Stephen Vance, Editor
It’s always frustrating to hear people communicating less than accurate information, and for a reporter, it can be downright irritating to hear people passing along inaccurate information while holding up your own article as their “proof”.
I’ve written about this in the past, but given what I’ve been hearing in the last few days, it’s time for another reminder, that the most important job a reader has is to actually read.
We seem to have become a society that is quick to jump all over an issue without taking the time to ensure we have read and absorbed all of the facts.
In the wake of the news of the pending closure of the Meaford Foodland grocery store, many have made a big deal of the fact that Meaford’s Deputy Mayor suggested that if an alternate grocer can’t be found to take over the property, Meaford could explore the possibility of acquiring the property for use as a library.
Some are suggesting that the Deputy Mayor is on a crusade to acquire the property, some have suggested that he doesn’t give a damn about the loss of an important food retailer, and is only concerned with finding a new home for the library. The problem is that those things simply aren’t true, and to know they aren’t true, all you had to do was actually read the article published on June 7:
“It was very sad to hear when that was announced,” Greenfield told council. “My first priority, and I expect the first priority of the rest of council would be that perhaps some other food store could move into that location, but barring that, I would like to request staff examine the potential of utilizing the Foodland store and property as a future home of the Meaford Public Library. It’s up to the owner of the property to do what he thinks best, but I don’t think I need to run by you the assets that location would have for an improved and enhanced public library,” suggested Greenfield.
Note some important words in the above quote from the June 7 article. The Deputy Mayor doesn’t jump out of his seat and shout “hooray we might have a new home for the library!” after learning about the closure, but some people, in the way they tell the story to others, or make comments on social media would have you believe that the Deputy Mayor is absolutely thrilled that a business is closing that might make a good home for the library.
I think part of the problem is that some of us have become lazy readers, while some folks seem to want to read the news in order to become enraged, and their rage sensors cherry pick information from news articles for the sole purpose of giving them something to rage about.
Some others seem to be headline only readers (yes, I’ve seen folks click like on Facebook, or drop a comment on a lengthy article posting 30 seconds after I’ve published the article tsk tsk…how can someone leave a comment 30 seconds after an 800 word article has been published? Sheesh.), and if you’re a headline only reader you are most likely an uninformed reader given that all of the important details are in the body of any article.
Worst of all are quite possibly the comment-only readers, who don’t even bother to read an article at all, they simply pile on to any comments being made on social media, or they spread ill-informed gossip based solely on comments they see on social media.
For me personally, the idea of taking a prime piece of commercial property that currently employs 20 Meaford residents and converting it to public use doesn’t make much sense, but does that mean that the Deputy Mayor shouldn’t have asked if it is at least a possibility if, and I’ll remind you he said if an alternate grocer can’t be found to take over the property? Of course the Deputy Mayor is well within his rights to make the suggestion. He didn’t throw down the hammer and proclaim this property which the municipality might not even be able to purchase as the absolute future home of our library, he asked staff to explore the possibility – big difference.
The Deputy Mayor and I disagree about whether the property should even be considered as a possible home for our library, but reasonable people can respectfully disagree disagree on issues like this – that’s the beauty of a free and democratic society, but to hear misinformed people suggesting that he’s on a mission to take over the property in order to convert it into a library, the loss of a grocery store and its 20 jobs be damned, is disheartening to say the least, particularly because when reporting I take care to include all important information in order to objectively and accurately report on the story, and then some skip over all those words and instead either jump to conclusions, or jump on a social media bandwagon.
Before you spout off on social media or in the coffee shop about any issue, make sure you’re informed, make sure that you actually read articles before making your opinions known – misinformation travels quickly and it doesn’t do anyone any good.
