Local News Reporting

I was checking out Yahoo which is typically where I get my news from. There was an article on the front page about my town. Now seeing as I really don't pay attention to the news, I find it too depressing, it's not really surprising that this is where I would get the news from. Seems a 17 year old girl was charged in a stabbing from New Years. No additional details so I decided to check out the local papers. The paid paper had no coverage on it whatsoever. But it was in the free paper. There really wasn't any more information but at least they had information on it. The free paper for the win!

Having said that their actual journalism leaves a lot to be desired. Last week there was a report on the economy. While they were saying that few were untouched by the recession, "Peterborough is a regional government hub -- think the MNR, the hospital, the schools boards and so on -- this area was somewhat cushioned from the impact of the recession compared to other communities" Now that is small comfort to those of us laid off in the area.... And I am sure that other areas have schools and hospitals that employ people. Just because we don't have somewhere like GM I feel like they disregarded those of us that were laid off.

Skip ahead only a couple of days and the news headlines is on potential job loss because of the massive deficit at the hospital. There is going to be a peer review to investigate the finances. And the estimates from the union are that as many as 385 people could be laid off.

So we were cushioned from the recession because of jobs at this location and not even 2 days later there is speculation that even as many as 385 of those employees could be losing their jobs in order to get rid of that deficit. Now it's not a direct casualty of the recession per se.... but if it happens is still a major blow to the local economy. Maybe it wasn't so cushioned after all.

I am thinking the moral of the story is that the only way to protect yourself from job loss is to get a government job... a true government job.... somewhere like the MNR. But seriously I can't believe that in one article they are using the hospital as an example of how we were protected from the fallout of the economy and then turning around and saying that layoffs may be coming at precisely that location.