Baker?

Am I the only one who thinks this guy is a terrible reporter?

Mainly, he can’t write very well. I mean… I shouldn’t be playing grammar police, but he’s a journalist–writing for a published paper, he should be better.

Second, what was up with this week’s “Dueling Pens”. The female reporter (slap me for not remembering her name) was obviously supposed to be opposing the pay raises to many of the Premier’s senior deputy ministers. Baker, one would think, was supposed to argue in favour of the pay raises. Instead, he decided to go on a sarcastic tirade that shat all over the idea of debate–where readers of the Daily News can see both sides of an issue.

Finally, I was appalled by the small article on the front page regarding the late Dr. Harris Coburn. He was a doctor, and he golfed. He played in last year’s tournament and scored 70! That’s all Baker wrote. Nothing about his impact on the community through volunteer work. Nothing about his wife and kids. Poorly written, and totally devoid of any emotion and/or relevance.

He’s new?

Let him get into things.

If he has a degree in journalism then “new” is no excuse.
The article was poorly written.
His grammar was flawed in spots but a lot of the bad grammar was in the quotes so i’m going to assume they were reported verbatim.
I also found the article repetitious.

never mind

C’mon eccentric - tell us how you really feel.  :smile:

Ultimately, the editor should take a hit for bad grammar, mistakes, poor writing etc.

I agree with that statement.

Remember that this Baker guy is a real person, who has good and bad days.  He might have been rushed to get articles done about topics he knows nothing about.  Or whatever.  Point is, give him a chance.

I am a real person but I invite all criticism. It’s part of the job.

I would like to mention that my writing is something I do work on. It doesn’t always show but it is something I take very seriously.

The article in question:

We learned about Dr Coburn’s passing that morning. We had to do something on him and as a new person in town I had very little knowledge about what he did for this city. I was asked to come up with something in one hour and did the best I could with the info available. One piece of info was that he was an avid golfer and had shot a 70 at a tournament so I used it and do not regret using it.

From what I gather he was a great man. If my articles this week did him no justice, I truly am sorry.

As for the dueling pens deal, listen you can lament all you want about what I did write and my reasons for it. But if you want to me to say, for no good reason, the deputy ministers deserve a second salary boost in two years just because we need to compete for their services, well that is nothing but malarkey.

Min. wage has not increased in this very expensive province in about ten years. Meanwhile other provinces have no problem upping the ante, such as Newfoundland and PEI. Come 2010, we are going to be tied for the worst min. wage level in the country. Go Olympics!

Yet, the people expected to pay for these salary increases are the same people who don’t get the support they need from government. I am not shy about this kind of thing. I myself have worked the min. wage jobs and I know how bad this looks to these people.

When I was asked during our editorial meeting if I would take-on the position of backing the increase I was reticent to do so. I advised the substitute editor of my position and we agreed that I should write this piece this way, one time. If you don’t like it, meh, that’s you opinion and you have every right to express it as such. I expressed my opinion. And I don’t feel the least bit bad about it.

Glad you are all reading though!   

Bonus points for being on the cluetrain, and using ‘meh’ properly.

Awesome, Baker.  Good for you for coming out and telling us your side.  Now if only the paper carrier would deliver my papers to my house again! I like me my free Wed and Sat papers, and I’m missing them!

Ahhh substitute editors…

The Daily doesn’t do Saturday papers. :confused:
Besides, you can’t really complain about what’s free.  :smiley:

That’s the main thing.
I must say that one hour to do an obit on someone you’ve never heard of is quite a challenge.
Perhaps fewer people would criticize newspapers if they knew the circumstances under which they were produced.

Whoops, I meant Friday, with all the flyers!  So I can get my Saturday deals!

Good for this “BAKER” for coming out and voicing his opinion.  For standing up for him self as opposed to HTMF’ers bashing the shit out of him, with no word coming from the guy.  From what I remember about the guy he didnt start journaljism to much later in life.
What will be nice is that is did write in England…which usually has a no punches held style of writing.  If something is to be reported then it goes into print.  Never mind protecting the bad asses…I read some where about this repeat offender WILLOUGHBY!!!..I have lived here all my life and if the bad guys picture would be printed I would be much happier to know.  The paper could be much more powerful in keeping citizens safe by giving them the “scarlet” letter via news and pictures.

Shake em up Baker Boy!!

Welcome to HTMF, BakerWriter.

Good on ya Baker for saying your piece and welcome to Rupert.  I hope that a few whiners don’t reflect too badly on the rest of us.  Enjoy your time here.

Criticism makes the world go round, it’s what people do, what everybody does. Anyone can defend themselves over it and show their side. Why is everybody treating Baker like he did something totally awesome? He did what is natural. Nothing against him, just saying. I personally don’t read the paper, so I have nothing to say about his ability as a writer.

Furthermore:

[quote=“mcsash”]
Good for this “BAKER” for coming out and voicing his opinion.  For standing up for him self as opposed to HTMF’ers bashing the shit out of him, with no word coming from the guy.[/quote]

As if you’ve never done anything like that on the internet before. =P

Absolutely nothing wrong with criticism.

Also absolutely nothing wrong with someone realizing that the internet isn’t just a big ole letter to the editor – it’s about conversation.  It’s a two-way street.