For too long, Canadians had been fed only one side of the story, that is, the political left’s views on current events – until the National Post arrived ten years ago. It was refreshing to finally be able to hold a newspaper in one’s hands that was not afraid to tell the truth about Liberals, the fiasco that is Canada’s immigration system and the mental disease known as political correctness.

Naturally, as the National Post has gone into bankruptcy proceedings, Canadians are afraid of losing one vital aspect in the world of media. But is that really so? Is the National Post really such a key contributor to the conservative movement as the left, and many on the right, always claim?

Let me allow to shock you, dear readers, and state quite unequivocally that I think that we – common-sense thinkers, conservatives, libertarians – deserve better than what the National Post has to offer.

It has become painfully clear to me that the newspaper is not run like an actual newspaper, but like a “printed blog”. The people in charge there also seem to have the IQ and behavioural traits of the pimply teenagers who are behind many of the blogs you may read out there. Those who are more mature and more intelligent have already left the newspaper.

Take Paul Russell, for example, the paper’s editor in charge of reader feedback. A while back he launched a weekly column in which he attempts to defend his decisions to print or not print certain letters-to-the-editor. This is all a big ruse, it seems to me.

Since it is always the same people whose letters appear in the National Post, I am almost certain that most of them are just fake names used by the paper’s own journalists and editors. While its sister publication, The Calgary Herald, prints every letter I send them, I have yet to get a single letter published in the Post, and I have written several over the years.

More recently, I have sent them letters about substantial errors they have made in their reporting. Not only were those errors never rectified, but the paper also refused to print my letters or even respond to me directly.

Levi Folk, for example, who writes columns for the financial section (Financial Post) of the paper, once wrote an entire article pinned around his erroneous assumption that Austria’s currency was the “dollar” and that Austria was not a member of the euro zone. A ten-year-old could have done a few seconds of research online to find out the real name of Austria’s (former) currency and its status vis-à-vis the euro.

Despite direct feedback and a letter-to-the-editor, the newspaper never responded to my concerns, nor was any correction or retraction printed in the newspaper.

Only a few weeks ago, the National Post published a letter from a  “reader” who claimed that in Victoria, B.C., citizenship ceremonies were conducted in Mandarin and “Hindu” (sic). To me, this was such an outrage that I contacted the Canadian minister of immigration, Jason Kenney, directly. To my surprise, Mr. Kenney replied to me personally within a very short amount time, reassuring me that citizenship ceremonies were conducted in English and French only.

I contacted the National Post, again directly and through a letter-to-the-editor, asking for clarification. First, I wanted them to follow up with the “reader” to provide further evidence of his allegations. After all, if it was true what he had written, it would be an outrage and would require the immediate attention of Mr. Kenney.

Then, I also alerted them to the mistake they had failed to correct: Hindu is a religion, and not a language; the name of the language is Hindi. As well, I let the newspaper know that Mr. Kenney had actually been in contact with me about this issue. No response and no letter of mine in the printed newspaper either.

The way the National Post deals with reader feedback is an abomination. Their letters page looks more like the typical echo chamber one finds on a political blog, where it is always the “usual suspects” posting comments, while those who disagree with the blog author, or those whom the blog author loathes, are effectively blocked from posting comments.

It is this irrational behaviour of playing favourites, or possibly even faking reader feedback, that makes the National Post look more like the National Teenie Blog. If the paper and its editors wish to continue in this vein, fine, but then they should not expect any support from reasonable Canadians who are interested in professional, non-left-wing, journalism.

I, for one, have decided to give up on the National Post. I am no longer interested in this juvenile paper and will let my subscription lapse. After all, I do not need a subscription to read Conrad Black’s columns, which represent pretty much the entire adult content the paper has to offer.

Finally, as long as the National Post insists on paying someone like Don Martin for the twaddle he “writes”, the paper will continue to be the architect of its own demise and cannot fault anyone else for its troubles.