Beach Booster- Prior to 2014, I truly enjoyed reading and looked forward to picking up a copy of our little community newsletter. I enjoyed reading the cool local historical articles. I enjoyed looking for our children’s sports team updates and stories about happenings at their schools. Yes, we even purchased advertising space in it for our businesses.

All of that changed in 2014 and I can easily explain the reasons why. Media in general has traditionally been easy to define as being primarily right wing or left wing. Their news articles would typically be slanted one way or the other depending on editorial opinion. Ownership of large media giants often define the slant many stories are built upon. But usually, it seemed that small local publications escaped this partisan dedication.

In 2013, Brian Smith announced he was running for Mayor and it appeared that had had very deep pockets. The front page banner position featured Brian Smith for most or all issues during that campaign. Along with that dedication to regular advertising sales, came what appeared to be a new, editorial bias that supported virtually everything spoken of by Smith.

Once the election was won by Smith in 2014, the campaign spending appeared to be replaced by advertising dollars spent by the Town of Wasaga Beach. All stories that pertained to local politics also now seemed to tout the decisions of our Council, while clearly criticizing the only two council members that occasionally voiced objection to councils actions.

Now, consider yesterdays discussion about clouding negative activity behind positive activity. This “newsletter” was rapidly becoming a great example of how to best utilize this as a political tool. The great local history stories continued, residents could still look forward to finding their children’s pictures featured, or find scores from local hockey leagues.

But a new feel was now evident. Beach Booster now felt like a publication throwing their editorial direction 100% behind the Mayor and constantly praising the direction he seemed to be going.

But… this newly biased editorial slant was counteracted by two other forces. Torstar still published a local newspaper (The Wasaga Sun)with professional journalism. Our true “newspaper” provided readers with what could be described as fair, unbiased reporting, while Beach Booster had rapidly become a one sided political tool.

The other activity that provided a balance to the biassed coverage was a very active Social Media presence. Despite the biased coverage, online comments appeared to offset public opinion.

Towards the end of the 2014/18 term of office, there was actually an attempt by the Council in having the Town dedicate their mandatory advertising (planning notices) to Beach Booster. That effort was thwarted. I recall that effort being blocked by staff because these notices had to be published in a local “newspaper” and If my recollection is accurate, the Beach Booster did not meet the standards to be called a newspaper.

So, enter the 2018 Campaign period and the paid advertising by candidates was again in full swing. Brian Smith again spent plenty. In fact, after seeing financial disclosures it was discovered that the 2018 election spending by Brian Smith appeared to set local records. Never had any candidate come near the spending done by Smith to win.

This spending did not work out for Smith and his election bid was defeated. We now had a new Mayor and instead of celebrating the democratic process, the editorial direction of the Beach Booster newsletter appeared to take on a new change of editorial direction.

From 2018-22, the Beach Booster newsletter became the Wasaga Beach Councils loudest critic. An important observation is that not once during this period was our Mayor and her Council praised or celebrated for their design or commitment to build us a new (much needed) Twin Pad Arena and Library. However, after Mayor Smith returned to office, his Council was praised for delivering this incredible facility. Praise, by a publication filled with years of criticism for the same structure.

A few things happened during that term of office that had a huge impact on the reach of this newsletter. First, was that despite objection from many, this publication was being forced into our Mail boxes by Canada Post. It seems BB were able to convince Canada Post that they should be classified as a newspaper which allowed them to fall into a different class of content in our mail boxes. We could deny/ refuse flyers and junk mail, but not this publication.

The next thing that influenced political opinion was massive, organized Facebook driven criticism of The Wasaga Sun by the Brian Smith support team and the praise of coverage by Beach Booster.

The 2022 election cycle was underway and an entire slate of candidates now appeared to have the same editorial support of the Beach Booster newsletter.

In fact, after the election determined all members of that slate would be our elected Council, Beach Booster boasted that members who advertised in their publication all won.

So, now the current term of office is well underway and more than ever, the editorial bias was becoming evident. This bias was also having a more pronounced impact because of an important media decision by Torstar Corporation.

At the same time that Beach Booster was able to justify the high cost of Canada Post distribution, Torstar Media eventually announced the discontinuation of printing the paper version of the Wasaga Sun. We could still see an online version, but not many people did.

At around the same time as this decision to discontinue by the Wasaga Sun, Meta (owners of Facebook) entered into a dispute with the Canadian Government about the sharing of Canadian Media content on their platform. So, no Canadian media was now able to have their content shared. However, that blockage seemed to exclude the Beach Booster.

It appears they are considered a newspaper by Canada Post standards and not excluded from Facebook by Meta standards.

This perfect storm may be good for Beach Booster and those supported by the editors of that publication, but politically the Town of Wasaga Beach in general now suffers from exposure to poor journalistic integrity and lack of truly balanced coverage of politically important stories.

A clear example of this bias recently is the almost absent coverage of the well prepared, incredible, long awaited High School proposal by the SCDSB. Virtually all information on this has been shared on Socual Media by the School Board. Instead, the praises on BB pages are for the poorly prepared, disappointing, inadequate high school being promoted as a partnership with the town. Those just getting their news updates from the BB actually think it is a done deal and a new high school is being built beside our new arena. Until the government commits funding, this is not a firm plan.

Personally, I don’t see any end in sight of this biased coverage of political content. Just like my desires prior to 2014, it would be nice to look through it and see all of the wonderful community content. I think I would still enjoy the great content that shines a light on all that is good in Wasaga Beach. But most issues of BB for me go right into the recycling without opening them. I simply cannot stand the constant praise for Mayor Smith and the continued berating of anyone who doesn’t share that praise.

Is Beach Booster truly a newspaper? Several months ago, I started talking publicly about Mayor Smith winning his election bid after lying to everyone about his home being Wasaga Beach despite living in Tiny Township. That has not hit their news cycle. I guess it’s to difficult to defend when videos exist that expose these lies. There are several news worthy stories like this but they do not reflect favorably on our elected body, so they remain absent.

My hope is that another publication is born and that publication takes on a dedication to unbiased reporting of the happenings that truly affect the people of Wasaga Beach. I have heard of two possible players in this arena coming soon. Fingers crossed.

Until then, If you are on the Brian Smith support team, enjoy YOUR publication. If you are not, then you decide how to read the good without choking on the biased stories being peppered among the true community content.

Sadly… this decision to read or not read, to believe or not believe… is one of the most prominent influences in the “Divide” Wasaga Beach is now know for.

Regardless, these discussions will continue. Tomorrow is number 80 of 365. I look forward to exploring the many options available that can bring us all together as a more unified, inclusive community.