Letter to the Editor Too much on Pezim?

I feel compelled to question The Northern Miner’s emergence as The Daily Telegraph of the mining world. Isn’t the amount of space and the ongoing repetition that you have accorded (Murray) Pezim’s juvenile antics as regards Corona just a little bit too much?

Surely the news value has deteriorated to zilch and I personally find it ludicrous to read today’s comments by mining analysts on the Corona-Pezim situation. I’m amazed to see that these comments rate ink at all, let alone Page 1.

You’re not only lionizing Pezim, you are idealizing his Galveston, which is nothing new or different on the mining scene. There are a dozen companies in a comparable position, but they don’t seem to attract your paper’s attention.

I’d like you to refer to Page 1, The Northern Miner, Feb 16. Nineteen inches of presumably valuable space are devoted to commentaries on Pezim and Charlie Stuart. Are these people what the mining business is all about?

Both stories have very limited news value; both could have been effectively covered in half a dozen paragraphs.

There is also another danger, involving the basics of objective reporting which seem to have been ignored in these stories. When legal aspects of a situation come to the fore, there is no way a reporter or a newspaper can provide an ongoing, balanced perspective of what is going on.

It is a total disservice to the reader to provide anything but the most straightforward coverage of the facts alone when controversy develops. The reporter or the newspaper simply does not have the capability or the full breadth of information available to do other than this.

Worst of all, the purpose for which readers buy The Northern Miner is being subjugated to this type of journalism. Readers want mining news. I have expressed my opinion many times that your reporters aren’t getting the news.

All of which, I hope, you will understand is offered as constructive criticism. Graham Ackerley Toronto.