At the age I am now, it's not often that something or someone really gets to me, but it happened today and I'm not going to keep quiet about it.

On the op-ed (as in opinion/editorial) page of the Daily Townsman Thursday under the title of “Correspondence” was a letter taking the Townsman to task yet again for the kind of journalism we offer.

The gist of this screed was that the political commentators, including those of the Townsman, “have not said anything” about the deployment to Haiti of Canada's renowned DART (Disaster Assistance Relief Team).

The letter writer couldn't be more wrong about the facts in this case. Deployment of the DART has been all over Canadian news pages, TV screens and radio waves ever since the announcement was made less than a week ago. Deploying DART, or “Operation Hamlet” as it's called, first appeared in the Globe and Mail Jan. 13.

Not only that, but this particular political commentator wasn't far behind, saying in a column Jan. 15: “The world's major aid organizations are already pouring into the country as well as military relief teams from the U.S. and Canada including our state-of-the-art DART” (team).”

Did the Thursday letter writer not scan the papers for DART coverage? Or in his zeal to condemn the press, did he simply ignore everything in print that didn't accord with his prejudices? In another letter about a month ago, he called this columnist a “hippie” for expressing criticism about the Afghan mission. A hippie? This “hippie” has a house, a mortgage, a wife, two kids in university, a steady job and pays his taxes every year. If that makes me a “hippie,” I'm proud of it.

But let's move on to more important things. The name-calling, letter writer brings up one of the most common yet baseless canards about the media in general, namely that we never report anything “positive.” Allow me to show you just how spurious that criticism is.

In the very same issue of the Townsman that the letter writer complained of no “positive” news, the following articles appeared: Page 7 – “New Airport management excited about the future,” an article highlighting the optimism at our recently expanded field and the potential for growth and development. Page 7 – A picture of Mayor Scott Manjak swearing in the new Cranbrook and District Chamber of Commerce executive. Page 1 – A picture of the newly sworn-in Cranbrook and District Chamber of Commerce President Sean Campbell receiving a framed Spirit Tree picture from Cranbrook Olympic gold medalist Ben Rutledge. Page 2 – A story about a Cranbrook rail worker who's running with the Olympic torch near the site of the Last Spike on the CPR. Page 3 – A story about the South Slocan high school students returning home safely from Haiti. Page 4 – A story about a famous scientist who wrote a book about discovering his spirituality. Need I go on??

Frankly, I'm getting more than a little sick and tired of those who use the media as a convenient whipping boy for the ills of society or their own frustrations.

We are the messengers – repeat – the messenger. Don't kill the messenger! This doesn't mean we don't make mistakes or that our product couldn't be improved. We try to do that all the time. But fallible people that we are, we make mistakes sometimes and that's why it's not unusual to see corrections or clarifications in the paper. Show me another organization that acknowledges its mistakes publicly the way we do?

As most of you probably know, these are tough times for newspapers. The Internet and Google have ripped away many of our traditional markets. But damn it, newspapers still have a critical role to play in the world, especially in small towns

We are the heart and voice of the community. Criticize us by all means, but don't kill the messenger. Or better yet, take notice of all the positive stories that appear in the paper every issue and encourage us with some praise.

You might even see more of them.