Sue Brooks’ Blog

admin May 19th, 2008

Well today the newspaper greeted us with the headline about the demise of Strewth!

My thoughts. I agree that the blog did target individuals and that sometimes the personal attacks were ‘gutless’. I refrain from that activity but would love the chance to speak my mind about the behaviour I have observed of people I mix with both privately and professionally. Wouldn’t we all! But if you want to criticise someone put your money where you mouth is and speak up without a cloak of anonymity. If you are being critical of an organisation and not personally attacking someone I think anonymity is sometimes the only way to express yourself if you want to remain employed. Much bad behaviour is ‘legal’ so it is a difficult line to balance upon.

So to today. I believe we have an example of the pot calling the kettle black. Yes Strewth! stooped to some very low points at times but it also increased debate and I am sure some people learned from it. If nothing else we all learned that humans do seem to have an appetite for ‘gossip’. I personally received some positive comments but also took a beating when I tried to explain how I operate in terms of preparing for Council meetings. The fact that I come to a meeting having read the report and researched the topic and with a point of view already made and arguments and questions ready to be asked and debated upset several bloggers! Apparently I should turn up and listen to everyone else and THEN make up my mind. How can I argue and debate if I don’t have a point of view first as a base for discussion… But I won’t start that debate again here.

Now the newspaper today tells us that the site was cowardly, vicious and malicious among lots of other negative adjectives. I can agree with that but also would add that it obviously was a forum for debate which many people were keen to use. Unlike the newspaper everyone had fair and equal opportunity to defend or correct anything that was posted there. In my opinion, our FCC publishes anonymous content also. Some examples are ‘The Squid,’ ‘Fast news,’ ‘SMS to Ed’, Brickbats and Bouquets’ ‘Letters to the Editor’ and leading news stories that don’t include the writers name! I have personally been quoted incorrectly within the FCC. After seeing my words in quotation marks, after a Council Meeting, I returned to Council and enquired as to the actual recording and minutes of the meeting. I simply didn’t use the words attributed to me.

Letters to the Editor are edited and selected. So all the letters sent in aren’t printed and those that are can have big chunks taken out, which shouldn’t alter the context but sometimes does. Names and addresses aren’t checked and I have heard of people regularly writing under pseudonyms. Our prolific local writer John Neve didn’t ever stop writing to the editor but after posting on the blog site he suddenly was never heard of again via the Letters page! Is this prejudice and bias at work? The daily editorial often is simply no more than the writer’s personal opinion. It should simply be headed ‘opinion’ and I would not have a problem with it. I do however have a problem when members of our community take the Editorial as accurate information. I am always concerned that in this day and age with everything revolving around money and profit, our papers and the media as a whole, has lost its purpose. I was raised to believe that the text books I learned from at school and the information printed in the media was ‘true’. It took me a while to realise that no, what is written in the media and in books is more often ‘opinion’. Two people witnessing an event will describe it differently. So for me, every time I read the paper I still want to believe that what I am reading is true but I have to remind myself that it is only opinion. Not much better or worse than anything you can read on the Internet or anywhere else. I love the Internet as it is a tool for quick and easy communication practically anywhere in the world. It is the biggest encyclopaedia ever created, with information freely available to those with access. Just remember to use it with caution as we should do with every book, magazine and newspaper and TV show that we read or watch.

Now to the story today about me. My hats off to Jessica as she has done quite a good job. I also understand that her story that she writes is subject to an editorial process so may be altered even though it has her name attributed to it. Yes Jessica and I met last Monday, and she asked me many questions including questions about Strewth!. I did say that ‘All’s fair in love and war and the cyberspace’. I would however qualify that remark by saying the use of the Internet for illegal activity is abhorrent to me. I didn’t make the comment at the time but this is my true belief. I was not a ‘regular’ contributor to Strewth! as is reported. I contributed when needed to try and correct inaccurate or incorrect information that I was aware of personally. I was never asked if I contributed to Strewth! anonymously, (and yes I was expecting the question) and would have replied that yes, in the early days I used the alias “Babbling’ as someone had described me thus. I then decided to be up front and used my name for further posts.

My email list is between 200-300 people and anyone can be included or opt out of it. I try to send out info about Council and ask for feedback. This is time consuming for me but I feel that it is a good cheap and quick way to communicate with residents and better do my job of representing them. My comments about defamation were in response to being asked if I thought that the site author(s) could be caught or charged with defamation. The picture of me that is used for the story is when I was trying to highlight the dangers of more and more high rise along our foreshore. It was taken before I was elected over 2 years ago (in winter) and is in front of the Bay apartments while they were under construction. An interesting choice of picture I think.

So at the end of the day I believe that blogs have a place. I prefer them to be hosted by someone prepared to use their name but I would only criticise a blog if every newspaper in the land decided to tell ‘the truth’ unedited and accurately and this simply does not happen. Even our ‘free’ newspapers have to make money so they have to advertise. These advertisers wield power and can be favoured by the paper. It is all a murky world and information now is reduced to short stories in short paragraphs with very few words. As you can see I am never short of a word or two or three. I am personally not perfect. I have many, many flaws. I sometimes drive too fast and have received a speeding fine or two in past years (although advancing age has seen me a much more sedate driver these days), my house is a total mess and I have no idea how my cleaner survives, I talk too much and interrupt people (although I know I do this I find it very hard to stop), I am not married but live happily with my partner Graham. Both my kids have had good times and bad and I love them to pieces no matter what, I forget to return calls to my friends but always try to return calls to residents, (my poor neglected friends…), and I have made bad judgements in my past. I still make mistakes but have learned to front up and own up. Life is much happier I find when one can own up when we get it wrong. But I am truthful and try to do more good things in the world than bad! I don’t care less if anyone ever remembers me when I am gone. I do what I can now while I am here and want to help my community and my planet, not hurt it.

Lastly. This is all my opinion and is my version of events. I write it and believe what I say to be true. Take care and remember that this is my own opinion and not to be construed in any way to be the opinion or in any other way related to Hervey Bay City Council.

Stop Press. Son (or daughter) of strewth is born it seems. http://strewthreloaded.wordpress.com/ and now another one http://bringbackstrewth.wordpress.com/

Cheers, Sue

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