MAYOR BASKS IN THE SUN'S SHINE

A fifth pillar has been added to Mayor Philip Owen's Four Pillar approach
to drug problems in Vancouver. We already have the original ones:
prevention, treatment, enforcement and harm reduction.

Each supports the others, we are assured, in a much-needed synchronicity
that guarantees success. The new pillar on the block is the Vancouver Sun,
its editor Neil Reynolds and his uncommon support for the other four
pillars. I should say at the outset that I'm a big fan of what the mayor is
up to on this issue.

I'm not certain it will work, but obviously the War on Drugs is
destructive, costly and ineffective. I should also say that you expect an
opinion from me, not just the facts. What you expect from the news pages of
the Vancouver Sun is something more balanced than what you might find in an
editorial column, and I'm not sure that's what you're getting. In fact,
there is growing evidence that the Sun's relationship to this issue is
mutually beneficial. Several months ago, the paper launched a high-profile
12-part series on the city's drug problem and possible solutions. The
effort was trumpeted by the Sun as the most significant journalistic
venture ever undertaken. It's no secret the paper expects the series will
win it a national award. Inquiring reporters were sent around the globe and
across the continent, then plunged into the grim reality of the Downtown
East Side. All of this coincided with the release of the Mayor's Framework
For Action, which lays out the strategy and hopes to kick-start the
provincial and federal governments into throwing some money at the drug
problem. So far so good. Owen's framework "draft discussion paper" was
leaked to the Vancouver Sun first. Politician assists friendly media.

Hardly news. Since then, the relationship between the mayor's office and
the Sun has grown closer. I am reliably informed that the paper has put a
request in to the mayor's office to endorse its series for the award it
hopes to win. The mayor is currently hosting a series of forums to promote
debate and sell the package to the public.

The flyer announcing the meetings along with a message from the mayor was
distributed by the Sun for free. Each meeting begins with a panel of speakers.

I was at the first one at the Vancouver Public Library. For reasons nobody
has been able to explain to me, beyond mutual admiration or reflected
glory, each panel includes a reporter from the Sun, along with the expected
doctors, police, educators and coroners, representing each of the original
four pillars. A Sun reporter also covered the meeting at the library.

She managed to estimate the crowd at 50 per cent higher than the number I
came up with. Bigger crowds make better news. The $14,000 publicly funded
poll to measure citizen acceptance of the mayor' s plan released last week
was also helpful to the Sun. It's not uncommon for politicians or soap
salesmen to poll people on where they heard about an issue or a product.

While all Vancouver news organizations have reported on the mayor's scheme,
the poll only asked questions about the Sun and its 12-part series.
Essentially, the public purse paid for a reader survey, thanks to the
mayor. The Sun learned how many people read all or part of the series,
along with demographic statistics including their age, gender, education
level and where they lived in the city. None of this information was
reported in the paper's front-page coverage of the poll results—which, by
the way, showed significant support for the mayor's plan. The following
day, a Sun editorial called for "action on drugs." The difficulty in all of
this is that, now that one of the usually reliable observers of the scene
has become a player, it's harder for the rest of us to find the truth.

This fifth pillar may do more to block light than shed any on the issue