Fake News Alert! Freo StreetWise To Freo’s ‘One-Eyed’ View

Dear Roel, I am disappointed we here at StreetWise Media do not live up to your standards of publishing after having showcased since 2015 hundreds of unique stories, shared by thousands of print and online followers, locally, nationally and overseas, about the people, places and events in WA’s much-loved port city. Now there’s a tourism pitch!

This is the first time in five years since we have heard from you, your very first post having dissed the new magazine produced by a MEAA journalist who last year celebrated 50 years in Freo and 30 years of professional journalism in WA. We are concerned one of our one-eyed readers, who set up shop in Freo ‘yesterday’, failed to notice the Freo connections in the current issue of Fremantle’s only independent magazine (available at www.streetwisemedia.com.au).

You criticise our ‘Pilbara’ series but fail to ‘see’ that the people in those stories are actually from Fremantle? You assume people in Fremantle are not interested in their historic links and origins (such as the Hedlunds whose descendants continue to live in Freo after Swedish-born captain Peter Lars sailed into Cossack in 1863. In fact, many of the vessels that carried pioneers and settlers to WA’s North West were built in Freo!). Come to think of it, did you criticise, or even applaud StreetWise (given your Scandinavian roots), when it covered the 400th year anniversary of the first recorded Dutch landing at Shark Bay? No. Instead, you ‘informed’ your readers Dirk Hartog arrived in WA in 1816. That’s news to the French!

Who are you to say people in Fremantle are not interested in the night sky (apparently there isn’t one over the port city), the breathtaking images in the latest issue captured by local photographers. Do you as a photographer not share in the technical expertise and logistics they employ, sometimes at great risk, to bring us closer to nature and its wonders?

Who are you to say locals are not interested in precious people such as Luciana Kember’s life and death story, which has attracted the most hits since it was published online; James Diamonds’ great win, despite the odds, as WA Magician of the Year; and the sad passing of East Freo’s horse racing legend Nancy Watson? Now there’s a eulogy you missed. Lighten up! It’s the silly season.

You accuse StreetWise of ‘strongly supporting’ South Ward councillor Marija Vujcic during her election win, so when do you plan to accuse StreetWise for having run the same paid AD space offered to and accepted by other candidates including Mayor Brad Pettitt, 2017 mayoral candidate Ra Stewart and City Ward candidate Claudia Green, all of whom appeared in this ‘august organ’? (One-Eyed Views’ attacks on Mayoral candidate Ra Stewart are a cringe-worthy example).

And where was Freo’s one-eyed blogger when Councillor Vujcic won her WA court of disputed returns action against a dud candidate? Answer: Criticising StreetWise for raising a matter of public interest while supporting the dud candidate who robbed Cr Vujcic of a potential win and 200 voters the truth. Pretty much same scenario in which said blogger split the City Ward vote in 2017, attracting a mere 200 votes which could have gone to more worthy candidates.

Worse, why criticise StreetWise for wanting to raise much-needed funds for cancer research and care in WA by staging one of the biggest charity car cruises in WA now in its fifth year and covered by the media including Radio Fremantle, Curtin Radio and 6PR? Not worth helping others? You are invited to donate on February 16, details in the latest issue.

The ‘little’ magazine you refer to celebrates people, places and events in Fremantle, Melville and Cockburn (a place you describe as lacking ‘soul’, along with tourism-inspired descriptions of Elizabeth Quay as ‘crap’). Unlike ‘One-Eyed’ View, StreetWise is not a notice board for the City of Fremantle to spruik politics and baseless claims about other people and local businesses. It is about ‘colour’, culture and controversy despite your vindictive December 21, 2015 post just six days after StreetWise was launched: “Fremantle has another small magazine”. Your preoccupation with smallness is noted, along with your unquestionable support of the City’s failed ‘Freo Story’ magazine which cost ratepayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce yet contained no real local stories, only ADs and gift vouchers. Where was your supposed scrutiny of council?

Dear Roel, we’re not sure what community you’re part of, but it certainly does not include the thousands of readers following StreetWise, in print and online, and the generous individuals and local businesses and sponsors who enjoy advertising and investing in a high quality publication that highlights the best of, and occasionally the worst, in Freo. Your post only proves you can count (nearly) and confirms how petty, pathetic and parochial you have become. We suggest sticking to photography and leave the journalism which you purport to subscribe to with those who understand the difference between objective writing and what the Fremantle Society refers to as your, ‘bile’.

In your honour, we dedicate this post as the first StreetWise blog of 2020, ‘Fake News Alert!’ (@streetwisemedia.com.au).

Enjoy.