Ever since The Spectator openly supported Fred Eisenberger in his re-election bid, Mayor Bratina has been known to shun The Spectator in favour of CHML and other media outlets for interviews.
Today Spec reporter Emma Reilly tweeted “Mayor Bratina again refused to stop and speak to media. Several reporters followed him to his office and he ignored us” along with “I wish I could say this was the first time this happened -- but he's establishing a pattern of being openly dismissive to media”.
Can we really blame Mayor Bratina for sticking it to The Spectator? The Spectator openly supported an opponent of his.
Is it right of the Mayor to ignore media outlets who he feels have disrespected him?
LOL
ReplyDeleteUm... No it's not his 'right'. Not if he wants to be an effective mayor. In fact, it may come as a surprise to you, but 'sticking' it to media really doesn't befit the office of Mayor. Period. (And it wasn't just 'one reporter'; see below.)
I was at the GIC meeting Monday and at one point, after Mayor Bratina had been at the mic, I turned to a colleague and asked 'Was that the Mayor holding his breath and stamping his feet?'
It may be that he's activated The Peter Principle.
And as I said elsewhere, I almost laughed when I saw what The Spec's Ms Reilly was referring to: Mayor Bratina making his way to his chambers post-meeting; he wasn't 'running', but this cadre of reporters...Emma Reilly, I'm assuming, Cristina Tenaglia, Andrew Dreschel (I think, anyway) and one or two others...was practically clinging onto him, attached...sorta like Jim Brown running for a touchdown with five opponents on his back. I thought to myself 'What mayor doesn't have the (fill in the blank) to talk to the small group of journalists who have just sat through a five-and-a-half hour Council meeting?!?
The man is in his own world, methinks.
The bottom line is, him talking to The Spectator or not won't have any impact on the way he does things. Just when you thought you have him figured out, he does the LIVE discussion at the Spec. I swear he's playing with them, it's kind of funny.
ReplyDeleteWell, that 'live' discussion was rather a waste of time. This is how someone elsewhere put it:
ReplyDelete"Listen, it takes a few minutes for the q's to be posted, then for Bob to read them, then for him to type it up on his BB (small keys!) to send to Peggy, then for Peggy to go through her "approved talking points" crib sheet, then for her to write up a response and send it back to Bob for transcription."
As for him 'playing' with anyone... Sure. And I suspect we're only going to see more of this tack as we move forward.
(It goes without saying that if we had regular, city-wide town hall meetings, then over time, behaviour such as this...and that of Councillors...would be rendered null and void.)
I agree with mystoneycreek to an extent....it is part of the Mayor's responsibility to be open with media.....but when that Media was blatantly (and in the most biased fashion) AGAINST you winning....hmmmm, I wouldn't waste my time either. Supporting a political candidate is extremely irresponsible to the people of Hamilton....and thank goodness, not many were swayed by it. Even if he was to do more interviews with them, they would twist his words anyways....
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