And now a partial score: Lansdowne Live Won, Public Interest, Nil

The Ottawa Citizen’s completely nutty editorial this morning on the Lansdowne Live proposal – yes, by all means, let’s punish principled opposition by taking the names of all those who dare to raise their voices in dissent – reminds me once again of what a huge opportunity lost the Lansdowne redevelopment story is for CBC Ottawa. I suppose it’s debatable, but I believe the Citizen’s editorial support for the Lansdowne Live proposal had an impact on the way the issue was covered in its news pages. I searched in vain, for instance, on Tuesday morning to find any reference in the paper to the previous day’s news conference featuring former NDP leader, and Ottawa Centre MP, Ed Broadbent in my copy of the Citizen. That’s the one where Broadbent called the redevelopment process so far as “totally unacceptable as a matter of public policy.” But whether the Citizen pulled its punches on the Lansdowne Live proposal or not, this is a story CBC Ottawa should have owned. It didn’t. Oh there are examples of good work done by individual reporters. But the issue never became a station priority. It rarely, if ever, broke new ground on the story.  It’s an example that offers another possible tagline for the new CBC News:  No longer in the business of owning stories, we’re now satisfied with simply marking them.