On Pleasant Editorial: I Censor Myself

Blitz Magazine

The pledge I made last month—to turn my back on television forever and lead a life of ignorance, didn't quite stick. In fact, it lasted for 12 hours. If you wish to remain in the dark about everything, you have to have no curiosity. And if you have no curiosity, you’re in real trouble. So that was a dumb idea. Plus, all of our news programming has lately been packed with information that’s relevant and meaningful to Canadians. I have no complaints.

Here in BC, we’re in election mode. The NDP is faced with the hopeless task of communicating its ‘platform’ to a public that can’t avoid noticing that the Liberals have done a great job of running the province—and will continue to do so. With a new leader smart enough to realize that heated rhetoric will get her nowhere, the NDP is limping along with the weakest communications campaign I’ve seen in a long time. Which amuses me. I have no complaints.

We have a logo for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. While not everyone was happy with the process through which it was chosen, and some graphic designers are sniffing at it, I like it. The stylized inukshuk is clean, colourful, happy, friendly, attractive and welcoming. If you look at it one way, it looks like a figure with its arms stretched out; if you look at it another way, it looks like someone in a ski suit with skis on his shoulder. I have no complaints.

Vancouver is also home to a heated competition for the eyeballs of the younger crowd. Four new free newspapers have been launched here in the past two months. The wisdom of this could be debated, but this is a story for another day—after one is left standing. In the meantime, I have no complaints.

You’re thinking: “No complaints! Where are the bilious arguments? The unrestrained tongue-lashings? Is this woman on drugs?”

This editorial is actually something of an experiment. I’ve had so many comments lately about how I should be ‘careful’ about what I say, that I ‘should try to be less harsh’ and that my readers ‘might like nice’, that I thought I’d do one of those bland, boring, pleasant messages that you see in so many magazines. Where the editors have space to fill and don’t want to tip any apple carts, and just do the blah blah without offending anyone, or taking a position on anything. I am, in fact, censoring myself. But just this once. Because, I suspect, that the response I get to this style of editorial will be negative.

Or, I could be wrong. Does cheerful uncomplaining journalism sell because it causes no stress? Are people so used to the clear broth of packaged PR-soaked journalism that they don’t notice the lack of meat? Are people so disgusted by the never-ending doses of reality they get every day that they prefer to read articles that are meaningless and not thought-provoking? We’ll see.

So Gentle Reader. Enjoy this issue. And, please, have a nice day.