The loss of a ‘broadcasting icon’

By MEL ROTHENBURGER/ 

PASSAGES — It’s seldom the passing of a small-town journalist makes big-city news. But Ben Meisner’s death in a Winnipeg hospital Thursday morning made headlines in media across the country.

Meisner, who ran a news blog in Prince George called 250 News, is being called a “broadcasting icon,” “a man who cared deeply about northern B.C.,” and a man of “warmth and wisdom.”

He was, without doubt, all of those things, but he was also a major pain in the ass to the establishment, which he lambasted with enthusiasm for some 60 years. Which is probably why ordinary people liked him, and regarded him as one of their own.

Meisner was mostly a radio guy, working in several provinces before coming to Kamloops to do a hotline radio show at CFJC, then moving to Prince George, where he wrote a column for the daily Citizen and hosted talk shows on CKPG and CFIS-FM. It was only after quitting CKPG over “clashing opinions,” as the Citizen put it, that he started the 250 News blog (originally called Opinion 250) 10 years ago, at a time when everybody thought online news was a passing fad.

When I talked to him almost a year ago, he told me it took him five years to even draw a cheque from the business, and only recently had it become highly successful from a business perspective. And it was still grueling work. At 76, he said, “I’m getting too old for this bullshit.” But the way he said it, you could tell he still loved what he was doing.

I didn’t know Meisner well, but I knew him a long time, occasionally running into him here and there, like several years ago when he was in Kamloops looking around for a rural property to buy. He was thinking of retiring and moving back here.

He never did, of course, deciding instead to stay in the pulp-mill capital and forge ahead with 250 News, which relied heavily for its following on his opinion pieces. At the end of each editorial, usually after tearing a strip off a politician, he’d sign off with, “I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.”

He was, indeed, an icon, and was always ready to give you his time and candid views. Humble wasn’t a word I’d associate with Ben Meisner, who would willingly talk about his accomplishments and honours, such as being given the Queen’s Jubilee Medal. He was particularly proud of being appointed to the B.C. Law Society’s Board of Governors five years ago.

When news came early this week that Meisner was in hospital in Winnipeg after becoming ill during an ice fishing trip in Manitoba, and that it was likely terminal, it was a shock. It was even more shocking when news came of his passing Thursday — he always seemed like such a tough man that you expected him to die sky diving on his 100th birthday or at least while pounding out an editorial on his laptop.

A story in his own 250 News said that after he learned of the seriousness of his illness, he wanted badly to go home to Prince George. “Knowing there was no cure for his condition, he directed his care team in Winnipeg to focus on doing whatever was necessary to ensure he could achieve that goal.”

Sadly, it wasn’t to be.

Many politicians who felt his bite over the years have been praising him since Thursday. Premier Christy Clark, who actually fared quite well in some of Meisner’s commentary, called him “a wise and passionate voice.”

“Ben led more than just opinion — one of the true pioneers of new media, his willingness to adapt with times is an example to current and future journalists throughout the province,” she said.

“Whenever you went on (the air) with Ben, you always knew one thing: be ready. He was friendly, but never failed to ask the tough questions.”

A Prince George journalist interviewed on CBC best described Ben Meisner’s legacy. Meisner, he said, was an old-time journalist from the days when journalists went after the truth and weren’t afraid to write it. As Clark said, he asked the tough questions, fearlessly.

His passing is a loss for one B.C. town, but more than that, it’s a huge loss for journalism.