Alex Reid

I may not agree with everything that anyone says.

I like to keep my politics loose and my morals solid.

However I have a weak spot for Jello Biafra, specifically because his “don’t hate the media, become the media” mantra was the source of many of my successes, so I give him my audience.

If you listen to the end, you’ll find me agreeing with him.

Run policy like politics.

It was 40 years ago that Gil Scott-Heron stated that the revolution would not be televised.

He was partially right.
The revolution will not be televised for the first three weeks.

Coming from a family of journalists, I’ve been disappointed, perhaps even angry, that the Canadian mainstream media was quick to jump on protests in the Middle East yet ignored the same closer to home for weeks. I’m specifically referring to the likes of the CBC, The Globe and Mail and Global TV.

I expected this sort of pandering from The National Post, so they didn’t disappoint.

The Globe and Mail only had this to say about it - that it was Adbusters (a Canadian publication) who encouraged it with other groups, two days ago. Global repeated what the Globe storied a day later.

The CBC just picked up on it earlier this afternoon; three weeks late.

CTV looks like a winner here, having reported on it a week later (two weeks ago) though for the most part they’ve been obsessed about the police presence and arrests.

No matter what happens during or after the #occupywallstreet protests, many of my friends wondered on Twitter and Facebook why they weren’t seeing this or hearing it reported on the mainstream news, and have to come to the same realization I have, that mainstream news is outdating itself.

I have little faith in the CBC for sure. It’s clear now that the CBC only covers natural disasters and when the Prime Minster passes stool, for fear of cutbacks.

MSNBC, in the states, gets kudos for being perhaps the only American mainstream media to report the protests as well as boldly criticizing the people who were causing the most trouble.

The day after the new iPhone 4S was released, the world lost Steve Jobs.

It was only a few weeks ago that Jobs had decided to step down from the company he built – twice – and the world was dreading what he was dreading, he had cancer.

Jobs was a perfectionist, he was obsessed with doing things the right way, he some times swore and screamed at his employees but ultimately he revolutionized the way we look at phones and buy music.

It might be fitting that Jobs’ last official announcement to Apple fans was regarding the iCloud service, since Jobs is probably in the clouds now himself.

We are losing our privacy slowly every day and not because of the government or big business. We are losing our privacy because we, as individuals, are the ones eroding it.

I call it ‘Little Brother’ and this New York Times article sums it up very well. It’s one of the leading reasons I started doing reputation management for artists.

“… the truth is that for a great many people, the permanent memory bank of the Web increasingly means there are no second chances — no opportunities to escape a scarlet letter in your digital past. Now the worst thing you’ve done is often the first thing everyone knows about you.”

Several weeks ago, veteran Winnipeg City Councillor Bill Clement passed away and frankly I was a bit shocked, partly because I know of almost a dozen good people in Winnipeg who have passed on suddenly and unexpected in the past few months.

I wasn’t close with Mr. Clement but for a long time I’ve held in him in high regard for his hard work while I worked at City Hall, mere doors down from his office, and most of all, for his willingness to communicate with me, despite any disagreements in viewpoints we may have had. I certainly didn’t always agree with him; I believe his views on policing and fiscal areas were our common grounds. But of all of the 15 City Councillor on council, there were only three City Councillors who I feel went beyond the call of their duty. Mr. Clement was certainly one of them.

Mr. Clement was the only City Councillor who always responded to me personally, some times even calling me, within 24 hours of any inquiry despite me not being a resident or voter in his riding. Communication skills are the most important skill a politician or businessperson should retain, and Mr. Clement never disappointed. He also was the most fiscally trained City Councillor, something I repeatedly celebrated in my news reporting during the early 2000s, rarely employing an assistant.

Since my last communication with him in the winter about a policing issue, I meant to thank him via email for all of this but my email outbox attests I never got around to it.

Mr. Clement was the City Councillor for 27 years, a partner is his family business Aqua Pleasure Pools, he truly was a people person, gruff but a straight shooter and most of all, was not petty to mere political differences.

You will be missed Sir.