Lloydminster launches online news service to counter 'misleading' media

Thecity that straddles the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary has started its own online news webpageto counter what it calls potentially misleading media stories.

The Lloydminster Record says on its website that it was created to"provide clarity, balance and perspective to news coverage."

The website says the city will post "clarifying" articles whenever potentially misleading information is encountered.

The city's director of strategy and partnerships, Todd Corrigall, says the decision came after more than a year of consideration by administration officials.

He says it wasn't done because of any one news story by any particular media outlet.

The city's first clarifying article was published earlier this weekon stories by a reporter from radio station The Goat 106.1 FM earlier this year about travel and expense accounts of the city manager's office.

The article says despite providing all the requested information, media reports left out vital pieces of information "creating the opportunity for inaccurate conclusions."

The Goat and some other media outlets in the community of 32,000, such as radio station CKSA and Newcap Television, declined comment on the city's online news.

The managing editor of the Lloydminster Meridian Booster newspaper, Taylor Weaver, saidhe has no problem with the city's move.

Bryan Myers, a former managing editor and municipal affairs reporter at the paper, disagreed, callingthe move straight out of North Korea.

Myers said the city is clearly unhappy with how some media are reporting on administration travel expenses.