Fire and Brimstone? Not in the Slightest!

Vancouverites and Canadians,

The international press, and the Brits especially (despite not caring about the Winter Olympics) seem to be having a field day unfairly maligning our Olympics. Most particularly offensive has been the prose of Lawrence Donegan writing for the Guardian. My letter to the editor is below, and I encourage everyone else to do the same.

To The Editor:

As a long time reader of the Guardian I must inform you that I am deeply offended by the egregious bias displayed in your Vancouver 2010 Olympics coverage. It is obvious that Lawrence Donegan has an agenda and is destroying the journalistic integrity of the Guardian article by article. He has gone out of his way to malign this city’s Olympics in every way possible, completely misrepresenting the situation here. This city is behind the games, hundreds of thousands of people are showing up to the LiveCity celebration sites on a daily basis and the atmosphere is electric with every medal win.

Less offensive, but perhaps a greater crime from your perspective are the factual inaccuracies of the articles put forward. The writer constantly uses the figure of “$6 Billion” to indicate the cost of the games while the vast majority (4 billion) of that figure were for large public infrastructure projects that only opposition groups have included in their calculations. How can anyone consider a greatly needed rapid transit line to the airport part of the Olympic costs? That line is already running at capacity. He also calls it a mistake to have the Winter Olympics in the most southerly city ever when in fact there have been three Winter Olympics held below the 49^th parallel. Perhaps if the author did any form or research or had even the slightest sense of geography he might have been able to determine that on his own.

I urge you to restore the journalistic integrity of your institution by removing these slanderous and factually inaccurate articles as well as publishing a retraction. I’ve previously held the Guardian in very high regard and an action of this nature is necessary to restore my faith.

Kind Regards,

-          Josh Lavoie

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Tags: #Van2010, #Vancouver2010, Guardian, Olympics, Vancouver, Winter