By Rick Hiebert. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission
I can’t add much to Bene D’s excellent coverage of what has been happening at the Prairie Bible Institute, but I would like to make a small point in passing.
I’ve noticed that Bene D has mentioned that the Calgary Herald has been reporting on the abuse scandal at the school. I wondered to myself, “Does Three Hills, Alberta have a newspaper, and how has the newspaper been covering this?” And what I see confirms the impression that I got when I applied to work at a small town newspaper in BC many years ago.
If you look at the Three Hills Wikipedia page, you see that it is a really small town and that the PBI is a central party of the town’s historical identitity. It’s probably one of the town’s biggest employers.
The town newspaper is the Three Hills Capital and I did a quick seach of their website. I found a story on PBI’s new Islamic studies major and four items related to the abuse scandal. There are three letters, which tend to complain about the “attacks ” on the school and a news story.
The story‘s headline states that PBI is “dealing” with the abuse problems and quotes President Mark Maxwell almost exclusively.
The penny drops when the mayor of Three Hills, at least at that time, is quoted at the end of the story:
In his comments, Three Hills Mayor Tim Shearlaw said, “I regret there is a cloud over Prairie at this time because of these allegations. It affects the school and it affects the town. We must defend Prairie and Three Hills.”
It affects the town, perhaps, but why does the city need to defend the school? What happened at the school is surely not the entire town’s responsibilty and one would hope that there were people in Three Hills who tried to do the right thing and should not have to take responsibility.
But the mayor’s comment is very honest. You know that in a town of this size where PBI must be influential that this would happen. That might explain why no “other side” appeared in this news story.
I once applied to work at a paper in a virtual one industry B.C. town. I was asked, during the interview, how I would cover a scandal at X. I replied that of course I would cover it extensively.
I didn’t get the job, for what was quoted as other reasons, and afterwards I was thinking about why. I won’t name where I applied, in case I guessed wrong and I am being unfair to my interviewers, but I came to think that a scandal at X would have to be handled with kid gloves, if at all. X would be a major advertiser, or would be able to talk to advertisers and say–if they were really unethical which I am not saying– “If you want to do business with us, you might want to think about…” Angry subscribers would cancel the paper, or spur efforts to start a more docile competing newspaper.
I can’t really blame the Three Hills paper. They have to live there, while reporters from the Calgary Herald do not.
But, I think this shows why alternative sources of getting out information–and I am thinking of what Bene D and social media have been able to do–are becoming increasingly important and useful. Shouldn’t have to be that way, one would hope, but it is.
UPDATE: Linda Fossen points out that mayor Shearlaw is not only mayor but editor/publisher of the newspaper too. Quite cozy, eh? I could argue that I work at my day job Saturdays on not much sleep…but it reinforces my point about working together. 
Excellent article Rick Hiebert. You have spoken what so many of us already know. In its heyday, Prairie Bible Institute shunned the town of Three Hills. Three Hills was part of the “evil world” that we were supposed to be “separated” from. From 2002-2009, Jon Ohlhauser was president of the school and he nearly moved the school from Three Hills to Drumheller, Alberta. It was a wake up call for the town of Three Hills and was the beginning of the “love affair” between Prairie and the town of Three Hills. There is a group made up of school and towns people called “Friends of PBI” that regularly meet to discuss topics of interest to both.
Tim Shearlaw is not only the mayor of Three Hills, Alberta, he is the editor/publisher of the town’s only newspaper the “Three Hills Capital”. If you look at the “contact us” tab on their website you will notice that the top three positions at the Three Hills Capital are all Shearlaws. Tells me all I need to know…I don’t think anyone looks to the Three Hills Capital to be objective or to even cover the abuse scandal story.
Thanks, Linda.
Guess hard-hitting coverage of city council might, er, be difficult to spot?
Mr. Shearlaw, wearing his editor’s hat, would probably have to think of the various factors I was musing about, with the added factor that Mr. Shearlaw wearing his mayor’s hat could lose the next election.
I hope that Mr. Shearlaw could find it in his heart to do the journalistic right thing, but I ruefully understand if he chooses to “let sleeping dogs lie.”
Just to be clear, in my headline I mean “covering” in the sense of “reporting on”, or “providing media coverage.” It’s shorthand that is often used by reporters–”I’m covering the school board meeting, so I need a photog to swing by…”
god is dead! we have killed it, and now we have blood on our hands.
Rick, all I can think of, is that everything they taught about god and his words are crap. Total crap and none of it can be substantiated, but it would be fine with me if they do not molest children, but simply live a solitary and celibate life. That way, this religion can slowly die out. But o my god, they molest and protect the molesters and they keep the, coming to school and now there are serious doubts whether they can right this thing without god. I seriously doubt Mark is a good leader and Bruce though looks clean, can he lead? I no longer think it is possible. And perhaps when this all is brought up, someone ought to get Ted on board, since he covered up a few sexual molesters in his term. And Jon has no done much. Where is god in all of this, can someone help me??
My take on “covering the story” is a bit more cynical then yours Rick. I think of it as “concealing, hiding, or obscuring” such as “there hasn’t been a scandalous thing yet that Prairie hasn’t be able to cover.”
I have seen too much cover up and collusion to give PBI a pass. The fact that the Three Hills Capital doesn’t cover the story just makes them irrelevant. In my opinion, there are nothing more than a glorified newsletter for a small town.
really weird how Ms Fossen seems to have the answer for anything – no one else can ever be right
It really is a burden Dew, believe me…hehe!
My dear dew, may your god bless you and help you to be a good person, and may the blood of his son be on you and soak you so you can now plunge beneath that flood, and may the madness of William Cowper be far from you, since he killed himself. And when you think of all these poorly abused, sexed at such early time of their lives, may this inspire you to pray to your god and humbly ask for his help, and send his holy holy angels to guide us in our foot steps. As the sacred texts taught, they will bear your feet, let you dash them upon rocks. Jump, when you can. Someone once asked a poor peasant from Galilee. Amen.
Why on earth would anyone expect the Three Hills Capital to cover this story in any meaningful way? It is bad enough that the Calgary Herald is what is termed in the industry a ‘feel good’ newspaper, ie very little investigative, well researched original work. Mostly reprints and the odd well written column.
That leaves the Three Hills Capital. It is even worse. Really just a paper to list the local announcements, barbeque at some service club, and maybe an in depth report someone’s pig stolen last Wednesday just after midnight. Can anyone expect anything else given the apparent conflict of interest?
While PBI has no direct connection to me, I do know what it is like to be victimized within a culture (Conservative Mennonite Church) and how the cover up destroys lives and trust. I’m always amazed how the same game is played by religious institutions with reputation to protect. Tragic.
I shared a portion of Linda Fossen’s blog on my personal blog this morning, along with a link to her blog, in order to create awareness. I am now receiving private messages making me aware of ‘the other side of the story’, (which I had already read and taken into consideration) as people instinctively defend the school. It is little wonder that most victims remain silent most of their lives.
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