Woke up with a vacant sensation between your journalistic ears? Then publish a viral email!

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The editor of that APN newspaper The Daily Examiner of Grafton in the Clarence Valley was obviously having a lazy day when he decided that those paying top price for the Saturday issue should be treated to the re-publication of one version of a hoary old copyright article from last century, which has become over time one of those ever-adapting viral emails which clog our PC inboxes from time to time.

At the time of writing this it had last turned up on a blog on 18 June 2009 in what appears to be the version Peter Chapman used.

Unfortunately a hard copy newspaper doesn't have a handy delete button, so a prolonged groan rang out across the valley from the many who had already read the supposed London Times obit in various forms over the years.

Common sense may not actually be dead but there is certainly a dearth of it at The Egg Timer these days.

Racial profiling in the Northern Rivers - an unpleasant odour lingers in APN media

It is less than two months since the unlamented departure of Peter Chapman from the editorial helm of The Daily Examiner, so it is perhaps overly optimistic to expect all the bad journalistic habits he fostered with such relish to have disappeared into thin air.

However, it is more than unfortunate that one bad habit which appears to linger is a tendency to report the racial characteristics of persons accused of a crime.

Last Saturday an individual before the court accused of aggravated sexual assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and related charges was described in The Daily Examiner's lead story as Caucasian in appearance.

What alleged racial appearance has to do with such a crime remains a mystery to me and can only be considered a gratuitous mention that this newspaper would be better served by deleting from future editions.

It's official - the editor's an ars#h@le

The Daily Examiner at Grafton celebrates 150 years of news publication this year.
It's circulation covers the Clarence Valley, with a supposed readership of around 28,000 from Monday to Saturday.
A somewhat unnatural number given that there are only about 50,000 people living in the Valley.
Still, it is to be congratulated for hanging in there when so many in the print media are living on what appears to be borrowed time as teh teev and teh net make inroads into 'audience' share.
So it's a real pity that in a year of celebration this local paper should be lumbered with such a tactless, insensitive tabloid hack like its johhny-come-lately editor, Peter Chapman.

His latest effort on Tuesday was to berate Yamba small business owners for taking either Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year's Day off to be with their own family and friends.
Apparently everyone in Yamba should have been open comme la Gold Coast for the benefit of the editor, his extended family and friends (because not for one moment did I believe in the unnamed dissatisfied 'tourists' he was supposedly championing).
As an afterthought he also included Maclean and Grafton shopkeepers in his gripe - presumably the boofhead remembered that he currently resides in Yamba and has to face his neighbours once the paper hits the streets.

Map from APN

Pink shirts and pig ignorance on the NSW North Coast

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Sometimes it is hard to decide whether this The Daily Examiner journalist is simply obeying an editorial direction to create controversy at any price or if he actually is as developmentally delayed as his language suggests.

Like other ugly paper chauvinists in the media Graham Orams is careful to give himself what he obviously believes is a get-out-of-gaol-free ticket by telling the world that women deserve better, as he flaunts what he likes to refer to as my raw and unshakable masculinity (pause for readers to lift right hand and signal with little finger).

The opinion piece above appeared on page 11 in last Thursday's issue of this regional paper. Needless to say its editor is still Peter Chapman.

Newspaper porkies for sale in the Clarence Valley

Oh dear, The Daily Examiner editor is at it once more.

On Tuesday 30 June 2009 he proclaimed he never did it - yet again.

Forgetting established chronology (the first published article appeared on 11 June and the first letter some four or five days later) he blames the Grafton-based APN newspaper's readers.

Unfortunately for Peter Chapman his previous words and those of the newspaper's journalists live on and show the heavy-handed, hearsay-ridden attempt to link crime, Beachside, Ngaru Village and "men of aboriginal appearance" as well as "Young people running around the streets staging break and enters and smashing property".

Here are two of those The Daily Examiner articles from 11 June and 12 June 2009:

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What a difference a change of editor makes

Under former editor Peter Chapman The Daily Examiner at times indulged in barely concealed Koori bashing, so this opinion piece by new editor David Bancroft was a welcome read last Wednesday:

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Original The Daily Examiner article about young Kaleesha Morris (pictured) Grafton teen a future PM? by journalist Marsha Neville on 16 September 2009.

Blistering barnacles, Mr. Editor!

Letter to The Daily Examiner editor, Peter Chapman, published on 25 June 2009.

See other posts:
Brave young Maree Jay takes on the ugly face of Australian journalism at The Daily Examiner
Greatest problem! Crisis! It's extravagation time at Tabloid City

Celebrate nature at Jeff Keyes 'award winning property on Sunday 23 September 2012

A Celebration of Nature

From 9.30 a.m. on Sunday 23^rd September

On Sunday 23rd September Jeff Keyes,

winner of Clarence Valley Council's 2012 Individual Sustainability Award,
will be hosting a celebration of nature at his property "Urimberra",

 the Sportsman Creek Conservation Area

Activities/displays include

·     a nature walk led by Jeff Keyes and John Edwards (starting at 11 a.m.)

·     nature education activities for children, organised by Sharon Lehman, Coordinator of Clarence Valley Conservation in Action - the CIA

·     a photographic exhibition of flora and fauna found on the property (around 320 of the approximate 600 species identified on the property)

·     a display of rustic furniture made on the property by Jeff Keyes

·     landscape paintings by Peter Chapman

·     up-to-date information on the coal seam gas industry plus a screening of a DVD on the Queensland CSG industry

The starting time for the celebration is 9.30 a.m.   Tea and coffee will be provided.  Bring snacks and a picnic lunch.

Everyone is welcome to this celebration.

 Directions:

The 50 ha wildlife refuge is at 2954 Summerland Way, Dilkoon, 20.6 km north of the Blue Goose Inn at Junction Hill, 750 m. north of Dilkoon Creek bridge and 1.3 km south of Sportsmans Creek.

For further information:

Contact Jeff Keyes on 0417 403606 or Stan Mussared on 66449309.

The celebration is coordinated by the Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition and the Clarence Environment Centre