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Saved from conspiracy theories by "Mr. Bush League"

By Judi McLeod

Monday, August 13, 2007

The summer of 2007 has thus far been a trying one for independent Canada Free Press.

Like every other summer, I long for Labour Day. September is a back to school, back to work time, that I find myself wishing would arrive in a blink. The reason for that is summers can be precarious chapters for anyone in North America counting on keeping a website afloat.

Is it because summer is so short in North America that heading-to-the-cottage types are now extending weekends from Thursday to Tuesday?

Some folk I know who used to leave the dust and smog of city life behind right after work on Friday, have started to leave on Thursday after work. Where they used to head back to the Big Smoke on Sunday night, they're now heading home on Monday night.

This summer has been a little more intense, and while sudden thunderstorms add atmosphere, I found myself embroiled in a crash course about the dangers of conspiracy theories.

It all started when we were knocked back from Google search results, and I right away leapt to the conclusion that we were being sabotaged.

Thinking of sabotage is less work than having to go looking for rogue files or finding Google-declared "bad neighbours" among 11,000 pages.

One colleague I complained to informed me that for the past month many right wing sites were being knocked off the web and provided me the name of a Toronto-based sort of bounty hunter of the Internet Sabotage Game.

Another wag suggested that Google was out to get CFP, but had no explanation why Google would choose this site among millions searched by Google.

Just as I settled down comfortably in "Find the Saboteur(s) mode", common sense started flooding back.

It's our not being up to speed on dratted technology; someone is making mistakes when in the posting process, I thought.

In getting back to commonsense, it was the past that saved me more time and worry.

A few years ago when we were running a print publication, city politicians were causing plenty of grief.

Municipal politicians seem to have money to spare and loads of time. Problems escalated during municipal campaign time, and it got to the point where "somebody's" trucks would follow our delivery van, picking up copies of freshly delivered newspapers as they arrived.

One politician who wanted to rid his private fiefdom of our publication forever, was more creative than most. Unbeknownst to us, he sent a fast-talking ad manager our way in response to our own published advertisement.

Although the ad manager wasn't selling, he wanted access to our office telephone answering machine, which he could use from his home base, "So I can get back right away to any potential leads," he said.

In the end it wasn't me or any of my adult colleagues who identified the ad manager for what he was: The Enemy. It was a then 17-year-old co-op student named Laura who began addressing him--to his face--as "Mr. Bush League".

"Good afternoon, Mr. Bush League," Laura would say on those rare occasions when the ad man arrived at our Elm Street office.

When I quizzed Laura about what was up with the "Mr. Bush League" greeting, she said with all the drama of a 17-year-old teen, "My God, you have to ask?"

In the end, the ad manager who had first fleeced us of money from ads he never sold during a week before Christmas Small Claims debacle that had a judge all but pulling his hair out, "Mr. Bush League" was sent packing.

On his departure, I sent a note back to the politician suspected of implanting him.: "Next time you send over a spy, make sure he's graduated from spy school."

A period set in shortly thereafter where every time something went wrong, it was the politician's fault.

In the early stages, Yours Truly went along with this. It's a comfortable route to be on when you can blame someone else for your own shortcomings.

This pattern permeated the entire office, including our new ad department.

One day we held a going-to-press meeting during which the ad department was asked how many inches of advertising had been sold for the upcoming issue.

The answer was zilch.

When asked why, the reply indicated that the politician who was responsible for this and that, including "Mr. Bush League's mercifully brief stint, could be at fault for "mean-mouthing us out in the community".

Finally it started to dawn on me that the politician was the scapegoat for our own infernal incompetence.

It's a habit heard to break when it's so much more convenient to blame the bogeyman rather than yourself.

And as for conspiracy and the Internet?

Google began tracking our files again as this column was being finished.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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