The decision by the management of The Telegram to disembowel
the editorial pen of columnist Brian Jones signals more than just evidence of continued
decline in the idea of freedom of the press. His dismissal from the role exposes
the extent to which special interest groups — and their petit leadership — will
stoop to assuage the fragile egos of those paid from the public purse.
“Real” independent journalism has a spotty history in
Newfoundland and Labrador anyway. It is a fact of life not exclusive to here, but
this should give us no comfort.
Our story is simply that of a small homogeneous population far
too ready to embrace political, business, social and institutional networks
that are inward-looking, and who thrive on nepotism, partisanship, insecurity,
and perpetual deference to authority. It is an environment more likely to
perpetuate pettiness than self-confidence, or that is likely to magnify perceived
insult, when all that is required to matters about which we disagree is the
barely cerebral retort: “we beg to differ.”
