The Winnipeg Free Press, the leading MSM source of news in Manitoba, is learning a hard lesson about modern technology.
Their flirtation with the internet is bringing them nothing but grief, as their manipulations of the news are being exposed by their own website postings.
Yesterday on the show we read aloud from the post on the WFP website about the fundraising stunt by the Friends of Upper Fort Garry. In conjunction with CJOB, two famous millionaires pretended to spontaeneously add $500,000 each to the Friends campaign to raise $3.5 M to "save" the Fort (though no one has explained what it is being saved from). The Freep's first story exposed the stage-managed donations.
Within minutes of reading that story on the air, a new version appeared online which wiped out all references to what really happened on CJOB and tried to wrap the Friends in the flag of protecting Manitoba's history against rapacious land developers.
But thanks to the magic of cut and paste, we have both versions for your reading enjoyment (emphasis mine).
ORIGINAL posted at 1.04 PM
Asper, Richardson donate $1 M to fort
Updated: February 28, 2008 at 01:04 PM CST
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The Richardson and Asper families gave a million-dollar boost today to a campaign to save Upper Fort Garry, the site of a former historic fort in downtown Winnipeg.
Hartley Richardson and David Asper each donated $500,000 from their family foundations in calls they made in person to a live radio show staged today to help the Friends of Upper Fort Garry.
The friends is a loose network of business groups, historians, and politicians, working together to save money to preserve the site which played centre stage in Manitoba’s entry into confederation. The target is to raise $3.5 million by the end of March.
The group hired a publicist who set up CJOB radio as the selected venue to prime public donations. Then the city’s two most generous patrons agreed to make their donations public in live calls.
The announcements have not been made official in separate statements to the public yet. Spokespeople are expected to be offer comments later in the day.
Now the seriously amended version posted at 4.43 PM
Breaking News
$1-M boost for campaign to save Upper Fort Garry
By: Alexandra Paul
Updated: February 28, 2008 at 04:43 PM CST
Two prominent Winnipeg families, the Richardsons and the Aspers, made a $1 million donation today to boost a campaign to save Upper Fort Garry, the historic site in downtown Winnipeg.
And in response, ordinary Winnipeggers called a local radio station and may have added as much as $600,000 in a single morning of pledges once they heard about the million, the campaign's chairman said. The number is a preliminary figure and will be confirmed at a later time, said Jerry Gray, chair of Friends of Upper Fort Garry.
Hartley Richardson and David Asper each donated $500,000 from their family foundations.
"I feel great. We have to raise $3.5 million in a month so when you get two pledges for $500,000 each, it's a great step forward to our goal. And it's great publicity," said Gray.
The Friends is a network of business groups, historians, civic and aboriginal politicians.
The city has said the Friends must raise $12.5 million by the end of March and get control of a privately-owned curling club on the site. Only then will the city kick in its share, the land itself valued at $2 million.
The battle between history and profit is turning into a contest of loyalty for city councillors and it's raising the profile of history in the hearts and minds of ordinary Winnipeggers.
In addition to $3.5 million in private funds, the group wants $4.5 million each from federal and provincial levels of government.
The March 31 deadline is looming, unless the group wins an extension which is something they're working on.
alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
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Today the Winnipeg Sun reported the Million Dollar Phone Call (tm CJOB) was "already included in the Friends' $2.5-million capital campaign total" and "The group received approximately $75,000."
On today's show we will try to get answers about the $525,000 discrepancy.
