholics riding out the nether end of a death-spiraling career. Most of them are young and bright and surprisingly serious. They need to be, because writing even a mediocre tabloid story is fiendishly difficult. You have to deliver a maximum amount of impact with a minimal number of words - and simple words at that. And nobody ever wanted to pass a mediocre story across Eddie Clontz's desk. Especially if he was sitting at it, with his hands near the top drawer. Tabloids. The word originally referred to medicine delivered in tablet form. As a reporter for The Weekly World News once said: "Readers ' want new hope. They want to think that UFOs will save us. It's medicine. We make people feel good, so they buy us". Hmm. All I know is, the headlines in my Globe and Mail are all about scandals in Ottawa, soaring prices at the gas pump, and body bags in Iraq. A wise woman once said, "The news is a disease that masquerades as information." Call me escapist, but I think I'd rather read about the latest Elvis sighting. has only one minister. Premiers traditionally have made an effort to avoid being seen as favouring Toronto, the province's biggest city, which is distrusted and even disliked by many outside it. This usually has included appointing ministers reasonably representative of all regions of the province, which suggests they listen to all. McGuinty has stocked bigger cities including Toronto, his hometown Ottawa and Windsor with ministers, but left huge areas of eastern, central and western Ontario so destitute of ministers they would not recognize a minister if they tripped over one. Well, they might — he would be the one mumbling he has no money to spend on programs. One importance of having a minister in a riding was underlined by a federal Liberal nomination contest a couple of weeks ago when supporters chose Transport Minister Tony Valeri because he is a minister and can do things for the riding, over Sheila Copps, who is no longer a minister and can't. McGuinty's Tory predecessors, Ernie Eves and Mike Harris, contented themselves with fewer ministers from Toronto and Harris once tried to distance himself from any notion he favoured Toronto by saying he was fed up with this city being viewed as the centre of the universe. McGuinty's five-month-old government has not yet made enough decisions to judge whether it favours Toronto, but it has loaded the city with so many ministers and will make decisions affecting so many areas there is no way it viiilt escape charges of bias. Just the facts S omething happened recently tin one of our little communities. And I know it's not fair but I'm not going to go into any details. As it relates to the news it's old. As it relates to me, it's none of my business, My main purpose is to comment on reaction and the role that the media can play in such situations. The first I became aware of the occurrence was second hand. It is, after all, the way most information travels in small close-knit towns and villages. It's generally effective and swift. The problem is, that it's not always accurate. There's nothing deliberate in the misrepresentation. It's simply a fact of life that a story told time and again takes on new dimensions, a little colour added here, a little tone added there. If you remember the game from childhood where one sentence is whispered from ear to ear, you probably remember that the message received at the end of the line, bore little or no resemblance to the original. Each time a tale is told, particularly one that's a little unusual, there will be embellishments. We do not know which of the people are more inclined to be creative, so to each ear the story passes it can be taken further from the reality. — In putting together a newspaper each week accuracy is of great importance. Thousands of eyes see and any errors sometimes gently, often gleefully,, more often angrily, are pointed out. We must go to the source to get our facts. Heresay could only be printed as what it is. This often gets interesting in courtrooms or council chambers where someone might say something which will ultimately turn out to be incorrect, but as part of the meeting it is reported. Though I would never knowingly print something untrue, when it happens it's important to recognize that while the facts may not be accurate the coverage was. However, when it comes to news items or features the media is looking for the most accurate information from a reliable source. While we are certainly not perfect, it's likely that the newspaper is probably closer to the truth than the story on the street. Unfortunately, many people are reluctant to publish details of some things they feel are best kept quiet. It is a viewpoint I can well understand except that nothing in a small town is kept quiet. Going public with the information means that when a story on the street takes an interesting turn, there is, hopefully, a clear, concise and honest account in print. - There is no one immune to rumour and gossip. We have all at one time or another been guilty of it and hurt by it. Usually, however it's spread through no malicious intent, but from concern and interest. But anyone who's ever thought that if the story isn't in the newspaper then it's being kept quiet has not given enough credit to the grapevine. Certainly, the printed word does put a situation in the public eye, but unlike the story on the street it's expected to be accurate. A newspaper is not just a way to tell people what the news is, but to tell people what the facts are. Try not to think of it as drawing too much attention to something, but rather of giving it the right attention. Toronto's powerful ministers