The Timaru Herald Editorial Staff Don’t Like Me

The Editorial staff at the Timaru Herald don’t seem to like me which is why they wont report any of my companies press releases or letters to the Editor that I send them. I met with the Manager of the Herald Chris Mc Auslin last week to express my concern about this and he told me that he has no control over the actions of his Editorial Staff.
The Timaru Herald  wrote a report on the amount of campaign expenses that each candidate incurred in the last locl body elections. As I was a mayoral candidate in the last elections I gave them some feedback to their story with the following article and true to form the Editor proved my point that they are denying me of my right to freedom of speech. Below is the inpublished letter

The Editor Timaru Herald
Dear Sir

 Campaign Expenses
The amount of money that local body candidates spent on themselves in an effort to get elected into a government job made interesting reading in today’s Herald. However your readers should be reminded that what was reported was only the cash expenses and it did not take into consideration the labour cost of each candidate. In 1997 when I stood for Mayor I spent 3 months working full time canvassing and advertising public meetings only to find no one turned up to my meetings. At the end of it my wife and I were both invited to the council chambers to drink ratepayers champagn at the counting of the votes party. I had high hopes that year of winning the mayoral race and when we learnt that I had less than 900 friends in the district we left the party early grabbing a ratepayers stubby and piece of caviar on the way out. During the last election campaign I spent a great deal of my time attending other candidates campaign meetings because I wanted to hear what they were going to do to make Timaru a better place for us all to live if they got elected. I watched the bill boards go up with all their pretty faces saying look at me, look at me, vote for me. I made it publicly known that my only reason for standing for Mayor in these elections was because I was one of the few Mayoral candidates who was willing to get out amongst the people and listen to their needs. I went door knocking to find out what people wanted and some were so grateful that I called they even slipped me a couple of bucks under the table to pay for my time. What bugs me about local body elections is that the sitting members all remain on full pay during the election campaign. If the Timaru ratepayers were to pay me the same hourly rate as they were paying the other sitting candidates during the last 2 election campaigns then I’m sure I would have been able save up enough money to buy one of Allan Hubbards second hand farms.

Ron E Bishop
General Manager
Timaru Tourist Promotions Ltd

If you have read this letter to the Editor then perhaps you would like to comment and tell me why you think they did not print it.
I would welcome your feedback