No where to go but up!

This newspaper consistently disappoints. It seems to forget that its readership does not just live within the confines of “Greater Moncton”. It could easily be renamed the Greater Moncton Fan magazine, as it seems to put more childish energy into promoting the city of Moncton (usually at the expense of other cities) than reporting on news events. Just count how many times in a week the word “Metro” is plastered through headlines as it brags about some event that is generally not real “news”. Stories often lack objectivity and it is very easy to see the particular bias of individual writers or the paper in general. This paper seems to have difficulty triaging what types of news items warrant prominent coverage and tends to devote a lot of effort to fluff stories (often about pets). It often will write about a new topic in a way that serves only to inflame public outcry thus guaranteeing itself 3 or 4 weeks worth of text to fill the letters to the editor section or follow up articles. (Example…the man who was receiving social assistance benefits and spent part of a lottery win on bingo.) To me this is not journalistic, it is “tabloidesque”, and always at someone’s expense. Lastly, the copy editing is very poor. Grammar, usage, and punctuation are replete with errors. When we do have a copy of the paper, we often use it as a teaching tool with our young son, encouraging him to spot errors. He gets a lot of practice. The paper does have a handful of strong writers, whose work I really enjoy. Sadly, their talents are buried amidst the drivel. Save your money and buy a better paper…or if you do buy this paper, use it to help test your kids’ literacy skills, or line the Guinea Pig’s cage.