We agree and we're doing this.

• One suggestion: a searchable index for archived material.

Done.

• Please, please, please DON'T get into banner ads. I know that is where the money comes from and I don't have any better suggestions. But that is the way the Internet and all the sites are going ­ can you be different?!?

Sorry, that's how we're going to make a living. You'll have to judge us by our advertisers and vice versa.

• Sometimes I disagree that I'm getting the STRAIGHT GOODS. I know you can't see through all the spin and have published some "spun" articles.

That's your job too, as readers. The beauty of the Internet is it encourages everyone to doubt everything!

• Sometimes your articles are very high brow, but they are good nonetheless. I really like the stuff that relates to everyday life and finances, and I have gotten links to other sites that have provided a wealth of information.

The toughest criticism. If Straight Goods is too "high brow" it isn't working. Thanks.

• Should be a 50/50 balance of consumer and political items.

That's what most readers seem to think. Our webmaster says readers split their time evenly between news and consumer items.

• Great jokes.

We think so. All praise to our editor, Susan Sperling, one of the world's funny people.

• Your jokes are often sexist. I'm not seriously offended, but I know many women who would be.

See above re: jokes. We think there's a difference between sexy and sexist.

• Italics are hard to read.

Sorry.

• As a new reader, I have noticed there seems to be a left-of- centre tendency! Maybe socialist political leaning? I hope this is just the result of becoming a newcomer.

Every publication has its tilt. Ours is toward democracy, workers, consumers, families, and an informed, powerful citizenry. We don't like powerful, unaccountable elites and irresponsible corporations. Straight Goods will survive or not, however, not on its ideology but on its ability to provide Canadians with useful, interesting info they feel is reliable.
 

"The Internet is the dawn of consumer power."

More recently we asked readers about how they use e-mail and the Internet. This yielded some really interesting comments:

• I think the annoying chain letters and "we pay you to surf the web or listen to streaming radio" letters are an attempt by the industry to make the traffic seem greater than it is. Spin, spin, spin.

You bet!

• The Internet is the dawn of consumer power. For the first time consumers, clients, patients, and others can choose to be informed for the purpose of getting better prices, services, or treatment. It challenges the power of manufacturers and health and service professionals when they are confronted with a savvy, knowledgeable consumer, client, or patient. In the end, it's good news for the latter!

That, in short, is the raison d'être for SG.

• The Internet is good mental stimulation for this newly arrived senior. Living alone in a sparsely populated area, I suppose you could say it's an "arm's length championship" ­ an attempt to develop communication skills for whatever the future may hold.

Seniors may be the most wired generation of all. They tend to be literate, concerned, and involved. And many have the time younger people lack to surf the Web and contribute. Straight Goods will be adding a regular columnist on seniors and their issues when we re-launch May 1.

• My, we live in interesting times! There's a political upheaval going on, our first-rate second-rate PM shooting off his mouth in the Middle East, and we're talking about the Internet and pesticides in Halifax?!

All the dots connect!
 

"Whine, whine, bitch and drool. I've known two-year olds with a better sense of cooperation than the BCNI."

Last week we asked readers about the Business Council on National Issues and its lobby for tax and social spending cuts. Straight Goods readers had a lot to say on that:

• We need to remember just what taxes are for. Collectively, taxes can "buy" such services as health, education, transportation, infrastructure, etc. Already, education has eroded to the point where parents are expected to ante up for "extras" such as textbooks, PC paper, field trips, and tutoring. Taxes are for everyone's benefit, not for the wealthy and corporate alone.

We couldn't have said it better.

• Tax the rich corporations and leave the poor people alone.

Ditto. How about cutting the GST instead of income tax for the wealthy, as many readers suggested?

• We need to demand the funding for programs such as education, health, unemployment insurance, and social assistance to be committed to levels which will make them function the way the majority of Canadians have said they want them to function. The greed mongers have done enough damage already.

Ditto.

• Whine, whine, bitch and drool. I've known two-year olds with a better sense of cooperation than the BCNI. I hope their proposal is a shot in the foot and will be, in the end, a one-day wonder. Surely even the business community has people in it with a more balanced and enlightened view and might even now be telling the BCNI that it's gone over the top this time.

Ditto.

• The spinning is making me dizzy. Make it stop.

• BCNI should abolish itself.

• Canada's living standard is more threatened by insufficient public investment in education, research and urban renewal than it is by taxation. The question we should really be asking of our CEOs is why it is that they are incapable of building competitive and innovative growing companies when their counterparts elsewhere in the world (where they are higher taxes) are able to do so. Companies such as Ericsson, Nokia and Philips come to mind. BCNI's statement is not about what's best for Canada, but rather reflects their own greed and need to find excuses for their own bad management.

• Anybody who is even somewhat dissatisfied with the standard of living here in Canada is a spoiled brat. Try living in India or Africa, then come back and whine ­ if you still feel up to it.

Agree, agree, agree, agree!.
 

"The spinning is making me dizzy. Make it stop."

Another recent favourite was the recent survey on newspapers, following the column by journalism prof, author, and former new editor John Miller:

• Newspapers are no longer the optimal source for news. The Internet is now more informative, with Web sites such as this.

We like newspapers a lot and think they're important. My hope is that sites like this will push the papers to improve.

• The result of the Daily Tubby entering the fray seems to be the general dumbing down of all newspapers. Spellchecker related errors are on the increase; these are amusing, but also irritating. Me-journalism rules. Yecchh.

• More and more Canada's newspapers carry the same stories and there is much less diversity in reporting. There is more "adverporting" ­ so-called news stories that are little more than thinly veiled ads or excuses to sell ads in a special supplement…. The broader public good and the political views on that story are systematically excluded.

• Rampant ideology, poor freelance pay, and short-sighted e-rights policies are driving good writers ­ and readers ­ away from the newspapers in droves.

• Reporters never seem to ask the right questions. Most articles leave me with more questions than answers. I usually go to the Web.

• I wouldn't wrap garbage in the National Post or any other of Conrad's crap.

• I read the Ottawa Citizen because I have no other choice. I'm so sick of reading about money, money, money, boondoggle, boondoggle, boondoggle. Is this really where we want our country to go to ­ Hell?

• John Miller's article was right on the money.

• Papers are becoming marginalized by readers' disgust with them. Journalists are indeed now required to be hacks working for publishers hoping to bring about a right-wing coup.

Agree, agree, agree, agree, agree, agree, agree, agree!

Thanks for writing my weekly column! And thanks for being part of our community.

- Ish Theilheimer
- April 17, 2000
- ish@straightgoods.com