Facebook Calls The Bulldog Big Important Media

The City of Ottawa has treated The Bulldog like that three-month-old bag-lunch former mayor Jim Watson left in a file cabinet after he departed his office with banker-box full of his stuff.

Now Facebook is doing the same thing but at least that social media platform has given The Bulldog a back-handed compliment.

Its cutting-edge fancy algorithms have concluded the The Bulldog is real media … big media. That’s why Facebook has banned The Bulldog from its social-media gabfest in protest of the federal government’s Bill-C18 that would make it pay for the news it uses. For shame.

But now the compliment. That puts this modest little puppy in the same category as the Toronto Star, the CBC, CTV, The National Post and the much-esteemed Globe and Mail that absolutely drips legitimacy. Yup, that’s us.

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That’s a pretty high-rent rendezvous for a wee puppy that had zero (count ’em) zero readers 11 years ago. Now The Bulldog, with its 100,000 page views a week, is hob-nobbin’ with the high-and-mighty who drink the store-bought. Guess we’ll have to get the tuxedo dry-cleaned.

Yes, this hamster-powered website has become part of the journalism aristocracy. Not that the City of Ottawa cares. It has in the past banned The Bulldog from receiving press releases (the same thing that the late Toronto mayor Rob Ford did to the Toronto Star because the newspaper had the audacity to tell the truth … a habit The Bulldog has picked up).

Then during the Watson administration, it has banned The Bulldog from receiving advertising because … well … perhaps it was reflected in a statement from a former Happy Town News flak who told your agent: “It’s just a (expletive) blog.” We don’t allow that kind of language in The Bulldog (though the occasional cuss word is uttered at Bulldog World Headquarters now and then. We’re sorry).

Unfortunately as a result of three terms of Watson rule, Happy Town News (city media relations) runs like a propaganda agency or like the city runs its trains. Take it from there.

But it’s very hard to deny the precise and accurate machinations of Facebook even when it is ethically wrong in banning Canada’s media. Facebook knows its numbers and it says The Bulldog is big-time and influential media in Ottawa. So there.

I once talked at length to a very experienced advertising hand who told his clients that it doesn’t matter what the media outlet says. Instead, crucial is the eyeballs of its readers and do they fit the advertiser’s demographic? And just in case you need reminding, this website is chock-a-block with people who care about Ottawa and its municipal affairs. Why it’s just the outlet the city should be putting part of its $1-million OC Transpo ad campaign that tries to quell the stink from LRT that rival’s Watson’s old tuna-fish sandwich.

Furthermore, The Bulldog is cheap. The city would get a fair whack of change from its million … a lot of change … a real lot of change. Big media in this town could not possibly compete with The Bulldog’s price.

So the city is ignoring its best vehicle to reach Ottawans very economically and the city’s taxpayers should be outraged by that. The reason isn’t economics … it’s petty politics.

And journalist and mayor Mark Sutcliffe should be ashamed that this sort of thing is allowed to continue.

Is The Bulldog big media? Yes and if you don’t believe your agent, ask that $600-million Facebook franchise. It banned The Bulldog. Thank you for the end-around compliment.

They banned The Bulldog because it is a substantial part of the media landscape, something the City of Ottawa and the people of this community knew long before Facebook unleashed its algorithms on it.

Why a senior editor at the Citizen recently called The Bulldog “its competition.” Thank you.

Now why isn’t the City of Ottawa spending its advertising money in the most effective method possible?

Politics over efficacy. When have we ever heard that from Ottawa City Hall?

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Time to change that.

You know Orleans West-Innes Councillor Laura Dudas called on council to condemn the action of Facebook’s ban and she was right. Then there’s the city ban on Bulldog advertising. She should do something about that. And she can do something about that. Why isn’t she?

The Bulldog has been whacked down by the Facebook ban and the city ban on advertising. Perhaps the good councillor could trip down to the mayor’s office and Happy Town News and discover why The Bulldog is being banned.

Councillor Dudas, it’s time to put some tough action behind those strong words. Do something that you can do something about. End the city ban.

Ken Gray

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