Long ago, a friend worked in small town radio and I spent a little time with him in the studio. The broadcasting outlet had no news departments or specialists in information gathering and reporting. Instead, the station simply used scripts provided by wire news services, a practice known as “rip ‘n’ read.”
There are many good journalists working in corporate media today. But, lack of resources stifles their work. At times, news people simply accept press releases as accurate and report the contents without close examination.
This month, CBC News headlined:
- B.C. Hydro seeking new energy projects as demand for power grows.
The article contained:
B.C. Hydro says it’s seeing historic system use, which is expected to grow by 15 percent by 2030…
It says the growing demand for power is coming from population growth, industrial development, electric vehicles, heat pumps and an increase in people working from home.
The CBC reporter was Courtney Dickson. After her article appeared online, I sent a message to Ms. Dickson saying:
I am amazed that the media fails to examine BC Hydro’s long history of being wrong about demand growth. What the company says in its news releases is not backed up by its sales records.
I suggested the reporter look at my article, BC Hydro sales flat, spending not. It contains a chart taken from BC Hydro’s quarterly and annual reports.
Ms. Dickson did not respond.
Categories: BC Hydro, Journalism
in-sights.ca 
Yes but what was her reaction, did she even think about a retraction or just move along to another day. I tell people all the time about your research on Hydro, most are of course totally unaware of the truth. Keep it up please
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As a result of having followed your reporting and analysis for some time, I had the same reaction when I read the article at CBC, but failed to follow up. As Bruce White says, ” Keep it up” and many thanks.
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Nothing has changed. In ’03, a friend and myself signed up as intravenors when Hydro was going through big changes, like inviting private power producers to jump in and sell their power to Hydro at $0.12 per kw-hr. The hearing was a bit of a joke. We hadn’t received the 1,000 pages of information prior to the meeting but we did get them as we walked in. Yes, 1,000 pages of which about 5 were relevant. The hearing was more of an “old boys’ get-together” and I don’t remember any questions being asked. Later, as I sifted through the documents, I saw the growth projections…a gr 12 student could have concocted them with the compound interest formula. There was no justification whatsoever supporting the predictions. What does Hydro have its eyes on, this time around ? The Moran Canyon Dam, on the Fraser ? …another, potentially dangerous dam, that will cost 5X what is estimated ?
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